On Tuesday afternoon, April 4, the death of Andrés García was announced after having spent the last few months suffering from illnesses such as leukemia, anemia, and cirrhosis.
The emblematic actor, who established himself as an important figure in Mexican action and “ficheras” movies (Mexican adult comedies), will be remembered not only for his gallantry, which made him one of the most sought-after gentlemen in Mexican cinema but also as a fierce man whose temperament was always something to talk about.
Andres Garcia was a lifelong fan of adrenaline and danger from a very young age in his native Dominican Republic. In Chile, where his family settled for a while, he showed signs of quarrelsome character, according to his memories.
Before becoming an actor, García “trained” in street fights that even led him to go to prison. “I was in all the prisons in Mexico before becoming an actor. All the delegations, all the jails,” he recently told Jorge El Burro Van Rankin in an interview.
“I never hit me with one or with two. I fought with three and with four. I was very good. There were others better than me, but I always recognized them… We tigers recognize other tigers,” he said about his fighting character.
And on a personal level, the late 81-year-old also had a history of fights and quarrels with other entertainment figures and the children of his own blood.
Leonardo, the estranged son
Andrés García lived his last years away from his children Andrés, Andrea, and Leonardo, as it is known that there was not a cordial relationship between them. Last month Andrés lived in a conflict with his son Leonardo, who assured that the now widow, Margarita Portillo, keeps him “drugged” to control him.
These comments caused the anger of the now deceased, and he lashed out against his son in a YouTube video, where he advised that no one should believe him besides qualifying him as a “cretin” and “freeloader.”
“He hasn’t helped with anything. He hasn’t paid for anyone’s food (…) everyone has helped more than you, don’t mess with my family, you’re not my family,” the late actor said in recent months.
This type of statement was a constant in recent times between Andres and his son. Still, it is known that the veteran actor opened the possibility of reconciling with his children recently, almost on his deathbed, as Margarita Portillo made known in a video.
Carmen Salinas, the live insult
A remembered disagreement that Andrés experienced was with the already deceased Carmen Salinas, which occurred during a live broadcast of the program La Oreja, which took viewers by surprise.
Andres’s fury became evident when he threatened the actress live on air and insulted her by calling her “vermin” after informing her that he would sue her for allegedly “speaking ill of him without foundation.”
At that time, the Chanoc star stated that he would show the true face of the actress since, in his opinion, she was allegedly not a good person.
García then showed his anger and demanded Salinas not to call him “carnal” since they were not “carnal,” as she was someone “ordinary,” and he has always boasted of having good manners.
Beaten by a woman
In 1981, during the filming of the movie El Sexto Sentido, Andrés García made headlines for coming to blows with his co-star, Jaime Moreno, this derived from the dispute to conquer the love of a woman named Adriana Vega.
As Moreno recalled in an interview for De Primera Mano, “A girl from Spain, very pretty, came to make a movie with us… We made it in Cuautla, Morelos. She was ‘the dog’ to Andrés. Still, I don’t know why… because she noticed that Andrés has a very long career and the chupe and Juan Camaney, you know that Andrés been like that all his life and she said: ‘No, excuse me, but I’m going with Jaime Moreno, goodbye!”, she said in the broadcast in 2021.
Roberto Palazuelos, from friendship to repudiation.
For years, García and Roberto Palazuelos were very close friends, the former actor being considered a father to the businessman; however, the distance between them was recently evident. Margarita Portillo made a statement about this enmity in 2022:
“Andrés got angry, and one day he said, ‘I’m going to take him out of the will’ because he was questioned so much about it, and Beto got angry and said he did not need Andrés ‘ properties because his smallest property was worth more than Andrés’ properties; an ego fight began,” said the widow about the lawsuit that even ended with a “threat of bullets” by García.