Horacio Olivo (April 12, 1933 – July 24, 2016) was a Puerto Rican actor, comedian, and television/radio personality, as well as a classically trained singer. Born in Dorado, Puerto Rico, he got his start in show business in 1949 at long defunct WNEL as a radio soap opera actor. Olivo participated in various Festival Casals concerts as a tenor in the chorus section, his voice was described as "privileged", "smooth and firm". He also acted in various plays during the Puerto Rican and International Theatre Festivals, was the station announcer for all the WIPR stations (WIPR, WIPR-FM, and WIPR-TV), and acted in comedy TV shows like Como está la situación, and Esto no tiene nombre, produced by Tommy Muñiz. Olivo was the booming voice behind Los Rayos Gamma for more than four decades.
Entertainment career Still a child, Olivo participated in an event held for Felisa Rincón de Gautier at Las Casas in 1946, the show was led by master of ceremonies Héctor L. Almodóvar and he sang the Puerto Rican danza "A orillas del mar". He made appearances in other official activities, including one where he performed décimas in a homage for Grace F. Tugwell for her support of infant food initiative Programa de Alimentación Infantil. By 1949, Olivo had become a recurrent radio telenovela artist at WNEL. Within two years, he was recognized and gained celebrity as a radio personality and became involved with television as well. Olivo would also make appearances in other stations, including Radio Católica where he participated in their Holy Week programming. He was involved in a comedy sketch as part of a telemarathon that marked the television debut of Carmen Belén Richardson. During the Korean War, Olivo was among those drafted in 1954. This interrupted his role in the action series Espionaje. As an actor, Olivo appeared in a television adaptation of Mariano Azuela's Los de abajo: Relato de la Revolución Mexicana where the physician recounts his version of several experiences that he lived during the Mexican revolution along Pancho Villa.
In May 1962, Tiempo Muerto took the stage a Teatro Tapia as part of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture's (ICP) Festival de Teatro Puertorriqueño, with a cast that included Olivo as "Juanito". The play was a three-set tragedy based on the hardships of the Puerto Rican rural folk known as jíbaro that was directed by Leopoldo Santiago Lavandero and also featured Esther Sandoval, Alberto Zayas, Benjamín Morales, Myrna Vázquez and Víctor Arrillaga. On May 10, 1962, the cast of the play received a feast from the director and his wife Camelia Jímenez Malaret. His performance was labeled as "formidable", along the rest of the supporting cast. In May 1963, Olivo participated in the Festival de Teatro Puertorriqueño with an adaptation of Manuel Méndez Ballester's La Feria. Directed by Santiago Lavandero, the cast also included Johnny Sáez and Héctor V. Suárez. The following year, Olivo returned to the Teatro Tapia for another edition of the Festival del Teatro Puertorriqueño. His participation was in another play directed by Lavandero, Todos los ruiseñores cantan, a three-set comedy set in Brisas del Caribe, a fictionalized version of a well known restaurant of San Juan during the 1930s. The play also featured its author Carlos Rechani, Gilda Galán, Paquito O’Neill, Luis Vera, Charlie Gibbs, Art Beddard, Rosa Blanca Menéndez, Iris Martínez, Juan González and Orlando Rodríguez, Frankie Gauthier, Mario Betancourt, Luis Irizarry, Olga de Carlo, Benjamín Morales and Mazo y su grupo. His performance in a secondary role earned a positive reception from the press. Olivo joined the rest of the cast in a cocktail offered in their honor held at the ICP.
He also participated in a public education campaign by acting in Seguridad para un futuro mejor, aired by the government-owned WIPR-TV and directed by Carlos Samalot Machado. In October 1964, Olivo joined Lucy Boscana, Myrna Vázquez and Félix Monclova in Elin Ortiz's adaptation of Cayetano Coll y Toste's La campana del ingenio which also aired trough WIPR-TV. In October 1964, Un Sombrero Lleno de Lluvia was presented before a sold-out crowd at Teatro Salvador Brau in Santurce to open a season in the venue that included raising funds for the Junta Local de Maestros de San Juan. In 1966, Olivo returned to the Festival de Teatro Puertorriqueño by appearing in a secondary role in Luis Rechani's Mi Señoría. The play was a three-set tragifarce led by Benjamín Morales, Estela de la Lastra, Walter Busó, Orlando Rodríguez, Félix Antelo, Delia Esther Quiñones, Marcos Betancourt, Luis Alberto Martínez, Esther Mari and Francis Santiago del Río in the main roles. His role as "Corneta" was well received, but media criticism argued that it outshined his second role when the character ascended to "Director of the Conservatory" due to the more stereotypical depiction of the elite. When Camuy inaugurated its Cultural Center, Olivo was invited to participate in two of the three inaugural plays, joining Jacobo Morales, Elín Ortiz (who also directed), Digna Guzmán and Myrna Vázquez in El Pegajoso and El Enfermo.
In December 1966, Olivo played a secondary role an adaptation of Jacques Deval's El comprador de horas as part of the ICP's Festival de Teatro Internacional held at Teatro Tapia and presented by the troupe Compañía Teatro El Cemí. The show was directed by Alberto Zayas and headlined by Javobo Morales and Lillian Hurst, with a supporting cast that included Laura Martell, Luis Carlo, Estrellita Artau, Ray Francisco Quiñones and Cuca Pence. Olivo was praised for staying in line with the essence of the character "Sargento". During that month, Elín Ortiz also presented an encore of El Pegajoso and El Enfermo as part of Compañía Teatro El Cemí at Escuela Pasarell, with the sponsorship of the ICP, Centro Cultural de Comerío and the Puerto Rico Instruction Department. The plays, which were presented as part of Estampas Puertorriqueñas de Abelardo Díaz Alfaro repeated the cast of the previous event with Olivo, Morales, Vázquez, Guzmán and Betancourt. During the summer of 1967, the plays were presented at summer camps with the same ensemble.
