Fidel Castro
Born
August 13, 1926
Died
November 25, 2016 (90 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Birán, Cuba
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.
Born in Birán, Oriente, the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist and anti-imperialist ideas while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic blockade, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro aligned with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis – a defining incident of the Cold War – in 1962.
Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, as well as sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur, Ogaden, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba through the economic downturn of the "Special Period", embracing environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s, Castro forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide" – namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela – and formed the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006, Castro transferred his responsibilities to Vice President Raúl Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008. Description above from the Wikipedia article Fidel Castro, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Self (archive footage)
2024
The Queen and the Prime Ministers
Self (archive)
2024
Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist
Self (archive footage)
2023
The Padilla Affair
Self (archive footage)
2023
The Century of Icons
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
2022
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Self (archive footage)
2021
I Am Jackie O
Self (archive footage)
2020
537 Votes
Self (archive footage)
2020
Laboratory Greece
Self (archive footage)
2019
Karl Marx und seine Erben
Self (archive footage)
2018
Historien ska frikänna mig
Self
2016
Laissez-faire
Self (archive footage)
2015
The Man Who Saved the World
Self (archive footage)
2012
The Mayor
2012
Memories of Overdevelopment
Self (archive footage)
2011
CUBA: Defending Socialism, Resisting Imperialism
Himself
2010
638 Ways to Kill Castro
Self (archive footage)
2006
The Adventures of Errol Flynn
Self (archive footage)
2005
Looking for Fidel
Self
2004
Comandante
Self
2003
Cuban Rafters
Self (archive footage)
2002
Kubánske otázniky
archívne zábery
2000
The Secret KGB JFK Assassination Files
Self (archive footage)
1999
Soviet Union: The Rise and Fall - Part 2
Self (archive footage)
1996
JFK
Self (archive footage)
1991
Chile: A Genral Record
1986
Anxiety. Thoughts of an Old Man
Self (archive footage)
1984
CBS Reports: The CIA's Secret Army
Self
1977
General Idi Amin Dada
Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
1974
The Society of the Spectacle
Self (archive footage)
1974
Chile, el gran desafío
Self
1973
And Heaven Was Taken by Storm
Self
1973
Compromiso con Chile
1972
Fidel
Self
1971
Far from Vietnam
Self (segment "Fidel Castro")
1967
¡Cuba Sí!
Self - Cuban Politician (uncredited)
1961
Yanki No!
Self
1960
Fidel Castro no Rio de Janeiro, 1959
Revolution's Daughter
Self (archive footage)
Andança: Os Encontros e as Memórias de Beth Carvalho
Self (archive footage)
2022
The Boys from Brazil: Rise of the Bolsonaros
Self (archive footage)
2022
Rat Pack
Self (archive footage)
2022
Becoming Cousteau
Self (archive footage)
2021
A History of an Assignment
Self (archive footage)
2021
How to Become a Tyrant
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
2021
Spycraft
Self · (1 episode)
2021
Wasp Network
Self (archive footage)
2020
Cuba, la révolution et le monde
(2 episodes)
2019
Amérique latine, l'année de tous les dangers
Self (archive footage)
2019
Chop Chop Chang: Operation C.H.I.M.P
Self (archive footage)
2019
ReMastered: Massacre at the Stadium
Self (archive footage)
2019
Cuba, un aller et un retour
Himself (archive footage)
2018
Another Day of Life
Himself (archive footage)
2018
Minnesota Experience
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
2018
Chavismo: The Plague of the 21st Century
Self (archive footage)
2018
Explained
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
2018
Bobby Kennedy for President
Self (archive footage) · (4 episodes)
2018
Che Guevara, naissance d'un mythe
2017
Cuba and the Cameraman
Self
2017
El Che
Self (archive footage)
2017
Two Meetings and a Funeral
2017
Angola: The War
Himself - President of Cuba (archive footage)
2017
Elián
himself
2017
Nobody
Himself
2017
Franco and Fidel: A Strange Friendship
Himself
2016
Fidel Castro: America's Nemesis
Himself (Archive Footage)
2016
Assassinating Franco
Self
2016
Castro: The World's Most Watched Man
Himself (archive footage)
2015
Celia - la más hermosa flor
2015
Guerilleros
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
2015
Lee Harvey Oswald: 48 Hours to Live
Self (archive footage)
2013
The Day That Lasted 21 Years
Self (archive footage)
2012
Palme
2012
7 Days in Havana
Self (segment "Diary of a Beginner") (archive footage)
2012
Castro in Winter
Self
2012
Ethel
Self (archive footage)
2012
Året var 1962
Self (archive footage)
2012
Mentiras verdaderas
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
2011
Santiago Files
Self (archive footage)
2011
El día más largo
2011
The Kennedy Detail
Self (archive footage)
2010
Memória Cubana
Self (archive footage)
2010
La Case du siècle
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
2010
Being Fidel Castro
Himself (archive footage)
2010
The Inconclusive Independence
Self (archive footage)
2010
Did the Mob Kill JFK?
