Alfonso Paso

(1926 - 1978)

Alfonso Paso (12 September 1926 – 10 July 1978) was a Spanish dramatist. He wrote over a hundred plays, mainly light comedies, sometimes laced with black humour and tragedy. There were also police dramas and examples of what he called "social theatre". He was known for the well crafted complexity of his plots and for the originality of his situations and characters. Alfonso Paso Gil was born into a "theatre dynasty" in Madrid. His father was the Zarzuela playwright and librettist Antonio Paso y Cano (1878–1950). His mother was the actress Juana Gil. Early on he abandoned a career as an aeronautical engineer and turned to the study of Philosophy and Literature, graduating in 1952 and focusing on American History and Archeology. Later he studied Medicine and Psychiatry, then switching again, this time to journalism. He would continue to work as a journalist until the mid-1970s. He married Evangelina Jardiel, daughter of Enrique Jardiel Poncela (1901–1952). Their children included the actress Paloma Paso Jardiel. Although he often worked as an actor, his more lasting notability results from his work as a writer.