Horacio Olivo
Horacio Olivo was a Puerto Rican actor, comedian, and television/radio personality, as well as a classically trained singer.
Entertainment career
Born in Dorado, Puerto Rico, he got his start in show business in 1949 at long defunct WNEL as a radio soap opera actor.He graduated from the Instituto Comercial de Puerto Rico, and studied for 3 years at the Puerto Rico Music Conservatory.
He participated in various Festival Casals concerts as a tenor in the chorus section.
Olivo has also acted in various plays during the Puerto Rican and International Theatre Festivals, was the station announcer for all the WIPR stations, and acted in comedy TV shows like Como está la situación, and Esto no tiene nombre, produced by Tommy Muñiz. He was involved in a comedy sketch as part of a telemarathon that marked the television debut of Carmen Belén Richardson. During the Korean War, Olivo was among those drafted in 1954. This interrupted his role in the action series Espionaje. During the early 1980s, Olivo appeared in Producciones Tommy Muñiz's Cosas del alcalde, which aired in the producer's station WRIK-TV. With a loose concept Los siete del Siete would take over the prime time slot Thursdays, and be host by a number of local talents including Agrelot, Morales, Olivo, Avellanet, Jovet and Logroño.
Horacio Olivo is perhaps better known as the booming voice behind Los Rayos Gamma. One of the Rayos Gamma's better known parodies was Olivo's hugely popular antagonistic ode to the U.S. Navy, based on Agustín Lara's song "Granada". He was reportedly fired from his WIPR post because of his political beliefs, and for a while, he owned a fried chicken establishment in his hometown of Dorado.
After Channel 11 went bankrupt, Los Rayos Gamma moved to Muñiz's channel, WRIK-TV. The group debuted on November 1, 1981. He was along several figures, including Los Gamma, that participated in the inauguration of Súper Siete following the sale of the channel. Olivo played the role of an unseen director in the play Los muchachos de la Alegría, which reunited Muñiz and Paquito Cordero after two decades of estrangement. On February 3, 1997, he participated in Los 75 años de don Tommy, a special dedicated to Muñiz's career.