Alfonso Arau Movies and Career Information

Alfonso Arau (born January 11, 1932) is a Mexican actor and director. Arau was born in Mexico City, the son of a doctor. He directed the films Zapata: The Dream of a Hero, Like Water for Chocolate (adapted from the novel written by his ex-wife Laura Esquivel), A Walk in the Clouds with Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame production A Painted House, adapted from the John Grisham novel of the same name. Among many roles in his career, Arau has played the chief bandit "El Guapo" in Three Amigos (USA, 1986), a comedy with Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Chevy Chase. He played "captain Herrera", a lieutenant of rebel "Mapache", in Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western, The Wild Bunch and the smuggler "Juan" in Romancing the Stone which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. Arau appeared in the 1972 Mexican film El rincón de las vírgenes ("The Virgins' Corner"), where he played the assistant of a fake mystical doctor traveling from town to town, who reminisce about their travels, when a group of women decide to propose the doctor for sainthood. The movie was set in 1920s rural Mexico. Arau has made many appearances as a character actor in American and TV series