Some Latina Actresses who paved the way.....
by latinofilmindustry | created - 03 Mar 2015 | updated - 03 Mar 2015 | PublicThese Latina Actresses are the Global Matriarchs of Latino film. As mentors to the Latino Film Industry, they fought through stereotypes, dirscrimination, and segregated film type casting. If it were not for these pioneers, Latinas would not have the position in film that they do.
1. Katy Jurado
Actress | High Noon
Katy Jurado was born María Cristina Estela Jurado García into a wealthy family on January 16, 1924. Her early years were spent amid luxury until her family's lands were confiscated by the federal government for redistribution to the landless peasantry. Despite the loss of property, the matriarch of...
2. Anita Page
Actress | The Broadway Melody
Beautiful Anita Page was one of the most famous and popular leading ladies during the last years of the silent screen and the first years of the talkie era. She was best known for starring in The Broadway Melody (1929), the first sound film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Her leading men...
3. Elena Sánchez Valenzuela
Actress | Santa
Elena Sánchez Valenzuela was born on March 2, 1900 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Santa (1918), En la hacienda (1922) and Barranca trágica (1917). She died on September 30, 1950 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.
Elena Sánchez Valenzuela was born on March 2, 1900 in Mexico. She was an actress, known for Santa (1918), En la hacienda (1922) and Barranca trágica (1917). She died on September 30, 1950. See full bio » Born: March 2, 1900 in Mexico Died: September 30, 1950 (age 50) https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-elena-sanchez-valenzuela/
4. Lupe Velez
Actress | The Girl from Mexico
Lupe Velez was born on July 18, 1908, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, as Maria Guadalupe Villalobos Velez. She was sent to Texas at the age of 13 to live in a convent. She later admitted that she wasn't much of a student because she was so rambunctious. She had planned to become a champion roller ...
5. Dolores Del Río
Actress | Las abandonadas
Dolores del Rio was the one of the first Mexican movie stars with international appeal and who had meteoric career in the 1920s/1930s Hollywood. Del Rio came from an aristocratic family in Durango. In the Mexican revolution of 1916, however, the family lost everything and emigrated to Mexico City, ...
6. Carmen Miranda
Soundtrack | Greenwich Village
Carmen Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha on February 9, 1909, near Porto, Portugal, in the town of Marco de Canavezes. Not long after her birth her family moved to Brazil, where her father was involved in the produce business. The family settled in the then-capital city of Rio de ...
7. Rita Hayworth
Actress | Gilda
Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of dancers. Her father, Eduardo Cansino Reina, was a dancer as was his father before him. He emigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita's American mother, Volga Margaret (Hayworth), who was of mostly ...
8. Linda Darnell
Actress | Fallen Angel
Linda Darnell, one of five children of a postal clerk, grew up fast. At 11, she was modeling clothes, giving her age as 16. At 13, she was appearing on the stage with little theater groups. Her mother encouraged her to audition when Hollywood talent scouts came to Dallas. She went to California and...
9. Sara Montiel
Actress | La violetera
Sara Montiel was born in the village of Campo de Criptana, province of Ciudad Real, in the region of Castille-La Mancha, Spain. Her parents were Isidoro Abad, a peasant, and Maria Vicenta Fernández, a door-to-door beautician. The future star was christened Maria Antonia Alejandra Abad Fernández. ...
10. María Félix
Actress | Enamorada
Doubtlessly the most famous Mexican movie star, María Félix created a larger-than-life character: herself. La Doña, as the star was known after the character of her 1943 movie Doña Bárbara, starred in 47 movies, most of them forgettable except for her presence in them. More a star than an actress, ...
María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña (Spanish: [maˈɾia ˈfeliks]; 8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was a Mexican film actress. She is considered one of the most important female figures of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She was also considered one of the most beautiful film actresses of her time, and one of the greatest erotic myths of Spanish-language cinema. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she is one of the most important figures of Latin American cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. She is known by the nickname La Doña a name derived from her character in the film Doña Bárbara (1943). She is also known as María Bonita, thanks to the anthem composed exclusively for her, as a wedding gift by the composer Agustín Lara. She completed a film career that included 47 films made in Mexico, Spain, France, Italy and Argentina. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_F%C3%A9lix
11. Susan Kohner
Actress | Imitation of Life
Susan Kohner was born on November 11, 1936 in Los Angeles, California. Her Mexican mother was actress Lupita Tovar, a successful performer from the 1930s and it was only natural that for Susan to gravitate toward acting. Her first role was in To Hell and Back (1955) in 1955. One more film in 1956 ...
