Madrid (EFE).- The actress and presenter Laura Valenzuela has died this Friday at the age of 92 in the Madrid Hospital de la Princesa, where she was admitted last Wednesday, the representative of her daughter Lara Dibildos has informed EFE.
Valenzuela had been suffering from various health problems for some time. Her daughter Lara, the result of her marriage to the producer, José Luis Dibildos, warned him on different occasions. She was the one who was accompanying her mother at that time and the one who communicated the news about her to her closest friends.
Laura Valenzuela was one of the most charismatic faces on television, a companion on the set of another of the most beloved faces Joaquín Prat.
The burning chapel will be installed today at 9:00 p.m. in the San Isidro funeral home
Laura Valenzuela, the first Spanish television presenter
Laura Valenzuela was the first Spanish television presenter and one of the best-known faces on the small screen during the 1950s and 1960s.
The actress was born on February 18, 1931 in Seville, but when she was only one year old she moved with her family to Madrid, where she trained and developed her professional career.
After high school, she studied Commerce courses and began working in an office, where she became sales manager. At nineteen she left this job to start working as a model.
In 1952 he found out, through the actor José Luis Ozores, that the recently inaugurated Televisión Española (TVE) needed female presenters and he went there. She auditioned and was hired, becoming the first female announcer to appear in the medium.
This is how Laurita Valenzuela was born, then Laura, who since January 1953, with national television on trial, appeared on the programming with David Cubedo or Jesús Álvarez.
TVE officially began its stable broadcasts on October 28, 1956 and Laura Valenzuela achieved great popularity as a presenter in a short time.
Ondas for Best TV Announcer in 1957
On October 30, 1957, she won the Ondas award for best television announcer.
She was on television until 1958, when she met producer José Luis Dibildos, who would discover her as an actress, although she had already made her debut with a role in “El pescador de coplas” (1954), by Antonio del Amo.
From his film career, which has nearly thirty titles, the following stand out: “Boyfriend trip”, “The girls in blue”, “Trío de damas”, “Madame Sans-Gene” -with Sofía Loren-, “El black tulip” -with Alain Delon-, “Make the game, ladies”, “Spanish love” or “Those who have to serve”.
In 1966 he returned to TVE and combined his work on the small screen with the cinema. In this second stage he presented programs such as ““ Cantamoscontigo ”,“ Galas de Sábado ”with Joaquín Prat or“ Canción 71 ”with Tony Leblanc.
Joaquín y Laura’s popularity peaked in 1969, when Spain hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. The final gala was presented by her on March 29 from the Teatro Real, with Salomé’s victory shared with representatives of three other countries.
In 1971, she made her last film, “Españolas en París”, for which she received the Best Actress Award from the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos.
From her marriage to Dibildos to presenting a program with her daughter
That same year, on March 27, after dating for eleven years, she married José Luis Dibildos, retired from professional life and had her only daughter, Lara Dibildos, in September. The marriage, one of the most stable in the artistic profession, lasted until the death of Dibildos in 2002.
After sporadic appearances on television, in 1988 he returned with Joaquín Prat, this time before the COPE microphones, first in “Tiempo de juego” and then in “Ganas del sábado”.
He rejected the offer to present the program “Waku, Waku” on TVE, and in October 1990 he went to Telecinco to present “Tele 5, tell me?”, along with Javier Basilio, Pepe Da Rosa and Leticia Sabater.
It also broadcast the New Year’s Eve bells of 1990 and 1991.
Then he would present “The nap is over”, “Give yourself a break”, “The mornings of Tele 5” with José María Íñigo and “My dear Spain”.
In September 1996 he returned to TVE to present with his daughter, Lara Dibildos, the morning show “Mañanas de primera”, but the program was withdrawn in December of that same year, and in January 1997 he took over the evening show “Entre tú y me”, which lasted just over a month.
Laura Valenzuela retired from public life in 2012
Away from the small screen since then, in December 2006 she was one of the three presenters that Chicho Ibáñez chose for the special program “Television meets with you”, with which the 50th anniversary of television in Spain was celebrated.
In 2012 she was one of the protagonists of the series “Living Treasures of Television” and almost a decade later, in 2020, Boris Izaguirre dedicated one of his “Blood Ties” programs to her.
Valenzuela, who received the TP de Oro and the Palmera de Plata from the Elche International Independent Film Festival in 2006, was also recognized with the 2011 Iris from the Television Academy.
She was elected Lady Spain 1989, shared with Joaquín Prat the 1992 Platos de Oro national gastronomy award from Radio Intercontinental, obtained the Júbilo Award 2005, received in 2008 one of the microphones of the Association of Professionals and Informants of Spain for the Press-radio and Television, and in 2009 he was awarded the Lumière Medal of the Festival de Cien Europeo de La Solana (Ciudad Real).
A caring woman, she collaborated with charities such as the Spanish Association Against Cancer (in 2005 she was treated for breast cancer in Houston). In recent years she has lived with her daughter and her two grandchildren in Madrid, away from the spotlight.
The entry Laura Valenzuela dies in Madrid at the age of 92 was first published in EFE Noticias.