Antonio Aguilar

Antonio Aguilar was a Mexican singer, songwriter, and actor. Throughout his long and illustrious career, he also made a name for himself as an equestrian and filmmaker. He was born José Pascual Antonio Aguilar Márquez Barraza on May 17, 1919, in Villanueva, Zacatecas, Mexico. As a young man, Antonio Aguilar traveled to Hollywood to study singing. He started his musical career singing boleros, but found that his voice lent itself better to the ranchera genre. In the early 1950s, he started working as a performer on Mexican radio station XEW; shortly after that, he obtained a record deal with the label Musart Records. Antonio Aguilar became known for his corridos, and very soon became one of Musart’s biggest sellers. This was also around the time he first ventured into acting, accruing a series of notable credits throughout the 50s and 60s. He also became famous for mixing rodeos and concerts as he toured throughout Latin America and the United States. Throughout his career, he recorded over 150 albums, not to mention a wide catalog of greatest hits collections, one of the most successful being 1969’s Éxitos de Antonio Aguilar. In the year 2000, Antonio Aguilar received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2004 he received a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. After being hospitalized for 14 days due to a lung infection, Antonio Aguilar passed away on June 19, 2007, in Mexico City, and his remains were taken to the city of Zacatecas, where hundreds of people attended his memorial service.