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Born in Spain, Josep Lluis Moll studied music in Madrid and at the Paris Conservatoire. He adopted the name Fortunio Bonanova, which suited his emerging musical career, and made his international opera debut as a baritone in 1922. Mentored by the renowned Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin Sr., he was recognized as a major talent and embarked on a successful tour across Europe and South America in 1923. Throughout the 1920s, he was based in Paris, where he performed and wrote plays and short stories.
His first film role was in 1922, starring in the Spanish production Don Juan Tenorio, filmed in Barcelona. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he managed his own repertory company in South America. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Bonanova relocated permanently to the United States. There, he balanced stage performances—including two Broadway appearances—with small supporting roles in Hollywood. Due to his appearance and demeanor, he was often cast as passionate or pompous Latin Americans, Spaniards, or Italians, frequently portraying aristocratic dons, opera singers, managers, or police chiefs, in both comedic and serious roles.
Many of his film appearances were brief but memorable. Notably, he played the exasperated opera coach Signor Matiste, struggling to maintain patience with his untalented pupil, the wife of Citizen Kane (1941). He was also compelling as the down-on-his-luck Sam Galopis, awkwardly trying insurance fraud in Double Indemnity (1944), and as Carmen Trivago, a tragic aspiring opera star whose treasured Caruso recordings are shattered by a brutal Mike Hammer during an interrogation in Kiss Me Deadly (1955).
Bonanova continued portraying similar characters until his retirement in the mid-1960s. He passed away in Woodland Hills, California, in April 1969 at 74 years old.
