MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Mexico’s iconic television comedian Roberto Gomez Bolanos, who enchanted generations of Latin American children by playing an orphan who lived in a barrel and a goofy superhero, died on Friday aged 85.
Gomez Bolanos died in the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun, where he retired years ago due to respiratory illnesses, said the Televisa network, where the actor spent his entire career.

The cause of death was not given.

“Televisa laments the death of Don Roberto Gomez Bolanos,‘Chespirito,’ an essential figure of Mexican televisions,” the broadcaster wrote on Twitter.

Gomez Bolanos — whose nickname Chespirito meant “Little Shakespeare” for his short stature and prolific writing — created some of the most popular television shows in the history of Latin America.

In “El Chavo del Ocho” (“The Kid from the Eight“), Gomez Bolanos played a mischievous orphan who always wore a hat with ear flaps and slept in a barrel in the courtyard of a working-class housing complex.
Another famous character was “Chapulin Colorado” (Red Grasshopper), a red-hooded superhero with antennas and armed with a yellow and red hammer.

His shows had millions of viewers from Mexico to the Andes and the tip of South America, as well as in Portuguese-speaking Brazil.

Tributes poured in shortly after his death was announced.

“Mexico has lost an icon, whose work has transcended generations and borders,” Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted.

Edgar Vivar, an actor in “El Chavo del Ocho,” was in tears as he spoke about his friend on Televisa.
“I’m in a state of shock. I didn’t think that it would affect me so much,“ Vivar said. “I will always remember him with a smile.” – AFP

-The Star