Self (archive footage)
2009
South of the Border
Self (archive footage)
2009
La Rabbia di Pasolini
Self (archive footage)
2008
Året var 1958
Self (archive footage)
2008
RFK Must Die: The Assassination of Bobby Kennedy
Self (archive footage)
2007
Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn
Self (archive footage)
2007
Oswald's Ghost
Self (archive footage)
2007
The War on Democracy
Self (archive footage)
2007
Lejos de la isla
Himself (archive footage)
2007
Un Giorno con Fidel
Himself
2007
Cuba, el valor de una utopía
Himself
2006
Looking for Fidel
Himself
2006
I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth
2005
Salvador Allende
Self (archive footage)
2004
Fidel Castro: Life for the Revolution
Self
2004
Jack Paar: Smart Television
Self
2003
Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers
Self
2003
The Fog of War
Self (archive footage)
2003
Che Guevara - Hasta La Victoria Siempre
2003
Naqoyqatsi
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002
Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film
Self (uncredited archive footage)
2002
The Cuban Game
Himself (footage)
2001
Dear Fidel: Marita's Story
Self (archive footage)
2001
Faith of the Century: A History of Communism
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
1999
Ernesto Che Guevara - Uomo, Compagno, Amico
1995
Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy
Self (archive footage)
1993
8A
Self
1993
Portrait of Castro's Cuba
Himself
1991
Cuba 30 Anni Dopo
Himself
1990
American Expose: Who Murdered JFK?
Self (archive footage)
1988
The Uncompromising Revolution
Self
1988
Brascuba
Self (archive footage)
1987
The CIA's War Against Cuba
1987
Fidel Racconta il Che
Himself
1987
Cuba: In the Shadow of Doubt
1986
Informe especial
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
1984
Improper Conduct
Self - Politician (archive footage)
1984
On Company Business
Self - Prime Minister of Cuba (archive footage)
1980
The Necessary War
Himself
1980
Mission Mind Control
Self (archive footage)
1979
A Grin Without a Cat
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1977
My Brother, Fidel
Self
1977
Waiting for Fidel
Self
1975
Cuba and Fidel
Self
1974
Venceremos, solidaridad
Self (archive footage)
1973
The Exploitation of Man by Man
Self
1972
The First Year
Self
1972
El Diálogo de América
Él mismo
1972
I Am a Son of America
Él mismo
1972
Cuba: Battle of the 10,000,000
1971
Topaz
Self (archive footage)
1969
The Hour of the Furnaces
Self (archive footage)
1968
Hello Cubans
Self (uncredited)
1963
Muerte al invasor
Self (archive footage)
1962
Island Ablazed
Self
1961
General Assembly
Fidel Castro
1960
Cuban Rebel Girls
Self (uncredited)
1959