Manolo Solo came from rock, and it showed. Viewers will remember him singing the legendary Autosuficiencia by Parálisis Permanente on Late Motiv with Andreu Buenafuente. It’s just one example, but it gives many clues. It is also known that he was a fan of the Kinks and that, on some occasions, he played I’m not like everybody else, and the anthem of the outsiders suited him perfectly, because, although he had the physique of an ordinary man, he didn’t resemble anyone else. Before becoming one of the most beloved and admired actors in our cinema, Manuel Fernández Serrano, as his ID stated, devoted himself for more than two decades to the underground scene in Seville, especially as the lead singer of Los Relicarios, a band in which Santi Amodeo also played guitar and who would end up directing him in films like Astronautas (2003), ¿Quién mató a Bambi? (2013), and El cielo de los animales (2025), one every ten years.
Solo, who took his nickname from a night when he was left alone in charge of a disastrous concert by Hacienda somos todos, the band he led while studying pedagogy, was a central figure in that Seville scene where moving images and music have constantly fed each other, becoming one of the vital lungs for the renewal of our cinema, which has been shedding its academic pomp to become something truer, more street and less salon.
He recorded his first demos with Arden lágrimas in the late 80s, and then formed La Turmix, which became Los Relicarios
Trained in Seville, although originally from Campo de Gibraltar (Algeciras), Solo was well positioned to head towards cinema, although he took it easy before embracing the profession, perhaps because, with that permanently startled face, he didn’t see himself. First came the bands. He recorded his first demos, like Noches de delirio, with Arden lágrimas in the late 80s, and then formed La Turmix, which ended up becoming Los Relicarios, a band with which he recorded a couple of albums and songs like Enamorado de Chrissie Hynde or La verdad está en inglés, whose videoclip was made by Alberto Rodríguez who, in turn, would end up directing him in films like 7 vírgenes (2005) or La isla mínima (2014), as well as in the series La peste, in which he was the bishop rallying the masses.
By then, in the 90s, Solo was already working as a voice actor (he voiced several characters in Dragon Ball) and gained experience in the independent theater scene. But he never left music aside either. He passed through groups like El combo crónico, Lavadora, Camarero champán, or Los Kevin Bacons, before reaching his most personal project: Manolo Solo & Also Starring, with which he paid tribute to the seventh art by playing covers of Midnight Cowboy or Man of the Moon, among others.
It was with the turn of the millennium that Solo decided to move to Madrid and finally focus on his hidden vocation, appearing in all kinds of TV series (Compañeros, El comisario, Hospital central, Amar en tiempos revueltos…) and debuting on the big screen with Cuando todo esté en orden (2002), by César Martínez Herrada. After small roles in La flaqueza del bolchevique (Manuel Martín Cuenca, 2003), El laberinto del fauno (Guillermo del Toro, 2006), Celda 211 (Daniel Monzón, 2009) or El Gran Vázquez (Óscar Aibar, 2010), among many others, he began to stand out as the judge who confronts Bárcenas in B. la película (David Illundain, 2015), for which he was nominated for the Goya for best supporting actor, and especially as El Triana, the owner of the gym in Tarde para la ira (Raúl Arévalo, 2016), the thriller with a sawdust scent that swept the Goyas, winning best film and best new director, as well as supporting actor for Manolo Solo, a trophy he was nominated for again for El buen patrón (Fernando León de Aranoa, 2022).
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From there, with the Goya on the shelf, he began to be considered one of the greats. That is, a lead actor. With his mere presence, he broke stereotypes and conveyed infinite humanity, though modestly contained, sometimes terrible and almost always endearing. By his appearance, he could be the neighbor next door, but always with more than one card hidden.
Thus, increasingly important roles began to come, such as the filmmaker in the monumental Cerrar los ojos (2024), the great return of Víctor Erice, for which he was nominated for the Goya for best actor, as well as for La quinta portuguesa (2026), by Avellina Prat, where he disarmed us again by playing a meek teacher, abandoned by his wife, who decides to start over by impersonating a gardener on the other side of the border.
With a good number of stage works – Mrs Dalloway, Dos gentlemen de Verona, Ruz-Bárcenas, La última noche de la peste, El inspector, Cocina or Las guerras correctas – he also ended up being part of the most prestigious series, such as La zona, Arde Madrid or Anatomía de un instante, for which, once again under the direction of the Sevillian Alberto Rodríguez, he completely transformed himself to bring to life a, in his own way, moving Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado. He shone at the recent Cannes festival, alongside Patricia López Arnaiz, as the protagonist of Aquí, by the Portuguese Tiago Guedes, an adaptation of the Trilogía de Jesús by J.M. Coetzee.
He had a long career ahead, but illness is merciless, and we have had to add his name to recent losses like José Luis Cienfuegos or Fran Gayo, whom we mention because they also came from rock and were important in changing the way cinema is understood in this country. Manolo Solo, a very charming shy man, with those perennial bags under his eyes, represented like no one else the antihero of an entire generation.
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