MADRID, Spain — Spanish novelist and scriptwriter Rafael Azcona, known for films such as the Oscar-winning comedy “Belle Epoque” and Luis Garcia Berlanga’s “The Executioner,” has died. He was 81.
Azcona, who had been suffering from lung cancer, died at his home on Sunday, the Spanish Writers and Editors Society said. He was cremated Tuesday in Madrid.
“He leaves the world of cinema and literature without one of its best storytellers,” Spain’s Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina said.
Born Oct. 24, 1926, in the northern city of Logrono, Azcona wrote for humor magazines such as “El Cordorniz” before making his name with the film script based on his black comedy novel “El Pisito” (The Little Apartment), directed by Italy’s Marco Ferreri in 1959.
He teamed up with director Fernando Trueba in “Belle Epoque,” which won an Oscar for best foreign film in 1992.
“He was one of the greatest writers in European cinema, not just Spanish cinema,” Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde, president of Spain’s Cinema Academy, told the newspaper El Pais.
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