Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna (born July 16, 1948) is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres. As songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and political inspired Nuyorican salsa to his music, creating thinking persons' (salsa) dance mu...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Salsa Lives
2025
as Ruben Blades
La Salsa Vive is a vibrant cinematic exploration of Afro-Cuban music's history, tracing its roots from New York's lively streets to Cali, Colombia, no...

Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple
2024
as Self
Stevie Van Zandt, known as New Jersey's most famous consigliere to Bruce Springsteen and Tony Soprano, takes center stage. Featuring a wealth of never...

Stay Homas. The Band That Shouldn’t Exist
2024
as Self - Singer
In the most tragic moment of the pandemic, confined to a terrace in the centre of Barcelona and almost by chance, the musical phenomenon of the Stay H...

Nueva York: A Musical History of Latin New York
2021
as Self (archive footage)
When the film West Side Story was released in 1961, New York's reviled Puerto Rican community gained some visibility and, over time, both in Spanish H...

Red Pill
2021
as Rocky
Set over Halloween weekend 2020, this political thriller follows six friends as they head into "red" country to canvas white women to vote. They are a...

Operation Just Cause
2019
Music
The stories of a Panamanian officer who feels betrayed by his superiors, of a young man from the neighborhood trying to prevent his friends from going...

Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage
2019
as Self
Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage is a warm and revealing portrait of the charismatic, groundbreaking actor’s journey from his native Puerto Rico to the...

John Leguizamo's Latin History for Morons
2018
as Self
In this one-man Broadway show, John Leguizamo finds humor and heartbreak as he traces 3,000 years of Latin history in an effort to help his bullied so...

Ruben Blades Is Not My Name
2018
as Self
The story of one of Latin America's most beloved singer-songwriters in a journey across his 50-year career. In an intimate way, the film gives us a ch...

Hands of Stone
2016
as Carlos Eleta
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Yo soy la salsa
2014
More than a genre, salsa was a cultural movement that arose in a time of need for strengthening the Latino culture and spread across the world with su...

Invasion
2014
as Self
INVASION is a documentary about the collective memory of a country. The invasion of Panama by the U.S in 1989 serves as an excuse to explore how a peo...

The Counselor
2013
as Jefe
A lawyer finds himself in far over his head when he attempts to get involved in drug trafficking.

Outlaws - For Greater Glory
2012
as Président Calles
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.

Safe House
2012
as Carlos Villar
A dangerous CIA renegade resurfaces after a decade on the run. When the safe house he's remanded to is attacked by mercenaries, a rookie operative esc...
¡Sonó, Sonó… Tite Curet!
2011
Homage to Puerto Rican composer Catalino Curet Alonso, or as his friends and fans call him, "Tite", representing how widely influential the composer r...

The Next Season
2011
as Benito
Emotionally battered by the paternal relationship with her husband, Eva is a young immigrant photographer, a misfit who strives to find the perfect li...
Rubén Blades: Todos Vuelven Live, Vol. 2
2011
Celebrated actor, political activist, songwriter, and multiple Grammy Award winning performer Rubén Blades returned to the stage with the live tour "T...
Rubén Blades: Todos Vuelven Live, Vol. 1
2011
Celebrated actor, political activist, songwriter, and multiple Grammy Award winning performer Rubén Blades returned to the stage with the live tour "T...

Spoken Word
2009
as Cruz-Sr.
A San Francisco spoken word artist returns to New Mexico to be with his dying father, only to find he loses his "voice" as he is sucked back in to the...
La clave
2008
Musical documentary film about the similarities between two types of music genres known as Salsa and Reggaeton. The clave is the five-note two-bar rhy...

Lo mejor de nuestra música popular: 15 años de éxitos
2007
as Self
The film includes highlights of the Banco Popular's music specials, whose production started in 1993.

The Hunters and the Hunted: The Making of 'Predator 2'
2005
as Self (archive footage)
The Hunters and the Hunted: The Making of Predator 2 is a 2005 documentary that details the production of the 1990 film Predator 2. Created for the Pr...

