“We want to share the news that our mother, our example, has passed away. She left in peace, without suffering, surrounded by the love of her loved ones,” Carlos, Monica and Javier said in a note posted to Carlos’s website on Twitter Saturday night.

The actress died after failing to overcome a “respiratory crisis” and was hospitalized for several days in a clinic, reports Efe. The Spanish woman had had severe respiratory problems since 2013.

Born in Seville in 1939, Pilar Bardem is the daughter of two actors and the sister of well-known director Juan Antonio Bardem. The artistic pedigree did not stop there, and his three sons devoted themselves to acting, achieving, in Javier’s case, international fame with an Oscar for his role in the Coen brothers’ “Este País É Para Velhos.”

With dozens of films, plays and series, Pilar had a solid career in Spain, winning the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress for Agustín Díaz Yanes’ Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto, in 1995. She won the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘María querida’. José Luis Garcia Sanchez in 2004.

With strong progressive convictions, his activist face was also well known, both in solidarity issues and in improving conditions in the Actors Guild.

“She leaves us with her tremendous legacy in cinema, theater and television. But the great Pilar Bardem was, above all, a defender of equality, freedom and the rights of all,” noted the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, on social networks. Demonstrations of affection for the actress followed each other throughout the night, coming from all areas of culture, especially from Spanish cinema.

Pilar Bardem was also the mother-in-law of Penelope Cruz, the wife of Javier Bardem.