With great consternation the Ministry of Culture, the National Council of Performing Arts and the Artistic Agency of Performing Arts ACTUAR mourn the death in Havana, Cuba of the first actor Enrique Molina, National Television Award 2020, ACTUAR Award for the Work of Life 2018 and Honorary Title in the 1st edition of the Enrique Almirante Award in 2015.

His death occurred due to complications derived from COVID-19 and after being admitted under the care of a multidisciplinary team of medical personnel who fought until the last hours to save his life. At the time of his death, he was 77 years old.

Molina was a renowned actor with performances in television, film and theater and radio, with a long and consolidated artistic and professional career. Of humble origin, it was born on October 31, 1943 in the municipality of Bauta, the former province of Havana, today Artemisa, to later move with his family when he was very young to Santiago de Cuba.

In this eastern province, he began to take the first steps in acting within the amateur artist movement in the 1960s.

Later, in the former City of Havana, he managed to consolidate his career to become one of the most outstanding actors alongside great artists and experienced directors, placing himself in the preference and taste of the public.

His masterful performances in space dramatized for television still survive in the popular imagination, such as the character of Silvestre Cañiso with Alina Rodríguez in the telenovela Tierra Brava, Under the Same Sun, La Otra Esquina and the well-remembered serial En Silencio has had to be, among other productions.      

In the tables, he highlighted his role as the legendary figure of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in The Kremlin Chime and later in the miniseries Stories about Lenin, on this occasion subjected to surgeries to change his physique and fully manage to get into the character's skin.   

Likewise, the cinema will be totally grateful for the extensive cinematographic work made, among which stand out The Man from Maisinicú, Caravana, A Paradise under the Stars, Barrio Cuba, The Horn of Plenty, Contigo Pan y Cebolla, and Esther somewhere, among other.        

Throughout his career as an actor, he also received the Award for Best Foreign Actor at the Festival of the Golden Rooster and the Hundred Flowers of China in 2014 and 2016, as well as an Artist of Merit from the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT).

Until the moment of his aggravation he was in the preparations to film a new soap opera.

Undoubtedly his death has caused a deep void in the usual media where his presence was a mainstay of the performance, this loss has had a strong impact on the cultural panorama of the nation.

For their part, the Ministry of Culture, the National Council of Performing Arts and the ACTUAR Agency offer their most heartfelt condolences to their family, friends and colleagues for the irreparable loss.

There are no words to describe the pain felt when a small-town artist says goodbye forever. Cuban culture of mourns his death.