Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 11, 1994                   TAG: 9403110093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SPANISH MOVIE ACTOR FERNANDO REY DIES

The Associated Press reported that his son, Fernando, gave the cause of death as bladder cancer.

Although Rey appeared in more than 150 films, he is best remembered by American audiences for his role as Charnier, the smooth villain who eludes a narcotics detective in William Friedkin's "French Connection" (1971). Europeans and art-film devotees knew him for his effortless portrayals of cosmopolitan, weary men of the world.

Rey, who had entered architecture school just before the Spanish Civil War broke out, fought for the Republic during the war.

In 1940, while he was pawning his family belongings to survive, he answered a casting call for film extras and ended up playing an Englishman in "The Four Robinsons." The film led to steady work as an extra, and then as an actor in dubbing studios. He became familiar to Spanish moviegoers as the voice of Laurence Olivier.

Rey achieved a national reputation in the theater and soon became a fixture in Spanish period films.

A turning point in his career came when Bunuel cast him as the doltish Don Jaime in "Viridiana" (1961), a role that led to an appearance in Orson Welles' "Chimes at Midnight" and to three subsequent collaborations with Bunuel: "Tristana" (1970), "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) and "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977).

His most recent American film was "Moon Over Parador," in 1988.

Rey recently completed work on "Al Otro Lado del Tunel" ("The Other Side of the Tunnel").