At age 18, Joaquin Pardavé followed in the footsteps of his parents. He began his acting career in the operetta Los sobrinos del capitán Grant, in the company of his uncle Carlos Pardavé, when he asked to meet an actor. Later he joined the company of Jose Campillo, where he met and teamed for 12 years, Roberto “Panzón” Soto. His first role in this company was in the operetta La banda de las trompetas (1920). Later he won fame in the Mexican Rataplan Journal (1925). He started his film career in the silent film era. Pardavé’s film debut was in Viaje redondo in 1919. He participated in other films such as El águila y el nopal (1929), Águilas frente al sol (1932), La zandunga (1937), La tía de las muchachas (1938), En tiempos de Don Porfirio (1939). Juan Bustillo Oro contracted Pardavé to co-star with Cantinflas in the comedy film Ahí está el detalle (1940). In the film, Pardavé portrays “Cayetano Lastre”, the rich and jealous husband of Sofía Álvarez’s character Dolores del Paso. The character is later entreated to believe that Cantinflas’ “pelado” character is his wife’s long-lost brother, the person whom Lastre was eagerly waiting for to reclaim his wife’s inheritance. Other co-stars in the film were Sara García and Dolores Camarillo. Ahí está el detalle was ranked thirty-seventh among the top 100 films of Mexican cinema. Later in the 1940 decade, Joaquín Pardavé worked in ¡Ay, qué tiempos señor don Simón! (1941) and Yo bailé con don Porfirio (1942). In 1942 he debuts as a film director with El baisano Jalil starring himself and Sara García as “Jalil and Suad Farad”, Lebanese entrepreneurs settled in Mexico. Film and theater actress Sara García would soon become Pardavé’s on-screen partner. Both starred in the films El barchante Neguib (1946) also as Lebanese-immigrants, El ropavejero (1947), and La familia Pérez (1949).

In 1925, Joaquín Pardavé met Soledad Rebollo, whom he married on October 26, 1925. Soledad became the love of his life and his inspiration for the songs “Plegaria”, “Bésame en la boca”, “Negra consentida”, and “Varita de Nardo”. On July 20, 1955, at three-o’clock in the morning, Joaquín Pardavé died victim of a heart stroke caused by stress of excess of work, he was participating in two films simultaneously and in the theatrical play, Un Minuto de Parada. After his death, a rumor started to circulate: that of Pardavé being buried alive. The actor’s niece María Elena Pardavé Robles confirmed that the rumor was a lie. She quoted “Joaquín Pardavé was not buried alive like many people believe. His remains have never been exhumed, not even when his wife died. She, my aunt, occupies a place in the same tomb, but my uncle’s remains were never exhumed… we insist that his coffin has never been opened. That is how we categorically deny the rumors that circulate”.