Aldo Sambrell was a prolific, versatile, and ubiquitous character actor, featured in over 140 international motion pictures, spanning a remarkably long, varied, and illustrious career that lasted for four and a half decades.
Born Alfredo Sanchez Brell on February 23, 1931, in Madrid, Spain, his family fled the country due to the Spanish Civil War and he was raised in Mexico. While in Mexico, Aldo played professional soccer in the Mexican leagues in Pueblo and Monterrey.
He began his career in the entertainment industry as a singer, but eventually returned to Spain and made his film debut in an uncredited bit role as a Jewish rebel in the biblical epic King of Kings (1961).
Aldo appeared in his first spaghetti western in 1963, and was perhaps best known for his gritty portrayals of scruffy bandit gang members in Sergio Leone's classic spaghetti westerns, including A Fistful of Dollars (1964),For a Few Dollars More (1965),The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966),and C'era una volta questo pazzo, pazzo, pazzo West (1973).
He gave a memorably chilling performance as ruthless bandit gang leader Mervyn Duncan in Navajo Joe (1966),and had a rare lead role as voodoo priest Gatenebo in the laughably lousy horror clunker Voodoo Black Exorcist (1974).
Aldo worked for many directors, including David Lean, Richard Fleischer, John Milius, Sergio Corbucci, Umberto Lenzi, León Klimovsky, Jess Franco, Richard Lester, Jackie Chan, Charlton Heston, Matt Cimber, and Enzo G. Castellari.
Moreover, Sambrell also wrote, produced, and directed a few films, and was married to actress Cándida López. His last film role was as an aging actor in the poignant short Río seco (2006).
Aldo died at the age of 79 on July 10, 2010, in Alicante, Spain, after suffering a series of strokes.
