Manolete [key], 1917–47, Spanish matador, b. Córdoba. Christened Manuel Rodríguez y Sánchez, he was the son and grandson of matadors, who both also had the nickname Manolete. In 1939 at Seville he received his alternativa (i.e., became a full-fledged matador), which was confirmed at Madrid the same year. For eight years (1940–47) he was the top matador in the world, rivaled only by Pepe Luis Vásquez and Domingo Ortega at the beginning and by Carlos Arruza and Dominguín at the end. Manolete was fatally gored in a corrida at Linares, Spain, on Aug. 28, 1947.
See his autobiography, My Life as a Matador (tr. by B. Conrad, 1956); B. Conrad, The Death of Manolete (1958).
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