En mi país
2004
as Rubén Blades
The illusion and joy of Christmas arrives from the four cardinal points of Latin America. The film recreates a typical Christmas party with Puerto Ric...

Secuestro Express
2004
as Carla's Father
Young couple Carla and Martin are abducted by three men and spend a terrifying night in Caracas as they wait for Carla's father to hand over the ranso...

Spin
2003
as Ernesto
"Spin" tells the story of a boy who loses his parents in a plane crash, is taken in by his uncle (Tucci), who then leaves him for ten years in the car...

Imagining Argentina
2003
as Silvio Ayala
Set during the unsettling disappearances in Buenos Aires during the dictatorship of the 1970s, the film involves theater director Carlos Rueda and his...

Once Upon a Time in Mexico
2003
as Jorge, Retired FBI Agent
A corrupt CIA agent Sands hires hitman El Mariachi to assassinate a Mexican general hired by a drug kingpin attempting a coup d'état of the President ...

Assassination Tango
2003
as Miguel
John J. is a seasoned hit man sent on a job to Argentina. When the General he's sent to kill delays his return to the country, John passes the time wi...

The Maldonado Miracle
2003
as Cruz
A story about a small, dying town in need of hope until one day a young boy gives them something to believe in.
Encuentro
2002
The social vision of the lives of three Hispanic singer-songwriters who enjoy the favor of Puerto Rican public and Latin America is presented: Rubén B...

Empire
2002
Original Music Composer
Big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. ...

All the Pretty Horses
2000
as Rocha
The year is 1949. A young Texan named John Grady finds himself without a home after his mother sells the ranch where he has spent his entire life. Lur...

Cradle Will Rock
1999
as Diego Rivera
A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.

Willie Colón & Rubén Blades - Live In Venezuela
1998
as Rubén Blades
Concert in Venezuela at the July 1998 under the AMNISTIA festival. Here Ruben forgets a part of the lyrics and the musicians, although they still play...
A Roll of the Dice: The Capeman on Broadway
1998
A made for TV documentary about the creation of Paul Simon and Derek Walcott's controversial and ultimately flop of a musical, "The Capeman". Explores...

Chinese Box
1997
as Jim
The story of Hong Kong, from New Year's Day to June 30th, 1997, when the British left their colony and turned it over to the People's Republic of Chin...
From Son to Salsa
1997
A testimony about Afro-Cuban popular music from its origins to the present day.

The Devil's Own
1997
as Edwin Diaz
Frankie McGuire, one of the IRA's deadliest assassins, draws an American family into the crossfire of terrorism. But when he is sent to the U.S. to bu...
Al compás de un sentimiento: la música de Pedro Flores
1996
The music of the Puerto Rican composer Pedro Flores which was televised on Dec. 8, 1996.

Scorpion Spring
1996
as Border Patrolman Sam Zaragosa
On the run from the law, desperate drug runner Astor and his beautiful prisoner struggle through the savage heat...

Somos un solo pueblo
1995
as Self
Presents a bit of the history of the migration of our people, people who came out opening new horizons and looking for new destinations. During that a...

Color of Night
1994
as Hector
A color-blind psychiatrist is stalked by an unknown killer after taking over his murdered friend's therapy group and becomes embroiled in an intense a...

A Million to Juan
1994
as Bartender
Romantic comedy about an honest Mexican immigrant who struggles without a green card by selling oranges on a street corner. One day a limousine pulls ...

Miracle on Interstate 880
1993
as Pastor Beruman
A man attempts to rescue people trapped on the I-880 bridge after the top half collapses during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.

The Super
1991
as Marlon
Louie Kritski is a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge giv...
Rabbit Ears - Joseph and His Brothers
1991
as Narrator (voice)
This is the touching story of Joseph, who is sold into slavery by his brothers yet later forgives their betrayal by saving them from famine. The mesme...

Crazy From the Heart
1991
as Ernesto Ontiveros
A small-town, high-school principal still living at home with her mother shakes up her life in a way that even she never expected when she agrees to g...

