The Dead Zone - GASPAR 'CAPULINA' HENAINE - Mexican Comedian

GASPAR 'CAPULINA' HENAINE - Mexican Comedian

Mexican comedian Gaspar Henaine, who was best known as the chubby comic star Capulina, died in Mexico City on September 30, 2011. He was 85.  Henaine was born in Chignahuapan, Puebla, Mexico, on January 6, 1926. He began his career as part of the musical trio "Los Excentricos del Ritmo" in the early 1940s, and led his own group, Los Trincas, later in the decade. He mixed music with comedy on stage and radio, and made his film debut in the early 1950s. He was best known for his character Capulina, and frequently teamed with Marco Antonio Campos, as Viruta, as a comedy duo known as the Mexican version of Laurel and Hardy. Viruta was the slender brains of the team, and Capulina was his chubby sidekick and foil. They starred in numerous popular comedies for over a decade including "La Sombra del Otro" (1957), "So los Chupo la Bruja" (1958), "Voyage to the Moon" (1958), "Los Legionarios" (1958), "Muertos de Miedo" (1958), "Desert Tigers" (1960), "En Peligro de Muerte" (1962), "Los Invisibles" (1963), "Los Astronautas" (1964), "Los Reyes del Volante" (1965),  "Detectives O Ladrones..? (Dos Agentes Inocentes)" (1967), and "El Camino de los Espantos" (1967). Capulina and Viruta also starred in the popular television series "Comicos y Canciones" in the 1950s and 1960s, before embarking on solo careers later in the 1960s.

Capulina remained a popular film star, appearing in "Operacion Carambola" (1968), "El Zangano" (1968), "Santo Contra Capulina" (1969) co-starring with the famed masked Mexican wrestler, "Capulina Speedy Gonzalez" (1970),  "Capulina Contra los Vampiros" (1971), "El Rey de Acapulco" (1972), "Capula Contra las Momias (El Terror de Guanajuato)" (1973), "Capulina Contra los Monstruos" (1974), "El Sonambulo" (1974), "El Investigador Capulina" (1975), "El Karateca Azteca" (1976),  "El Rey de Monterrey" (1981), "El Sargento Capulina" (1983), and "Mi Compadre Capulina" (1989).  He returned to television in the late 1980s with the comic program "Las Aventuras de Capulina", and hosted the touring production "Capulina's Circus" from the early 1990s.