Spanish actor Juan Luis Galiardo, known for his roles in such films as Charlton Heston's Anthony and Cleopatra, died late Friday, his publicists said. He was 72.
"A quick and devastating illness has taken away one of the most popular and significant faces in our country's cinema, theatre and television," said a statement posted on his official Web site.
Galiardo voiced Sres. Galápagos in the 1998 cartoon feature ¡Qué vecinos tan animales!, which won the Goya -- the Spanish equivalent of the Oscar -- for best animation film the following year.
He was born Juan Luis Galiardo Comes in San Roque, Cadiz, Andalucia in southern Spain on March 2, 1940. Galiardo started his moving acting career in the early 1960s, gaining worldwide attention in 1971 with such films as Anthony and Cleopatra, directed by and starring Heston.
Later, he worked for several years in Mexico before returning to Spain. He portrayed Don Quixote, his most famous role, in a film of the Spanish perennial directed by Manuel Gutierrez Aragon in 2002.
His many leading stage roles included King Lear, Oedipus and Moliere's The Miser.
Juan Luis Galiardo was separated from his wife Juana Prieto Martínez, with whom he had a child.
