Francisco Rabal (1926 – 2001) is one of the best known and most important Spanish film actors. Francisco Rabal, perhaps better known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor born in Aguilas, a small town in the province of Murcia, Spain. His parents were Benito Rabal and Teresa Valera. In 1936, after the Spanish Civil War broke out, Rabal and his family left Murcia and moved to Madrid. Young Francisco had to support his family as a street salesboy and worker in a chocolate factory, while studying in the night time at the Colegio Nuestra Senora del Recuerdo. Later on he worked as assistant electrician at the Spanish film studio Estudios Chamartin. Rabal got some sporadic jobs as an extra. Damaso Alonso and other people advised him to try his luck with a career in theater. During the following years, he got some roles in theater companies such as Lope de Vega or Maria Guerrero. It was there that he met actress Asuncion Balaguer; they married and remained together for the rest of Rabal's life. Their daughter, Teresa Rabal, is also an actor, while his son Benito is director. In 1947, Rabal got some regular jobs in theater. He used his full name, Francisco Rabal, as stage name. However, the people who knew him always called him Paco Rabal. (Paco being the familiar form for Francisco.) "Paco Rabal" became his unofficial stage name. During the 1940s, Rabal began acting in movies as an extra – in 1942 he played his first bit part in La rueda de vida. Rabal joined the theater company of Compania de Isabel Garces, participating at the editing of Diario intimo de la tia Angelica (1946) by Jose Maria Peman. Gradually his parts increased, obtaining big success in 1952 with his part in Diary of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Simultaneously he started as supporting actor in 1946 in the film La prodiga by Rafael Gil. It was not until 1950, however, that Rabal was first cast in speaking film roles, playing romantic leads and rogues. Slowly his film career would overshadow his stage career, still Rabal performed memorable stage parts on various occasions at the Festival de Teatro Romano at Merida: in 1954 in Oedipus Rex, in 1955 in Julius Caesar, in 1956 Thyestes and in 1960 again in Oedipus, always under the direction of Jose Tamayo. Rabal’s career went more and more towards film, receiving first awards in 1953 for La guerra de Dios by Rafael Gil (Silver Lion at the Festival of Venice) and Un camino a la derecha by Francisco Rovira Beleta (award for best interpretation at the Festival of San Sebastian), and participating in various successful films in following years. In the later 1950s Rabal played in leads in several Italian films, such as Prigionieri del male (Mario Costa 1955), La grande strada azzurra/The Big Blue Road (Gillo Pontecorvo 1957), Marisa la civetta (Mauro Bolognini 1957), and Gerusalemme liberate/Jerusalem Liberated (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (1957). In 1958 Rabal went to Mexico to play in Luis Bunuel’s Nazarin (1959). The two struck a long lasting friendship. Nazarin was Rabal’s breakthrough as actor, playing an anticonventional priest. Francisco Rabal starred in three films directed by Luis Bunuel: Rabal’s measured performance, coming from years of stage acting training, made him for decades one of the most important actors in Spanish cinema. Among his most important roles are that in Viridiana (Bunuel 1961), which won the Golden Palm in Cannes in 1961; and the intellectual fiance of Monica Vitti’s Claudia in Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’eclisse/Eclipse (1962). Another outstanding role was that of the father confessor in Jacques Rivette’s Diderot-like film La Religieuse (1966). Rabal’s third film with Bunuel was Belle de jour (Bunuel 1967), starring Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli. In 1968 Rabal incarnated revolutionary Che Guevara in the film by Paolo Heuchs: El 'Che' Guevara. William Friedkin thought of Rabal for the French villain of his 1971 movie The French Connection. However, he could not remember the name of "that Spanish actor". Mistakenly, his staff hired another Spanish actor, Fernando Rey. Friedkin discovered that Rabal did not speak English or French, so he decided to keep Rey. Rabal has previously worked with Rey in Viridiana. Rabal did, however, work with Friedkin in the much less successful but Academy Award-nominated cult classic Sorcerer (1977), a remake of Le salaire de la peur/The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot 1953). Throughout his career, Rabal worked in France, Italy and Mexico with (next to the previously mentioned filmmakers) directors such as Luchino Visconti (La strega bruciata viva, 1966) and Valerio Zurlini (Il deserto dei tartari, 1976), but also Florestano Vancini, Giuliano Montaldo, Damiano Damiani, Claude Chabrol, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson etc. In 1974 Rabal participated in the resistance against the installation of a nuclear plant in Marina de Cope, near Murcia. In 1977, a tribute to Rabal was given at the film festival of San Sebastian w

We bought this beach tent in preparation for Molly's visit. Opening the tent was easy; take it out of the bag, release the elastic retainer and it pops open of its own accord - great! Getting it back in the bag was a little more tricky. I can follow the instructions even though they are in Spanish but the diagrams are a little confusing. It didn't help that there was a breeze blowing and the temperature outside was over 30 degrees. As they say though, third time lucky. Now the question is, "can I repeat the process?" Should I try or wait for Molly to arrive and let her father have a go?