During this timeframe, Olivo also acted in La Cuarentona presented at Teatro Tapia as part of Carnaval de 1867 at San Juan. The play was directed by Piri Fernández de Lewis and the cast included Ortiz, Raúl Ayala, Silvia del Villare, Roberto Martínez de la Torre and Joe Lacomba. In September 1967, Olivo returned to the Festival de Teatro Internacional by participating in El Fabricante de Deudas at Teatro Tapia with Compañía Teatro El Cemí. The play was directed by Alberto Zayas and the cast included Ortiz, Betancourt, Carlo, Alicia Moreda, Ricardo Palmerola, Delia Esther Quiñones, Efraín Berrios, Janice Marietti, José L. Marrero, Walter Rodríguez, Irene Pérez, Jaime Ruiz Escobar, Juan Miranda Alfonso and Luis Cosme. His role as "Segarra" received possible reviews due to its comedic potential. Entertainment writer Miguel Ángel Yurnet stated that the performance was "embroidered".
In November 1968, Olivo participated in activities held at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) to commemorate a hundred years of the Grito de Lares which included adaptations of plays and music by Luis Llorens Torres, José Antonio Corretjer, Réne Márqués and Luis Rafael Sánchez. Between September and October 1969, he joined the Aristeo Rivera Zayas adaptation of Michael Gazzo's drama Un Sombrero Lleno de Lluvia by the Cooperativa Nacional de Artes Teatrales (COOP-Arte) at Barrio Obrero. The play was supported by the municipality of San Juan, with the actors performing as part of Teatro Moderno. The cast included Myrna Vázquez, Samuel Molina, Evelyn Souffront, Vicente Vázquez, Carlos González and Adrián García. The following month Olivo returned to the Festival de Teatro Internacional by playing a waiter in the farce comedy Ay papá, pobre papá, en el closet te enganchó mamá y que pena me da at Teatro Tapia. The play was directed by Roberto Rodríguez Suárez with a cast that also included Adrián García, Velda González, Félix Antelo and Silvia de Villare along her group El Coqui folkloric ballet. The play was presented at Teatro Tapia in January and February 1970.
Afterwards, Olivo participated in an adaptation of Ricardo Talesnik's La Pereza for the Teatro La Rueda troupe, which was staged at the Puerto Rico Bar Theatre at Miramar and Casa España. The play was directed by Andrés Quiñones Vizcarrondo and headlined by José Luis Marrero and also included Norma Niurka, Esperancita Martínez, Manuel Codeso and Miguel Millares. His role in the play was well received by the media, with emphasis being given to receiving the largest ovation between scenes. In June 1970, Olivo returned to the Festival de Teatro Internacional in the comedy La extraña pareja presented at Teatro Tapia by Compañía Teatro El Cemí. The play directed by Alberto Zayas was headlined by Ortiz and Luis Antonio Rivera and included Johnny Miranda, Betancourt, Rosa Blanca Menéndez, Iris Chacón and Tino García in the supporting cast. His character work received some criticism from the press, due to being hard to understand while speaking. In September 1970, an encore of La Pereza was presented at Teatro Tapia with the same ensemble. His acting in this play was positively commented upon by the press. In October, Un Sombrero Lleno de Lluvia had its encore at the COOP-Arte theater and he returned to the cast. Olivo made an appearance as part of the supporting cast in the Hollywood comedy Bananas, which debuted in April 1971.
In its inaugural season the sociopolitical satire El Efecto de los Rayos Gamma sobre Eddie López broke attendance records at the theater of the Colegio de Abogados and began an island wide tour. His singing as a tenor in the act was well received and described as "unbeatable" by journalist Manuel Rivera Matos. Olivo made his return to the Tapia for another edition of the Festival de Teatro Internacional in an adaptation of J.B. Priestly's Llegaron a una Ciudad presented by Teatro La Máscara. Directed by Axel Anderson, the cast also included Helena Montanbál, Adela Villamil, Johanna Rosaly, Lolita Berrio, Ricardo Palmerola, Armando Roura, Pilar Arenas and Benjamín Morales. After its initial run at Teatro Tapia, the play was also presented at Teatro La Perla and the Club de Oficinistas at Mayagüez. By then an established celebrity, Olivo was given the role of timid bank worker "Malcolm Stritton" in Llegaron a la Ciudad, during which his acting was credited as "true interpretative refinement" in its dramatic intention and "his best ever".
During the summer of 1971, an extended version of El Efecto de los Rayos Gammas sobre Eddie López returned to the Colegio de Abogados for another season. During this time, the press emphasized his ability to parody everyday situations in songs that were presented with good quality despite their sardonic content. When the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) celebrated its 25th anniversary, Olivo was one of several artists that participated in a concert held for the occasion at Country Club. In November 1971, Los Efectos de los Rayos Gammas sobre Eddie López was presented at the Sheraton Hotel for a season and as a special attraction at the Festival de Teatro Latinoamericano at COOP-Arte. When Eddie López died due to cancer, the rest of the cast decided to continue presenting the play in the hotel his honor. López was replaced by Efraín López Neris and later by Tommy Muñiz, as the play continued a strong run. Olivo also joined the cast of the television comedy series Esto no tiene nombre. He served as announcer in the late night show “Medianoche Diferente” with Richy Ray and Bobby Cruz. A reboot of El Efecto de los Rayos Gamma sobre Eddie López in its original format was sponsored by Fundación Eddie López. Olivo also performed in the PIP's 26th anniversary event, which was dedicated to the Puerto Rican youth.