Álvarez began his artistic career as a radio announcer, working for radio station WIAC, which was broadcasting out of Yauco and Bayamón. On October 31, 1950, Álvarez was among a group of reporters who covered the gunfight at
Salón Boricua between
Vidal Santiago Díaz, a Nationalist who was the personal barber of
Pedro Albizu Campos, and forty police and National Guardsmen during the
San Juan Nationalist revolt. This event made Puerto Rican radio history because it was the first time that an event of this nature was transmitted live via the radio airwaves to the public in general. He later participated on the radio show
El Tremendo Hotel (The Tremendous Hotel), starring
Ramón Rivero "Diplo", and later Álvarez was contracted to do radionovelas (radio
soap operas). Alvarez appeared in 1970's
Un amante anda suelto. The Puerto Rican
playwright Francisco Arriví invited Álvarez to appear in three of his plays. The three plays in which Álvarez made his theatrical debut were
Club de Solteros (Bachelors Club),
El Caso del Muerto en Vida (The Case of the Living Dead), and
María Soledad (Lonely Maria). On one occasion Álvarez was asked to stand in for
Jacobo Morales in the theater production of
El Cielo se rinde al Amanecer (The Sky Surrenders at Dawn) because Morales was feeling ill and he had to learn the script that very night. He acted alongside
Juano Hernández in the play "Widows Walk" which was presented at the
University of Puerto Rico Theater. Álvarez's popularity grew and soon he was filming movies in various countries. Among the countries in which he filmed besides Puerto Rico were
Spain,
Mexico,
Venezuela,
Colombia, the
Dominican Republic, and the
United States. In 1965, he was given one of the leading roles in the Mexican film, "El Señor Doctor" (Mr. Doctor), with
Cantinflas and
Marta Romero. After he returned to Puerto Rico he participated in a comedy entitled
Johnny "El Men" (
Johnny the Man), which was about the struggles of a Puerto Rican in
New York City. It was from this comedy that Álvarez took the nickname "El Men", a name which would accompany him for the rest of his life. ==Filmography==