Viruta y Capulina
Viruta y Capulina, performed by Marco Antonio Campos and Gaspar Henaine, were a Mexican double act featured in film, television, theatre, radio, and comic books from 1957 to 1967.
Career
Roberto Gómez Bolaños was the writer of their television program, Cómicos y canciones, and also wrote or co-wrote 24 of their films. Gómez Bolaños later remembered, "When I met, he had just gone through a crisis of alcoholism and they had told him that he would die in a couple of weeks. We worked together for nearly 17 years and he never tasted a drop of alcohol, but he could never quit smoking."Viruta and Capulina's first feature film, Se los chupó la bruja, was shot in 1957 and released the following year by Películas Nacionales. Upon viewing the film for the first time during a private screening, Capulina said that he felt "desolate" and told his wife that he would "never again work in film." However, the film was screened for eight weeks and became a box-office hit.
Five of their films were shot in color: La odalisca No. 13, Cascabelito, Barridos y regados, Buenos días, Acapulco, and Dos pintores pintorescos.
By 1962, the films of Viruta and Capulina were often associated with "bad quality" films and television programs. In response, Capulina said that he and Viruta never had "the slightest freedom to choose stories." Viruta went on to write the stories of two of their films, Cascabelito and Los reyes del volante.
Viruta and Capulina starred in 34 films. They made cameo appearances in two films: Viaje a la luna, a comedy starring Kitty de Hoyos and Corona and Arau, and La vida de Pedro Infante, a Pedro Infante biopic. They appeared in a total of 36 films, including the two cameos. Jaime Salvador directed the duo's first film and eight more, Agustín P. Delgado also directed nine, Gilberto Martínez Solares directed four, Fernando Cortés directed three and one cameo, Miguel Morayta directed three, father and son René Cardona and René Cardona Jr. directed two each, and Miguel Zacarías directed one and the final cameo.