Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente(1928-1980)
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Born in the small village of Poza de la Sal, in the Castilian province
of Burgos, on the 14th March 1928. He grew up in the midst of the
wonders of nature and the Spanish Civil war, and then studied medicine
at the university of Valladolid where he graduated as a specialist in
dentistry. He became an expert in falconry and in 1960 he was employed
by the Saudi Arabian king together with two excellent specimens
presented by the Franco Government to King Saud. Thanks to generous
donations by the Saudi king and the collaboration of a number of
Grandees (Spanish Aristocrats) he was able to produce his first
documentary programme "Señores del Espacio." The success of this
documentary allowed him to embark on his second great passion: an
exhaustive study of the lives of wild wolves - which fortunately still
exist today in Spain, probably due to Rodríguez's tireless work in
conserving this and other species in danger of extinction, such as the
Iberian lynx, several species of eagles, and Cantabrian and Pyrenean
bears. He later travelled extensively in Africa and South America, from
which he made a number of documentary programmes. But in 1974 he
started on his most ambitious work and the one he will always be
rembered for: El Hombre y La Tierra. Starting off from some of his
earlier work, such as Wolves (El Lobo), Otters (La Nutria), etc, he
made up an exceptional series of documentaries on Iberian fauna which
has never been equalled. The series includes such subjects as hunting
dogs, the last vultures in Europe, foxes, deer, storks, etc., and a
special on the Doñana National Park (World Heritage Listed). All this
when "ecology" was still a rather unknown word and had not come into
fashion. Thanks to his work many species have survived and parks have
been created for the protection of wildlife. The whole series of 26
parts exists in video, made by RTVE and licenced to a private
distributor. These programmes are not only excellent for nature lovers,
but also for students of the Spanish language, as his speaking is clear
and easily understood. Whilst filming Los Perros del Mundo (Dogs of the
World) in Shaktoolik, Alaska, he died in an aeroplane accident, on his
fifty-second birthday, 1980.