First Hispanic-American to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress
12. Rita Moreno
Actress | West Side Story
Rita Moreno is one of the very few performers to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy, thus becoming an EGOT. She was born Rosita Dolores Alverío in the hospital in Humacao, Puerto Rico on December 11, 1931 (but raised in nearby, smaller Juncos, which had no hospital), to seamstress Rosa ...
First Hispanic-American to win an Academy Award-Best Supporting Actress-West Side Story
13. Raquel Welch
Actress | The Three Musketeers
A new reigning 1960s international sex symbol took to the cinematic throne as soon as Raquel Welch emerged from the sea in her purposely depleted, furry prehistoric bikini. Tantalizingly wet with her garb clinging to all the right amazonian places, One Million Years B.C. (1966), if nothing else, ...
14. Lina Romay
Actress | La comtesse noire
Stunningly comely and slinky brunette Lina Romay rates highly as one of the boldest, most sensuous, and enticing actresses to have appeared with tremendous frequency in a large volume of European horror and exploitation features made from the early 1970s to the early 21st century.
Romay was born ...
15. Shelley Morrison
Actress | Will & Grace
Despite remaining on the periphery of character stardom for a number of years, New York-born character actress Shelley Morrison, who enjoyed a long and varied career on film, TV and the stage for decades, finally became a household favorite as the argumentative, razor-tongued maid Rosario Salazar ...
16. Fernanda Montenegro
Actress | Central do Brasil
Arlette Pinheiro Esteves da Silva was born on 16th October 1929 in Rio de Janeiro. She adopted the name "Fernanda" because she thought it sounded good. "Montenegro" came after her family doctor.
In late 40s she was translating and adapting famous theater plays to radio. She begun her artistic life ...
17. Lynda Carter
Actress | Wonder Woman
Lynda Jean Cordova Carter is an American actress, singer, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss World USA 1972 and finished in the top 15 at the Miss World 1972 pageant. Carter is best known as the star of the live-action television series Wonder Woman, in the role of Diana Prince / ...
Best known for her role in "Wonder Woman," Carter was born in Phoenix, Arizona, the daughter of Juanita (née Córdova) and Colby Carter.Her Mormon father had English and Scots-Irish ancestry, and her mother was of Spanish and Mexican descent. Carter made her public television debut on Lew King's Talent Show at age 5. During high school, Carter performed in a band called Just Us, consisting of a marimba, a conga drum, an acoustic guitar, and a stand-up bass played by another girl.
18. Norma Aleandro
Actress | La historia oficial
Norma Aleandro is the Grande Dame of Argentine theater and cinema not only because she was not content to have trodden the stage as early as the the age of nine, she is still active in theater and cinema in 2011. Her last film to date, Daniel Burman's La suerte en tus manos (2012) is in ...
19. Lupe Ontiveros
Actress | As Good as It Gets
Lupe Ontiveros was born on September 17, 1942 in El Paso, Texas, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for As Good as It Gets (1997), Selena (1997) and Chuck & Buck (2000). She was married to Elias P. Ontiveros. She died on July 26, 2012 in Whittier, California, USA.
Lupe Ontiveros was born on September 17, 1942 in El Paso, Texas, USA as Guadalupe Moreno. She is known for her work on As Good as It Gets (1997), The Goonies (1985) and Real Women Have Curves (2002). She was married to Elias Ontiveros. She died on July 26, 2012 in Whittier, California, USA.
20. Elizabeth Peña
Actress | Rush Hour
As she inherited her love for the arts by her father, well-known playwright, actor, director and novelist Mario Peña, it is not hard to understand that actress Elizabeth Pena already had designs to become an actress by the time she was eight years old.
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on September 23, ...
