Patricio Contreras

Patricio Contreras is a Chilean‑Argentine actor whose career spans television, cinema and the theatre, making him a versatile figure in Latin American performing arts. Born on December 15, 1947 in Santiago, Chile, he fled to Argentina after the 1973 coup that ousted President Salvador Allende, a leader he publicly supported, and quickly immersed himself in the Argentine film industry. Although his early work consisted of minor roles, he attracted attention with a part in Adolfo Aristarain’s 1978 crime thriller La parte del león and soon after secured a breakthrough as Sergeant Comini in Aristarain’s controversial Funny Dirty Little War (1983). His most acclaimed performance came two years later as the persecuted Professor Benítez in the Oscar‑winning drama The Official Story (1985), a role that earned him the prestigious Silver Condor and cemented his reputation as a powerful character actor. The momentum continued with a leading role in Juan José Jusid’s Made in Argentina (1986), for which Contreras received the Best Actor award at the Havana Film Festival, and an appearance alongside Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda in Old Gringo (1989). He further demonstrated his range in Miguel Littín’s Sandino (1990) and in Ricardo Larraín’s La Frontera (1991), the latter marking his first major return to Chile after the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship. In the mid‑1990s he starred in Betty Kaplan’s adaptation of Isabel Allende’s Of Love and Shadows (1995) and delivered a noted stage performance in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1996‑98), directed by his then‑wife Leonor Manso. Although their marriage ended in 2001, the two reunited professionally for a 2007 production of Sarah Kane’s Blasted. Today, Contreras remains based in Buenos Aires, continuing to act prolifically in film and on stage, embodying the resilience of an artist shaped by exile, political upheaval, and a lifelong dedication to his craft.