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María Montez was the country’s first star to set foot on Hollywood lands. (Photo: EFE).
María Montez (1912-1951) is one of the first Latin American stars of the “golden years” of Hollywood, and whose birth is 110 years old this Monday, June 6.
The actress, baptized as María África Gracia Vidal, saw light on June 6, 1912 in the province of Barahona, in the Dominican southwest), there forged her character and her imposing figure, and there she was. she is still alive after 110 years of birth.
Maria Montez was born to shine. He flew to New York on July 3, 1939 with one purpose: to become a star. And it didn’t take long in achieving it. Life smiled at her, literally, in a matter of hours, and a few years later the Dominican was already considered one of the main Hispanic figures of the seventh art. < /p>
You are the girl I want for my projects!,American talent scout Budy Da Silva told her when he saw her dance a contagious rumba. from there her life changed, although her consolidation as a movie star came to an end. with the movie “Arabian Nights” (1942), directed by John Rawlins.
After this success, the actress acted in a series of films shot in technicolor and with an adventurous cut such as “The Thousand and One Nights”; (1942), “The White Savage” (1943), “The Cobra Queen” (1944) and “Sudan” (1945), among others.
The filmography of María Montez, the first Dominican star to set foot on Hollywood land, it is Composed of 26 films -21 American and 5 European-, but her professional career also includes the play “L’Ille Heuresse” (The Happy Island), successfully presented in Paris, where death surprised him. on September 7, 1951, apparently, from a heart attack while he was bathing.
But, without a doubt, points out his biographer, Margarita Vicens de Morales , also a native of Barahona, one of the most valuable legacies of María Montez, after her physical disappearance, is the fact that she has paved the way for many other Latin stars.
María Montez, describes her biographer, who did not know her, “had an exotic beauty, whose attributes included a “slightly golden” which harmonized very well with Technicolor, was particularly photogenic”.
The Dominican actress was one of the first Latin American stars of the “golden years” of Hollywood, although she remains a true unknown to many of her compatriots.
The interpreter, whose real name was María África Gracia Vidal, died after her death. 70 years ago in Paris, apparently from a heart attack when she was taking a hot bath.
Although Montez, who was born On June 6, 1912 in the province of Barahona (Dominican southwest), he was the first star in the country to set foot on Hollywood lands. Many of his compatriots have never heard his name mentioned, much less the title of some of his films. 26 films.
María Montez
Montez, the daughter of a Spanish diplomat and a Dominican, in 1943 with the French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, with whom she had children. to Tina, who followed the footsteps of her parents.
Tina , like her mother, died & oacute; alone in her house, at the age of 40, victim of a pulmonary embolism.
In 2007, the Dominican president, Leonel Fernández, recognized posthumously awarded the actress with the “Medal of Merit” granted by the Government on the occasion of “International Women’s Day”. n, the air terminal of his hometown was inaugurated on April 27, 1996 by the late ruler Joaquín Balaguer as ‘María Montez International Airport.
In 1943, when she was filming ‘Gypsy Wildcat’, the Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo decorated her with the Order of Juan Pablo Duarte in the Degree of Officer and the Order of Trujillo in the same degree.
Despite all these distinctions and recognitions, María Montez continues to be unknown in the land of her Maybe this is the occasion to bring ‘The Queen of Technicolor’ out of oblivion.