Horacio Olivo was born in 1933, in Dorado, Puerto Rico and died on July 24, 2016.
He was a Puerto Rican actor, comedian, and television/radio personality, as well as a classically trained singer.
Olivo started out in show business in 1949 at long defunct WNEL as a radio soap opera actor.
Olivo graduated from the Instituto Comercial de Puerto Rico, and studied for 3 years at the Puerto Rico Music Conservatory.
Horacio Olivo in various Festival Casals concerts as a tenor in the chorus section.
He has also acted in various plays during the Puerto Rican and International Theatre Festivals, was the station announcer for all the WIPR stations (WIPR, WIPR-FM, and WIPR-TV), and acted in comedy TV shows like Como está la situación, and Esto no tiene nombre, produced by Tommy Muñiz.
He was perhaps better known as the booming voice behind Los Rayos Gamma.
One of the Rayos Gamma’s better-known parodies was Olivo’s hugely popular antagonistic ode to the U.S. Navy, based on Agustín Lara’s song “Granada”.
Reportedly, he was fired from his WIPR post because of his political beliefs (his was the official voice of the Puerto Rico Independence Party’s radio spots), and for a while, he owned a fried chicken establishment in his hometown of Dorado.
Horacio Olivo had been partially retired from public life because of health-related issues: he had open heart surgery in October 2011.
Olivo nominally remained a part of Los Rayos Gamma, who filmed a comedy interview with him for their latest show in November 2011.
But, he suffered a cardiac incident on November 22, 2011.
He died at San Juan’s Pavía Hospital where he was interned since July 20 with various health complications, on July 24, 2016.
He had eight siblings, of which Horacio was the oldest.
And the 5th sibling, Johnny Olivo, founded and headed Puerto Rico’s plena collective, Los Pleneros del Quinto Olivo.
Horacio Olivo passed away at 83 years old.