“Last Romantic” Bullfighter Rodolfo “El Pana” Rodriguez Dies

Rodolfo Rodriguez, the famous cigar-chomping Mexican bullfighter, has died of a heart attack at a hospital in the western city of Guadalajara. He was 64.

One month ago, Rodriguez, who was nicknamed, “El Pana,” was violently gored by a pair of bulls during a corrida. The goring left him a quadriplegic.

The matador, who had been hospitalized since then, died of a “sudden heart attack” late Thursday at a hospital in the western city of Guadalajara, Luis Quintero, an official at the National Bullfighters Association, told AFP. After a first goring, Rodriguez was lifted in the air by a second bull and the aging bullfighter fell violently face first to the ground. Rodriguez became a bullfighter at a relatively late age, 28, and turned into a larger-than-life figure who famously fought some bulls with a cigar in his mouth. In 2007, during his last appearance at Plaza Mexico, the world’s largest bullring, he made a toast directed at the prostitutes who gave him comfort during moments of solitude. h/t france24

Bullfighting experts dubbed him the “last romantic” among Mexican matadors.