Max Kerlow

Born: 1928-03-03

Prolific Mexican actor with more than 100 films in his filmography. His first intention was to be a painter. However, life would take him on other paths and his incursion into the world of the arts would be as an architect, a career he studied at the suggestion of a cousin just out of school, given his interest in painting, and from which he graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1954. Shortly after, he dedicated himself to promoting crafts with artists such as Manuel Felguérez and Felipe Ehrenberg, one of his first assistants. With Felguérez he devised a different line of ceramics and with Ehrenberg he invented a technique for painting on amate paper, which he later taught to indigenous people in the facilities of his café-gallery La Amargura, located on the street of the same name in the San Ángel neighborhood. As a painter he only mounted one exhibition, although every day he drew and made caricatures from the news in the newspapers: "One ends up with more or less possibilities of doing what one wanted, although, as Picasso said, at this age is when one has more desire to do things; I feel that one understands them better, knows better what one wants to do, but it is already too late," he acknowledges in the documentary by Carolina Kerlow. However, it would be in the acting facet in which he would stand out the most and which would give Max Kerlow the most satisfaction. He began his career in Mexican cinema in 1963 under the direction of Juan José Gurrola in Confesión de Stavroguin. A friend of directors such as Paul Leduc, Felipe Cazals and Arturo Ripstein, it was natural for him to be invited to participate in their films, although Max Kerlow assured that he always liked acting: "I was invited to parties sometimes just to tell jokes; I have my diploma as a joke teller". He was also a magician. He was even able to combine his interests: "When Miguel Littin said "we are going to Chihuahua to film Actas de Marusia (1976), I took the opportunity to bring my catalogs and sold my crafts very well". And he was not just any actor making any movie. His film performances are proof of his histrionic quality. He participated in Las Poquianchis (1976), El apando (Felipe Cazals / 1976), Fox Trot (Arturo Ripstein / 1976); Frida, naturaleza viva (Paul Leduc / 1983), where he played the role of Leon Trotsky, Cabeza de Vaca (Nicolas Echevarria / 1991); Cómodas mensualidades (Julian Pastor / 1992); Kino (Felipe Cazals / 1993); De noche vienes Esmeralda (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo / 1997); La hija del caníbal o Lucía, Lucía (Antonio Serrano / 2003), Morirse está en hebreo (Alejandro Springall / 2007); Cinco días sin Nora (Mariana Chenillo, 2008). In 1998 he won the Ariel Award for best male co-acting for his performance in Por si no te vuelvo a ver (Juan Pablo Villaseñor, 1997), debut film of the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). In the Italian film Mediterráneo (1991), directed by Gabriele Salvatores, winner of the Oscar for best foreign film, Max Kerlow had a leading role. He also participated in documentaries and commercials.


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Sea of Dreams

as Glass blower
Released: 2006-11-09

On an island across the sea lies a village full of romance, wonder and mystery; a timeless place...

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A Wonderful World

as Sacerdote
Released: 2006-03-17

A fairy tale about the political and socioeconomic realities of Mexico.

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The Bees

as Representative at the United Nations - U.S.S.R.
Released: 1978-11-01

Corporate smuggling of South American killer bees into the United States results in huge swarms...

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Las Poquianchis

as Reportero (uncredited)
Released: 1976-11-17

During the mid-1970s, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, authorities discover a clandestine...

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I Escaped from Devil's Island

as Pelliserre
Released: 1973-09-01

In 1916, a group of prisoners plot their escape from the notorious fortress located in French...

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Naufragio

as Marino III
Released: 1978-11-02

One woman lives waiting for her son who is a sailor. She hasn't seen him for years although he...

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Cabeza de Vaca

as Man in armor
Released: 1991-10-11

An international award winning saga of old Mexico. In 1528, a Spanish expedition flounders off...

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The Mansion of Madness

as Dr. Maillard
Released: 1973-08-10

The inmates of an insane asylum take over the institution, imprison the doctors and staff, and...

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Letters from Marusia

as Engineer
Released: 1975-12-26

Chronicle of the repression that a foreign company exerts on the miners of a small nitrate town...

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I Murder Seriously

as Don Eulalio
Released: 2002-05-26

A cop sets out to find a man who has been delivering too much of a good thing in this offbeat...

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Frida Still Life

as Leon Trotsky
Released: 1986-03-13

This film is a chronicle of painter Frida Kahlo, and her encounter with the personalities of her...

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Foxtrot

as Captain
Released: 1976-03-01

A Romanian aristocrat retreats to a desert isle with his wife and servants on the eve of World...

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Nora's Will

as Rabbi Jacowitz
Released: 2008-10-06

Jose learns that Nora, the woman he was married to for 30 years and from whom divorced, has...

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Lucía, Lucía

as Old Wehner
Released: 2003-01-17

Lucia, an children's book author, tells the story of her husband's disappearance. One day on...

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Maria of My Heart

as Esposo de madrina
Released: 1979-05-17

Héctor and María meet again after eight years of not seeing each other. She works as a magician...

