Jorge Montejo

Jorge Juan Montejo was born on 16 January 1958 in Tandil, a city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He considered himself a shy and introverted person. He started out performing at parties, pubs and private events, doing impressions of Argentine rock figures including Charly García, Pappo and Luis Alberto Spinetta.

In 1982 he met the writer and performer Federico Peralta Ramos, who introduced him to the humorist and musician Horacio Fontova. Fontova hired him to perform at events at his bar, which gave him his first regular audience in Buenos Aires.

Montejo made his television debut in 1986 on Badía y Cía, presented by Juan Alberto Badía, with his character Paolo. In a 2020 interview with La Nación he explained that the character was first imagined as Paolo the hippie, but he felt hippies were fading away, and Badía came up with "el rockero". Paolo was a scatterbrained rocker with a trembling voice, very long hair, a bandana and a colourful shoulder bag, and a stream of catchphrases such as "Uhhh... loco", "¿Entendés, chabón?" and "¡Qué mala onda!". He also played other characters, including María Pía, la cheta, Goyo, el gaucho heavy metal, and el capitán Bohemia.

In 1987 he made his film debut in Los bañeros más locos del mundo with Guillermo Francella, Emilio Disi and Gino Renni, followed the same year by Los matamonstruos en la mansión del terror. Later films included Extermineitors IV: Como hermanos gemelos (1992), Bañeros 3: todopoderosos (2006), Brigada Explosiva, Misión Pirata (2007), Bañeros 4: Los Rompeolas (2014) and Bañeros 5: Lentos y Cargosos (2018). In 1988 he appeared as María Pía in Horacio Fontova's comic documentary Fontova Presidente.

His television work included De carne somos, Domingos para la juventud, El gordo y el flaco, Ritmo de la noche, De la cabeza, Brigada cola, Ta Te Show, La movida del verano, Block & Roll, Siempre Sábado, Call TV, Palermo Hollywood Hotel, Videomatch and Peligro sin codificar. On stage he appeared in the revue Aquí está la revista with Darío Vittori and Adriana Aguirre, and in his own shows Paolo + loco que nunca (2005) and San Paolo 20 años (2007). In 1986 he released the record Pero qué te pasa, loco?

Montejo spoke publicly about his struggle with cocaine addiction, which grew worse in the 1990s and led him to stop working in the media. He told La Nación that it began after the end of a long relationship, and that a friend had warned him it could make him lose everything. He spent three months in a psychiatric clinic in Buenos Aires to overcome depression and drug dependency, and then returned to his home town of Tandil, where he kept performing.

In later years he shared comic videos on Instagram, where he described himself as an actor, a father and a lover of art. His last post, in October 2024, celebrated almost five months without smoking after decades of heavy use. The 2008 medium length documentary Jorge Montejo: el hombre detrás de Paolo, directed by Damián Pantaleone, told the story of his life and career.

Jorge Montejo died on 11 November 2026 at the Hospital Municipal Ramón Santamarina in Tandil, aged 68. He had been in hospital for several days with pneumonia and other health complications. The news was first shared that evening by Carolina Bisgarra, a reporter for Telefe's Cortá por Lozano, and was reported by La Nación, Radio Mitre and Revista Pronto.

The Asociación Argentina de Actores y Actrices said it was saying goodbye to an actor and humorist who achieved great popularity with his character Paolo and built a career in television, film and theatre, and sent its support to his family and loved ones. Fans left messages of thanks on his final Instagram post. Funeral arrangements were not reported in the sources consulted.

Paolo, el rockero remains one of the most recognisable comic characters of Argentine television in the 1980s and 1990s, and his catchphrases are still quoted. Radio Mitre described him as an icon of 1980s humour whose passage through television and cinema stayed in the hearts of several generations. He was remembered for a line he used to close his shows: that if he had brought the audience a smile, he could leave satisfied, because applause was the best thing an artist could have.