Carlos Sánchez, a TV commercial icon as Juan Valdez, dies at 83

The New York Times

The Colombian-born Sánchez was the second actor to play the role in TV commercials for Juan Valdez coffee. For four decades, starting in 1969, he became one of the most recognizable pitchmen in the world. “I presented the image of the Colombian coffee grower, an honest man, hard-working, traditional,” Sánchez told The New York Times in 2001. “Juan Valdez would get up early, pick coffee, and what happened in time is the character became mythologized.”