by Adán Canto, the Mexican actor known for his roles in television series such as “The Cleaning Lady” and “Designated Survivor,” as well as for playing Sunspot in the film “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” died on Monday. He was 42 years old.
His death was confirmed by his publicist, Jennifer Allen, who said the cause was appendix cancer. She did not say where she died.
In an acting career that lasted more than a decade, Canto played a variety of roles, including a raging criminal bent on control, a cool-headed politician, and a fiery comic book hero.
Mr. Canto said in a 2013 interview with Collider that he had always been fascinated by people, their psychology, what motivates them and trying to understand them.
In “The Cleaning Lady,” which premiered on Fox in 2022, Canto played gangster Arman Morales, who recruits a woman, played by Elodie Yung, into his criminal organization after she witnesses a murder. The show is entering its third season this year.
He also played politician Aaron Shore in “Designated Survivor,” an ABC political drama starring Kiefer Sutherland and Maggie Q. In 2014, Canto played the mutant Sunspot in “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” his first major role in a movie.
Mr. Canto was born on December 5, 1981 in Ciudad Acuña, a city in the state of Coahuila in northern Mexico. He said Anthem Magazine in 2022 that at the age of 7 he was an extra in the 1992 film adaptation of “Like Water for Chocolate,” in which scenes had been filmed in his hometown.
“I remember it vividly, just the experience of being on set and creating a world,” Canto told the magazine. “The costumes, the scenery, were something beautiful. But I never thought I would become part of that world.”
Canto also grew up in Del Río, Texas, near the US-Mexico border.
His career in entertainment officially began at age 16, when he decided to leave home to be a musician in Mexico City, where he sang in bars and produced songs for television.
There he also found work acting in commercials; After enough casting directors noticed his abilities, he was cast in the Mexican television series “Estado de Gracia” in 2009.
“Music, in Mexico, just wasn’t working,” Canto said in the interview with Collider. “So I dedicated myself to acting and fell in love with it. It was incredible! “It was a great safe place to blow off some steam.”
He met his wife, Stephanie Ann Canto, in Brooklyn in 2012. She survives him, as do their two children, Roman Alder, 3, and Eve Josephine, 1.
In 2013, Canto made his U.S. acting debut in “The Following,” a police series starring Kevin Bacon. He also appeared in “Narcos,” “Mixology” and “Blood and Oil.”
Canto also directed “The Shot,” a short film released in 2020 that won awards at the San Antonio Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Awards and the Iowa Independent Film Festival.
In his interview with Anthem magazine, Canto said that he had felt the need to express himself artistically through directing.
“I just imagined certain worlds and imagined them a certain way,” he said.
