In 1903 he worked at the Court of Accounts (Tribunal de Cuentas), but decided to give up working as a civil servant and that same year he made his stage debut at the Teatro Apolo in Madrid in the play El iluso Cañizares, changing the spelling of his real name from Y to I.

During the silent era he worked in theatre with supporting roles in cinema, but with the advent of sound, he made a big screen comeback in the comedy directed by Florián Rey, La pura verdad in (1931).

(1931) directed by Manuel Romero (director), La bien pagada (1935) by Eusebio Fernández Ardavín or El bailarín y el trabajador (1935), directed by Luis Marquina and based on a play by Jacinto Benavente.

In the 1940s he gained great popularity in films such as Te quiero para mí (1944) and El testamento del virrey (1944), both directed by Ladislao Vajda; Ella, él y sus millones (1944) by Juan de Orduña; El fantasma y doña Juanita (1945) by Rafael Gil and Pacto de silencio (1949), by Antonio Román.

The films he is most remembered for are from the 1950s and 1960s, in classics directed by Luis García Berlanga: Welcome Mr. Marshall!