Fernando Casado D'Arambillet, better known as Fernando Rey (September 20, 1917 - March 9, 1994), was a Spanish film actor famous in both Europe and the United States.

Rey was born in A Coruña, Spain, then known as La Coruña, the son of Captain Casado Veiga. He studied architecture, but then the Spanish Civil War began, interrupting his university days.

In 1936, Rey began his career in movies as an extra, sometimes even getting credited. It was then that he chose his stage name, Fernando Rey. He kept his first name, but took his mother's second surname, Rey, a short surname with a clear meaning ("Rey" is Spanish for "King").

In 1944, his first speaking role was the Duke de Alba in José López Rubio's Eugenia de Montijo. Four years later, he acted the part of Felipe el hermoso, King of Spain in the Spanish cinema blockbuster Locura de amor.

This was the start of a prolific career in movies, radio, theater and television. Rey was also a great dubbing actor in Spanish television. His voice was considered intense and personal, and he became the narrator of important Spanish movies like Luis García Berlanga's Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (1953), Ladislao Vajda's Marcelino Pan y Vino (1955), and even the 1992 re-dubbed version of Orson Welles' Don Quixote. In fact, Rey acted in four different film versions of Don Quixote in different roles, if one counts the Welles version (for which Rey supplied offscreen narration in the final scene).

His work with Luis Buñuel during the 1960s and 1970s made him internationally famous; he was the first "international Spanish actor". Rey starred in Buñuel's Viridiana; Tristana; Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) (1972), a complex movie which received the 1972 "Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film".

Another of the successes of Rey-Buñuel's tandem was That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), nominated for another "Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film". It was also nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category, though the movie failed to win either. Rey's voice had to be dubbed by Michel Piccoli.

In Lina Wertmüller’s Academy Award-nominated film, Seven Beauties (1975), Rey played the role of Pedro the anarchist who, as a friend of the protagonist and fellow prisoner, Pasqualino Settebellezze, chooses a gruesome suicide rather than spend another day in a Nazi concentration camp.

Rey played the French villain Alain Charnier in William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971). Initially, Friedkin intended to cast Francisco Rabal as Charnier, but could not remember his name: he only knew it was a Spanish actor. Rey was hired before Friedkin could see him. Rey did not speak English and his French was somewhat poor, but Friedkin discovered that Rabal spoke neither French nor English, and opted to keep Rey, who reprised the role in the less successful 1975 sequel, French Connection II.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Rey was awarded at San Sebastián and Cannes, and received the gold medal of the Spanish Art and Movie Sciences Academy. He became the president of that Academy from 1992 until his death from cancer two years later.

Fernando Rey, the great Spanish movie actor primarily known in the United States for his role as "Frog One" in French Connection, The (1971) and its sequel, was born Fernando Casado D'Arambillet on September 20 1917, in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, the son of Colonel Casado Veiga. Originally, the young Fernando intended to become an architect. However, when the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, his architectural studies were interrupted, and he gained employment as a movie extra. He took the stage name "Fernando Rey" at the beginning of his career, equivalent, in English, to "Fernando King". Eight years after his movie debut, he was cast in his first major speaking role, as the Duke de Alba in José López Rubio's 1944 movie "Eugenia de Montijo". Rey enjoyed a long and prosperous career as an actor in in movies, the theater, radio, and television. He also was a major voice-over artist in Spain, narrating films and dubbing the voices of actors in foreign films. Rey's most fruitful collaboration was with the great director Luis Buñuel, which began during the 1960s and continued thought the 1970s. The films that Rey appeared in for Buñuel' made him an international star, the first produced by the Spanish cinema. By the early 1970s, Rey's career reached its high point, with his co-starring role in "The French Connection" (Best Picture Oscar Winner for 1971) and his starring role in Buñuel's Charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Le (1972) ("The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner for 1972). Rey followed up these successes by appearing in French Connection, The (1971) in 1974, and Buñuel's tandem Cet obscur objet du désir (1977) ("That Obscure Object of Desire"), an art-house hit that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Ironically, in the film, Rey's voice was dubbed into French by Michel Piccoli. That same year, he won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for Carlos Saura' Elisa, vida mía (1977). Many honors came to Rey in the twilight of his career, during the 1980s and 1990s. He was awarded at San Sebastián and Cannes, and was presented with the gold medal of the Spanish Art and Movie Sciences Academy. He became the president of that Academy from 1992 till his death from cancer two years later.