Leonardo Perucci

Leonardo Raniero Perucci Molvin was born in Antofagasta, Chile, on 13 December 1937, the son of Bruno Perucci and Rosalía Molvin. His Italian grandparents, natives of Ancona who emigrated to Chile in 1893, founded and ran the Teatro Alhambra in Taltal. When he was four his mother and his only sister died of tuberculosis, and he grew up in Taltal in the care of his paternal aunt, Francesca Perucci. He moved to Santiago to study dentistry and psychology before enrolling in the theatre academy of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Perucci made his professional debut in 1961 in La pérgola de las flores, replacing Charles Beecher as Tomasito. He joined Canal 13 in 1965, appearing in Juntos se pasa mejor and El litre 4916, played Diego Portales in El motín de Quillota and in 1967 co-starred with Silvia Santelices in Los días jóvenes, considered Chile's first telenovela. In 1970 he starred with Peggy Cordero in the TVN hit El padre Gallo by Arturo Moya Grau, and he acted in films including La casa en que vivimos (1970), Voto más fusil (1971) and Ya no basta con rezar (1972).

In exile in Cuba from 1973 to 1979 he acted and trained as a director and playwright with Soviet and East German professionals, staging fifteen plays and touring Canada. After moving to Costa Rica in 1979 he starred in Fuenteovejuna, taught at the University of Costa Rica, worked with the Teatro del Ángel of Alejandro Sieveking and Bélgica Castro and with the National Theatre Company, and won the national annual theatre award for best actor for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He presented Fabulosos sábados and presented and produced Fantástico. In the 2000s he returned to Canal 13 in Chile for four telenovelas, including Hippie (2004), which brought him an APES nomination for best supporting actor.

Perucci was an active member of the Socialist Party of Chile and president of the radio and television actors' union. In the 1960s he had a relationship with the actress Carmen Barros, and in the 1970s with Peggy Cordero, with whom he had a son, Camilo, in 1972. He later spoke publicly about financial troubles and a struggle with alcohol in those years. In 1979 he met the Costa Rican actress and writer Arabella Salaverry, whom he married and with whom he had three children. He named the actors Alejandro Flores and Héctor Duvauchelle as his great influences.

Perucci was treated for lymphatic cancer in 2013, had a pacemaker fitted in 2017 and overcame prostate cancer in 2023. In May 2026 he underwent aortic valve replacement surgery. He died in San José, Costa Rica, on 10 November 2026 at the age of 88, as reported by Teletica, CR Hoy, Diario Extra and BioBioChile.

Perucci is remembered in Chile as a leading man of the first generation of television drama, from Los días jóvenes to El padre Gallo, and in Costa Rica as an actor, director, teacher and presenter who helped shape the country's stage and screen for more than forty years. In 2025 he was named a Distinguished Citizen of Montes de Oca and received the Medal of the National University of Costa Rica.