TV director Frank Marrero dies

Television producer and director Frank Marrero died last Friday at the age of 84, due to health complications after undergoing open-heart surgery a little more than a year ago, in Miami, Florida. This information was published by his ex-wife, Puerto Rican actress and singer Yvette Rodriguez.

“It is very unfortunate, but it was to be expected because he has many complications, and his health has deteriorated a lot. Doctors did everything they could to save him,” the veteran actress said in a phone call.

The director’s remains will also be cremated and a religious work will be presented in his memory in the city of the sun where he lived, according to the artist.

Yvette Rodriguez, who has been married to Frank Marrero for 12 years, has highlighted her human and artistic quality.

“He was a special man, he gave me the role of my life through the work of Edith Piaf, as a singer and actress. A wonderful production where, in addition to acting, he sang in French with a live orchestra. At the same time I shared a scene with 25 stars. It was the most important.”

“Not only did Frank do it for me, but he fulfilled my dream of being a mother by adopting my two children, Anya and Kirill, with me. We were divorced, but we always had a good relationship. I want to remember him as a man with a lot of enthusiasm, boldness, self-confidence, a dreamer and with great expectations” .

Frank Marrero has had an extensive career spanning over forty years in the international film and television industries, both in English and Spanish. He has received 46 awards for excellence in his work including the New York International Film and Television Festival Award, the EMMY Award after three nominations, CLIO and ANDY. As Vice President of SIN (Spanish International Network), he was the creator of the first Spanish-language national newsletter, and the pioneer of Univisión’s national newscast.

Marrero was the creator and executive producer of the Puerto Rican Film Cooperative. He won first prize at the Venice Film Festival for El Puente.

He had a close collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola in the sequences filmed in Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico (as Cuba) and Lake Tahoe in The Godfather II.

He directed the children’s musical program Carrascolendas for which he was awarded the Japanese PrixJeneusse.

As Vice President of SIN, his main motto was to unite all the links that made SIN the first Hispanic television network, today UNIVISION.

In Puerto Rico, he was co-owner of WAPA-TV, Channel 4 from 1985 to 1988, and was a presenter of the first telenovela co-production with Venezuela, Argentina, and Peru.

He was also the director of the hit mini-series “Las Divorciadas”, with Chayanne and Mara Croatto, among others.