One Man’s War
1991
as Perrone
Anthony Hopkins plays an English medical doctor living with his family in Paraguay and treating the poor people from the surroundings, who has his lif...

The Josephine Baker Story
1991
as Count Giuseppe Pepito Abatino
Biography of the African-American who became a major performer in the Paris cabarets of the 1920s and 1930s. The film follows her life beginning as a ...

Predator 2
1990
as Danny Archuleta
A police chief in the war-torn streets of Los Angeles discovers that an extraterrestrial creature is hunting down residents - and that he is the next ...

The Two Jakes
1990
as Mickey Nice
Real estate developer Jake Berman hires private investigator and war veteran Jake Gittes for some run-of-the-mill matrimonial work. After Berman shoot...

Mo' Better Blues
1990
as Petey
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he ...

Q & A
1990
Original Music Composer
A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who...
The Heart of the Deal
1990
Short film directed by Marina Levikova and Yuri Neyman.

The Lemon Sisters
1989
as C.W.
Three life-long friends work the bars in 1980s Atlantic City performing the songs of the 1960s girl groups.

Disorganized Crime
1989
as Carlos Barrios
Lou Diamond Phillips and Fred Gwynne team up with a gang of professional criminals who have everything it takes to rob a bank. The only things they do...

Dead Man Out
1989
as Ben
A psychiatrist is sent to evaluate if a convicted multiple murderer who's awaiting execution on Death Row for eighth year now and whose behavior durin...

Oliver & Company
1988
Songs
A young cat named Oliver is left alone in a kitten box, while all the other young cats have new owners. A big dog named Dodger shows him how to get fo...

The Story of Fausta
1988
Music
An unhappily married cleaning woman in the slums of Rio entices all the money and gifts she can out of an elderly widower.

Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair
1988
Music
Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair is the third feature-length documentary produced by the Empowerment Project. The shadow government of assassins...

Homeboy
1988
as Doctor
Johnny Walker is a cowboy and a boxer. He is very shy and a bit of a fool. He is in love with Ruby, but he cannot tell her. He is also a bit old to ke...

The Milagro Beanfield War
1988
as Sheriff Bernabe Montoya
The accidental breakdown of an irrigation valve launches a hot confrontation between the mainly Latino farmers in a tiny New Mexico town and the real ...

Fatal Beauty
1987
as Carl Jimenez
Detective Rita Rizzoli is accustomed to donning costumes and going undercover to nail crooks. But she'll be required to use all of her get-ups and mor...

Critical Condition
1987
as Louis
Eddie is a con artist. When he's framed and comes before a judge, he hopes to get off the hook by climbing insanity—but instead ends up in a hospital ...

The Return of Rubén Blades
1985
as himself
Robert Mugge's 1986 film provides a full-blooded portrait of the Latino singer, actor, bandleader, and composer. Blades' Panama homeland, his Harvard ...
Crossover Dreams
1985
as Rudy Veloz
Salsa singer screws over everybody on his way to the top; when his latest record flops, his career starts doing downhill.
The Making of Sun City
1985
as Self
Documentary Chronicling the making of Artists United Against Apartheid “Sun City”

Por los Caminos Verdes
1984
Music
In the city of gold as they call it, Palenque, Jean, Rose and Machete find themselves immersed in a marginal world trying to survive with the opportun...

Peter Knife
1984
Songs
Based on the international hit song, Pedro Navaja (Peter the Knife) is the story of the coolest, street smart hustler ever to walk the streets of Mexi...

When the Mountains Tremble
1983
Original Music Composer
A documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with first hand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menc...

The Last Fight
1983
as Andy "Kid" Clave
Singer-turned-boxer Andy 'Kid' Clave signs a contract with a shady promoter Joaquin Vargas. But Clave turns against Vargas when the promoter's thugs k...
Ligia Elena
1983
Music
An upper middle class white young girl leaves her suburban family in shock when she moves in with her lover, an Afro-Latino trumpeter.

Beats of the Heart: Salsa
1979
as Self
'Salsa' captures a unique moment in time for this most exuberant and socially dynamic music.