Biography

Nelly Lucinda Consuelo Meruane Solano (20 December 1927 – 20 June 2018) was a distinguished Chilean actress and teacher whose career spanned 65 years. For 20 years she was a member of the stable cast of the Teatro Ensayo of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.Meruane was recognized for her leading roles in the television series Juani en sociedad (1967), the telenovela La madrastra (1981), and the play Mama Rosa (1982). She received several honors, such as an APES Award in 2011 and an Altazor in 2014. Nelly Meruane was born in Nueva Toltén on 20 December 1927. She showed a strong interest in the performing arts from a very young age. Due to strong opposition from her parents, she studied pedagogy in Spanish, but also took theater classes in parallel. When beginning her studies at the University of Chile's Pedagogical Institute, she also entered the school's Dramatic Arts Center (CADIP), joining the cast of several plays under the stage name Sonia del Solar. Later, she majored in theater at the Catholic University. She debuted in the play Time and the Conways at the Municipal Theatre of Santiago in 1952 as a first-year student of the Theater Academy.In 1960 she starred in La pérgola de las flores by Isidora Aguirre, where she replaced actress Ana González in the role of Rosaura. In the following years, she popularized the role of La Cotocó in the TV series Juani en sociedad, starring alongside Silvia Piñeiro. She met actor Juan Carlos Bistoto when he appeared on the show in 1969, and married him 45 days later.She subsequently traveled to Venezuela with Bistoto, achieving a distinguished career in theater and television there. In 1977 she starred in the film El Pez que Fuma, directed by the playwright Román Chalbaud. She returned to Chile in 1981, and played Dora in Arturo Moya Grau's successful telenovela La madrastra. In 1982 she starred in Mama Rosa by Fernando Debesa, a performance which was lauded as one of her best. She continued to appear in films and television, with her last acting role being Señora Felman on the telenovela Chipe libre in 2014. In 2016 she was featured in the documentary Viejos amores, along with six other veteran actresses.Nelly Meruane died in Santiago on 20 June 2018, nine days after her contemporary and frequent co-star Liliana Ross.In November 2018 she received a posthumous career tribute from the Actors Guild of Chile.