Héctor Echemendía died in Belgium after a career spanning radio, theater and film

Héctor Echemendía died in Belgium at age 87, in the country where he had spent the final stage of his life with his children and grandchildren. His daughter, Dannele Echemendía, announced the death on Facebook and conveyed the family's grief. She also explained that relatives accompanied him after his wife, Elsa Blanco, died in 2022.

Born in Camagüey in 1938, Echemendía first became involved in radio. In 1957 he began working at station CMJA as a control-room operator. Three years later, he joined an amateur group directed by Miguel Ponce; in 1961, the collective became the Conjunto Dramático de Camagüey. There he began stage training before moving into professional companies.

From 1968 to 1975, he belonged to the Santiago de Cuba-based Conjunto Dramático de Oriente. In 1984 he returned to Camagüey and worked at Radio Cadena Agramonte; for six years, he participated in radio dramas and children's, comedy and rural programs. Radio allowed him to explore different registers before expanding into other formats.

National recognition came with the adventure series Hermanos, in which he played Andrés Iznaga. In a 2021 interview, he recalled that the role was his television debut after more than a decade of theater and an extended period in radio. He said that as late as 2017 people still called him Lorencito when they saw him on the street.

In film, he played Gallego in La Bella del Alhambra, directed by Enrique Pineda Barnet. The character originated in Cuban comic-theater productions in Camagüey and earned him a prize at the province's theater festival. On television he also played Felito in Vuelve a mirar and appeared in titles including Tierra brava, Pasión y prejuicio and Entre mamparas.

In 2019 he received the ACTUAR Lifetime Achievement Award; one year later, he won the National Television Award. His career encompassed radio productions, stage works, films and television programs. Across different stages and screens, he built a career that ran from Camagüey's dramatic companies to roles remembered by Cuban audiences.