21. Maria Conchita Alonso
Actress | The Running Man
Maria Conchita Alonso was born Maria Concepcion Alonso Bustillo on June 29, 1957 in Cienfuegos, Cuba, but raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She was crowned Miss Teenager World in 1971 and later as Miss Distrito Federal became the first runner up in the Miss Venezuela 1975 competition placing later that...
22. Salma Hayek
Actress | Frida
Salma Hayek was born on September 2, 1966 in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. Her father is of Lebanese descent and her mother is of Mexican/Spanish ancestry. After having seen Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) in a local movie theater, she decided she wanted to become an actress. At age 12, she...
First and only Hispanic-American to be nominated for Best Actress-Frida
23. Joanna Kerns
Actress | Girl, Interrupted
Joanna Kerns was born on February 12, 1953 in San Francisco, California, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Girl, Interrupted (1999), Knocked Up (2007) and Growing Pains (1985). She has been married to Marc Appleton since September 30, 1994. She was previously married to Richard M. ...
Joanna Kerns was born on February 12, 1953 in San Francisco, California, USA as Joanne Crussie DeVarona. She is an actress and director, known for Growing Pains (1985), Knocked Up (2007) and Girl, Interrupted (1999). She has been married to Marc Appleton since September 30, 1994. She was previously married to Richard Kerns. Born: Joanne Crussie DeVarona February 12, 1953 in San Francisco, California, USA
24. Elpidia Carrillo
Actress | Predator
Elpidia Carrillo was born on August 16, 1961 in Paracuaro, Michoacan, Mexico. She is an actress and producer, known for Predator (1987), Salvador (1986) and Nine Lives (2005).
25. Constance Marie
Actress | George Lopez
Best known for her long-time run on the ABC comedy, "George Lopez," Constance Marie stars next in the upcoming Latinx romantic comedy series, "With Love." Created and written by Gloria Calderon Kellett ("One Day at a Time"), the five hourlong episodes, each of which are set during a different ...
26. Jenny Gago
Actress | Bound by Honor
Jenny Gago is one of Hollywood's most versatile and respected Latina actresses. Her powerful portrayal of the matriarch Maria Sanchez in Gregory Nava's hit film, My Family/Mi familia (1995), was a critically acclaimed contribution to what she describes as "an honorable and poignant script."
Gago has...
27. Jennifer Lopez
Producer | Hustlers
Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1969 in The Bronx, New York City, New York to teacher Lupe López and computer specialist David López. The two Puerto Ricans were brought to the continental United States during their childhoods and eventually met while living in New York City. Their ...
28. Dyana Ortelli
Actress | Three Amigos!
Dyana Ortelli was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. She is an actress, known for Three Amigos! (1986), American Me (1992) and La Bamba (1987).
Dyana Ortelli was born on May 1, 1961 in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico as Dyana Elizondo. She is known for her work on American Me (1992), ¡Three Amigos! (1986) and La Bamba (1987).
29. Evelina Fernández
Actress | Flatliners
Fernández is an award-winning actor and writer. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, she attended Garfield High School, East L.A. College and Cal State University, Los Angeles, While at Cal State, she found her niche in Chicano Theater. Fernandez starred in film roles with Edward James Olmos, Paul ...
30. Annayaz Lizarraga
Actress | The Grey Strip
Annayaz Lizarraga is known for The Grey Strip (2010).
31. Vira Montes
Actress | American Me
Vira Montes is known for American Me (1992), T.J. Hooker (1982) and That Summer in LA (2000).
32. Mercedes Ruehl
Actress | The Fisher King
Ruehl received her first Academy Award nomination and win for her performance as Anne Napolitano, the emotionally driven girlfriend to fallen radio personality, (played by Jeff Bridges), in Terry Gilliam's masterpiece, The Fisher King (1991). In addition to an Oscar, and a Golden Globe, Ruehl's ...
The first Cuban-American to win an Academy Award
33. Rosie Perez
Actress | White Men Can't Jump
Rosie Perez was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City, to Lydia Perez and Ismael Serrano, a merchant marine. She is of Puerto Rican descent. Rosie attended Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, and later enrolled at Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles, California. ...
Oscar Nominated-Best Supporting Actress-Fearless
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