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La última noche

as Don Cecilio
Released: 2005-02-25

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Luces de la noche

as Engineer Klein
Released: 1998-05-29

On a whim, a retired gentleman decides to track down an old girlfriend from decades back.

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Sex Education In Brief Lessons

as uncredited
Released: 1997-07-25

Alejandra and Ana are college friends, both are virgin and hope to find the love of their life...

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The Coming of the King Olmos

as uncredited
Released: 1975-09-11

After spending some time with the Mennonite community in Chihuahua, Reynaldo Olmos goes back to...

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Those Years

as Von Thun
Released: 1974-03-21

President Juárez fights against the conservatives, who have ordered an emperor to be brought...

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The Heist

as Preso del suéter amarillo
Released: 1976-08-05

In Mexico City's infamous Lecumberri prison, three drug-addicted convicts celebrate getting...

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Bandidos

as Sacerdote
Released: 1991-08-09

In the wake of the Mexican Revolution, a band of pre-teen boys are forced to rely on their own...

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As You See?

as uncredited
Released: 1986-08-01

Award-Winning filmmaker Paul Leduc (Frida, Naturaleza Viva, Reed: Insurgent Mexico, Barroco)...

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Kino: The Legend of the Black Priest

as Italian Superior Priest
Released: 1993-05-07

Propped up on his deathbed, a 17th century Spanish missionary named Father Kino (Enrique Rocha)...

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Compassionate Sex

as Vendedor de colmado
Released: 2000-06-30

Dolores is a mature and kind woman whose husband abandons her because he can't stand her uncanny...

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La casta divina

as Arzobispo de Yucatán
Released: 1977-11-17

Chronicle Caste War in Yucatan held in the nineteenth century, where the land and the people...

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Three Stories of Love

as uncredited
Released: 1978-01-01

Three people live in the same building: An anxious teenager, a girl who wants to be kidnapped by...

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If I Never See You Again

as Gonzalo
Released: 1997-11-18

Five elderly men form a music group and run away from the nursing home where they are interns...

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The Queen of the Night

as Serge
Released: 1994-09-07

The legendary life of Mexican singer Lucha Reyes is the basis of this fictionalized biography (...

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Reed: Insurgent Mexico

as Antonio Swafeyta
Released: 1973-01-05

A dramatization of John Reed's newspaper accounts of the Mexican Revolution. Considered the...

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The Diabolical

as Dueño de la tienda
Released: 1977-11-24

Dave Boland (Carlos East) wears a strange medallion and robs the bank. He also takes the...

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My Mexican Shivah

as Rubinstein
Released: 2007-10-26

After Moishe's death, family and friends sit Shiva in Mexico City. During seven days, secrets...

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The Prophet Mimi

as Don Paco
Released: 1973-12-27

Childhood trauma and religious repression causes little boy to grow up and murder .

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Pubertinaje

as uncredited
Released: 1978-02-09

Three episodes: 1) "A Christmas dinner" where the family members fantasize about being somewhere...

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Brothers of the Wind

as Amberson
Released: 1977-08-24

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El Viaje de la Nonna

as Public Notary
Released: 2008-02-07

A Mexican family, wanting to grant their Grandmother her last wish, embarks on a make believe...

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The Humiliated

as uncredited
Released: 1986-01-01

Four nuns are raped by a group of lepers. Although they all turn out to be pregnant, their...

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Aunt Isabel's Garden

as uncredited
Released: 1972-04-05

A ship carrying Conquistadors is wrecked and the survivors are thrown ashore to struggle through...

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El tesoro de Clotilde

as Justo
Released: 1994-11-03

Clotilde dies, and her god-daughter has promised to carry out a final wish for her.. Two gangs...

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Cómodas mensualidades

as uncredited
Released: 1992-01-24

Young married guy is overwhelmed by the expenses involved with starting a family.

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En defensa propia

as uncredited
Released: 1978-11-15

The leading edge of working-class discontent in a Mexican village is a troop of bandits hiding...

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Esmeralda Comes by Night

as Priest in hospital
Released: 1997-09-05

Esmeralda is married with 5 husbands at the same time, so she has to explain to the judge why...

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El viaje

as uncredited
Released: 1977-06-28

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Viva San Isidro!

as Don Cayetano
Released: 1995-04-13

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Perfume, efecto inmediato

as uncredited
Released: 1994-01-01

A cosmetologist invents a perfume that helps her sister seduce her boss. When her boss realizes...

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Espíritu deportivo

as Corsario Moreno
Released: 2004-10-01

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Juegos nocturnos

as uncredited
Released: 1992-01-01

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El karateca azteca

as Fritz Kartoffel
Released: 1976-11-24

Potter who makes fake pre-Colombian statues gets mixed up with thieves and treasure-hunters at...

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Cuentos de Principes y Princesas

as uncredited
Released: 1981-01-01

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Dentro de la noche

as uncredited
Released: 1991-01-01

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