Enrique Rocha: the renowned career of the most iconic villain on Mexican television

Mexican actor Enrique Rocha, who died this Sunday, November 7 at the age of 81, forged a broad career as a soap opera actor and it was his thick and dark voice, as well as his mysterious personality, that made him again and again the most remembered villain and darling of television.

Enrique Miguel Rocha Ruiz, whose cause of death is unknown so far, was born in the central state of Guanajuato on January 5, 1940.

At a very young age, he arrived in Mexico City, where he studied from elementary school to a degree in Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Rocha never imagined that his destiny was in acting, without putting much effort in his studies and yes in “living life”, one day he found by mistake an opportunity that would change his life and through which he would pass architecture to the stages.

A regular at parties and billiards, one day, invited by a friend, Enrique Rocha came to the rehearsal of “Despertar de la primavera”, a play that was being directed by Juan José Gurrola.

When the actor Juan Ibáñez (director of “Los Caifanes” from 1967) was not at the rehearsal, Gurrola invited Rocha to go up on stage to say the part of the absent person.

When his participation ended, the director became interested in his particular voice and appearance and invited him to be part of the play, that was when his prolific acting career began, mainly in theater.

Invited by the Spanish director Alvaro Custodio and at only 21 years old, one of the most important works he carried out was “Hamlet”.

After that the doors of television were opened to him and together with Julissa and Fanny Cano he was one of the most important characters in the telenovela “La mentira” (1965), after the producer Fernando Alonso contacted him to be part of the cast. .

Then came the proposal from the director and producer Julio Bracho, who wanted him to play Jesus Cristo in the film “The Christ Process” (1966).

His career was on an undeniable ascent, after his work in experimental theater and at such a young age having had the opportunity to interpret characters as in demand as Hamlet and Christ, so the opportunities, instead of stopping, continued.

Rocha remembered his prolific beginnings when Juan Ibáñez himself considered him to do “Los bien amados” (1965) in New York or his work with director Arturo Ripstein in “Tiempo de muerte” (1966), a script by Gabriel García Marquez.

Enrique Rocha, a villain’s life

His trajectory as a villain was mostly limited to soap operas, as he himself assured on some occasions, he never had antagonistic roles in the theater.

However, he is for many one of the most iconic villains that Mexican television has, among his most remembered characters are Lucio, an agent of the devil in the children’s soap opera “Serafín” (1999), Eladio Gómez Luna in “Pasión y poder ”(1988), or like Nicolás Obregón in“ El privilegio de amar ”(1998).

His career is framed by more than 80 titles of audiovisual productions, and one of his most recent works was in the animated version of Disney “The Jungle Book” (2016) where he lent his unmistakable voice to the panther Bagheera or the soap opera ” Silvia Frente Ti ”(2019) based on the life of actress Silvia Pinal.

The actor was also known for the many romances he had. He married very young, at 21 years of age, to Marlene Serrallés, but their marriage did not last long. From his second marriage, to Patricia Campos, his only son was born, although this relationship did not last either.