Díaz De Mendoza, Fernando

Born July 7, 1862, in Murcia; died Oct. 20, 1930, in Vigo. Spanish actor and man of the theater.

In 1895, Díaz de Mendoza began to perform in a theater troupe in Madrid headed by the outstanding actress M. Guerrero. In 1896 he and Guerrero founded a troupe—the most important theater group in Spain from the end of the 19th to the first half of the 20th century. After the death of Guerrero in 1929, Díaz de Mendoza organized a theater in Buenos Aires, which became the conduit for Spanish theater in the Latin American countries. He paid special attention to national drama, both classical (for example, the plays of Lope de Vega, P. Calderón, Tirso de Molina, and A. Moreto) and contemporary (J. Echegaray, J. Benavente, and the Alvarez Quintero brothers). Díaz de Mendoza influenced the creative development of many 20th-century Spanish and Argentine actors.