María Luisa Paredes Bartolomé (3 April 1946 – 17 December 2024), known professionally as Marisa Paredes, was a Spanish actress with a long illustrious career. She acted in more than 75 films, 80 tv shows and 15 plays – with some of Europe's most important directors – and was the recipient of numerous awards.

Life and career

Paredes made her film debut in José María Forqué's 1960 film Police Calling 091. She became a teen idol across Spain after that film. In 1961, she made her début in theatre and since then she has performed different plays such as Hamlet with Eduard Fernández. In 1975, she and Raphael collaborated in a cartoon film about him, Rafael en Raphael. She has participated in 73 films and television series. She portrayed the leading role of La Peregrina in a television production of Alejandro Casona's La dama del alba.

Pedro Almodóvar helped her to achieve her international fame, as she starred many of his films. In fact, in Spain, she is called "una chica Almodóvar" ("an Almodóvar girl"). She appeared in High Heels (1991), The Flower of My Secret (1995), All About My Mother (1999) and The Skin I Live In (2011). For her role in The Flower of My Secret, she was nominated for the Best Actress Goya Award.

She appeared in several other acclaimed films, including In a Glass Cage (1986) by Agustí Villaronga (Majorca), Life Is Beautiful (1998) by Roberto Benigni (Italy), Deep Crimson (1996) by Arturo Ripstein and The Devil's Backbone (2001) by Guillermo del Toro (both from Mexico).

In 1996, she was given the National Film Award by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. From 2000 to 2003 she was the president of the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España.

In 2007, she was given at Gijón International Film Festival, a National Film Award named after Nacho Martinez. Her last cinematic success was the film Latin Lover (Spanish: Mi familia Italiana) (2015).

In the 1970s, she had a domestic partnership of about 7 years with filmmaker Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, whom with she had one daughter, María Isasi. Between 1983 and her death, she had been in a relationship with Chema Prado.

Paredes died in Madrid on 17 December 2024, at the age of 78.