Xavier López ‘Chabelo’ (right) with Mario Moreno ‘Cantinflas’ in El Extra
Iconic Mexican comedian, entertainer, and actor Xavier López ‘Chabelo’ died last Saturday at the age of 88 in Mexico City due to “abdominal complications.” Even though he was best known for his popular and longstanding television show “En Familia con Chabelo,” which ran continuously for 48 years between 1967 and 2015, the actor performed in over thirty movies, mostly in his well-known role of ‘Chabelo,’ a mischievous kid dressed in shorts.
Chabelo worked with numerous directors including José Estrada, Juan Antonio de la Riva, Emilio Portes, Beto Gómez, Sebastián del Amo, and starred with some of Mexico’s post popular actors and comedians including Mario Moreno ‘Cantinflas,’ Gaspar Henaine ‘Capulina,’ María Antonieta de las Nieves ‘La Chilindrina,’ María Victoria, Enrique Guzmán, and Andrés Bustamante, among many others.
Born in Chicago, Illinois to Mexican parents in 1935, López moved to Mexico with his family at a young age and was trained as a doctor, before becoming an actor. He made his film debut in the 1958 movie Chistelandia by Manuel Barbachano Ponce, in which he played the role of Babyface, a cigarrette seller who fakes a kidnapping in a mental asylum. Since then he acted in numerous movies including El Extra (1962) starring Cantinflas, El tesoro de Moctezuma (1964), Escuela para solteras (1965), Autopsia de un fantasma (1968), and La criada bien criada (1972).
With child actor Martín Ramos ‘Pepito,’ he starred in three popular adventure movies in the early seventies: Pepito y la lámpara maravillosa (1972), Chabelo y Pepito contra los monstruos (1973) and Chabelo y Pepito detectives (1974). During the eighties and nineties, he participated in some movies such as Macho que ladra no muerde (1984), Mi fantasma y yo (1988), and La Chilindrina en apuros (1994).
In the aughts, he resumed his film career acting, no longer playing the role of Chabelo, in the comedy movie Euthanasia Club / El club de la eutanasia (2005), the short film Réquiem para Diana (2006), To Love / Amar (2011), and Volando Bajo (2014). In the 2014 comedy The Popcorn Chronicles / El crimen del Cácaro Gumaro, he played again the role of Chabelo. His last film was the 2018 thriller The Mongolian Conspiracy / El complot mongol, about a policeman investigating reports of a Chinese-Mongolian plot to assassinate the Soviet and American presidents.
