Cepillín, a Clown Beloved Across Latin America, Is Dead at 75

MEXICO CITY — Ricardo González Gutiérrez, the beloved Mexican clown known as Cepillín, who was watched by generations of children throughout Latin America, died on March 8 in Mexico City. He was 75.

The cause was cardiac arrest, said his son and fellow performer Ricardo González Guajardo, who added that his father had recently learned he had cancer.

Known for his cherry-red nose and his black painted beard, Cepillín mixed physical comedy with song, dance and ventriloquism in performances on television as well as in the circus ring. His falsetto voice filled homes across Mexico, particularly to the tune of his ever-popular version of the traditional Mexican birthday song, “Las Mañanitas.”

In a half-century career, Cepillín hosted TV shows broadcast from Mexico, sold millions of copies of his albums of children’s songs, and later drew millions of viewers to his videos on TikTok and YouTube. And he toured Mexico and the United States with circus companies, including his own and the Ringling Brothers, performing for everyone from drug cartel capos to former President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico.

a 2018 interview on Mexico’s Imagen Televisión. “I’m the one that worked the hardest, that worked the most.”

Mexico’s TV Azteca in an interview broadcast this month. “I was trampled.”

María Aydé Guajardo, he moved to Mexico City in 1977 and was hired by the national television channel Televisa to star in his own show. “El Show de Cepillín” ran for three years and was broadcast throughout Latin America.

That year he also recorded his first children’s album — one of more than a dozen he would make in his career, with themes ranging from disco to country music and always delivered in his trademark falsetto.

Cepillín went on to appear in shows on various local television stations in Mexico and toured internationally with circus companies, including his own, “El Circo de Cepillín.”

He performed in a stage version of “Aladdin” with the actress Salma Hayek years before she made it to Hollywood, and appeared in the 1979 film “Milagro en el Circo” (“Miracle at the Circus”), which featured the Mexican pop star Yuri.

Cepillín had three heart attacks, the first in 2005. His son Ricardo soon decided to take to the stage and created his own persona, Cepi, in homage to his father.