Míriam Colón Valle (néeColón y Quiles; August 20, 1936[2] – March 3, 2017) was aPuerto Rican actress. She was the founder and director of New York City'sPuerto Rican Traveling Theater. Beginning her career in the early 1950s, she performed onBroadway and on television. She appeared in several Hollywood films includingThe Appaloosa,The Possession of Joel Delaney,Backroads,Gloria andLone Star andOne-Eyed Jacks.[3]
Colon appeared on television programs from the 1960s to the 2010s, includingSanford and Son andGunsmoke. She is best known as "Mama Montana", the mother ofAl Pacino's title character inScarface.[3] In 2014, she received theNational Medal of Arts from PresidentBarack Obama.[4] In 1993, Colón received the Obie award for her theatre career, she also received several ACE awards.[3] She died of complications from apulmonary infection on March 3, 2017.
Míriam (or Mírian) Colón y Quiles was born inPonce, Puerto Rico[5] to Teodoro Colón De Jesus and Josefa Quiles Burgos, a seamstress. In the 1940s, her parents divorced, and her mother moved the family to a public housing project calledResidencial Las Casas inSan Juan. She was an admirer of accomplished Puerto Rican actorJosé Ferrer.[6]
Colón attendedRomán Baldorioty de Castro High School inOld San Juan, where she took part in plays.[5] She discovered her interest in theater while performing in a school rendition ofLa Azotea at the age of 15.[7] Her first drama teacher, Marcos Colón (no relation) believed in her talent, and helped her gain permission to observe the students in the drama department of theUniversity of Puerto Rico (UPR).[3] She was a good student in high school and was awarded scholarships to theDramatic Workshop and Technical Institute andLee Strasberg'sActors Studio inNew York City.[8] In New York, she befriendedDean Zayas, another young Puerto Rican actor and future director.[9]
Colón travelled to New York at the age of 18 along her mother. There she met a Puerto Rican director named Roberto Rodríguez Suárez, who gave him a script for an adaptation of René Márquez'sLa Carreta.[6] The play debuted in a local church, with the author in attendance.[6]
In New York, she worked in theater and later landed a role on thesoap operaGuiding Light. She attended a performance ofRené Marqués'La Carreta (The Oxcart). She was inspired to form the firstHispanic theater group, with the help of La Carreta's producer, Roberto Rodrígue. It was called "El Nuevo Círculo Dramatico".[13]
In 1962, she was featured as the co-star in a teleplay written by Frank Gabrielsen, and produced for the TV seriesThe DuPont Show of the Week. The title of the hour-long episode is "The Richest Man in Bogota", airing on June 17, 1962.[15] It starredLee Marvin as Juan de Núñez, and Miriam Colón as "Marina".(Her character was called Medina-Saroté in the original H.G. Wells story,The Country of the Blind).
She co-starred as Anita Chavez in the filmThunder Island (1963). That year she also guest starred onGunsmoke, playing aComanche woman who marries a white settler. The pair must deal with discrimination and the racial hatred of others in this episode, entitled “Shona” (S8E22). In 1966, Colón sponsored a translation ofLa Carreta along then-husband George P. Edgar.[7] A young Raúl Juliá attendee the auditions, later starring along Lucy Boscana in the play directed by Lloyd Richards.[7]
Colón has appeared in Puerto Rican productions, including the mini-seriesEl Callejón de los Cuernos.[3] In 1979, she starred alongside fellow Puerto Rican actorsJosé Ferrer,Raúl Juliá, andHenry Darrow inLife of Sin.[3] She portrayedIsabel la Negra, an historic Puerto Rican brothel owner. In 1983, she was cast as the mother of Tony Montana inScarface. Colón has said that she based her performance on her own mother.[16] She was cast as María in the 1999 filmGloria, starringSharon Stone.
She continued to perform on stage and appeared in several plays includingLas Troyanas,La Casa de Bernarda Alba andFloating Alba.[6] Her television career continued with apearances inDr. Kildare,LA Law andNYPD Blue.[6]
In 2013, she was cast in the role of Ultima, a New Mexico Hispanic healer, in the movieBless Me, Ultima, based on the novel byRudolfo Anaya.[17] She appeared in Season 1 of the TV seriesBetter Call Saul in 2015, as Abuelita.
In the late 1960s, Colón founded The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater company onWest 47th street inManhattan, New York. The company presentsOff-Broadway productions onsite and also goes on tour. During her tenure, PRTT focused on Puerto Rican plays.[7] She was the director of the company and she appeared in the following PRTT productions:[18]
The playThe Ox Cart (La Carreta), written by Puerto Rican dramatistRené Marqués, was first produced in 1953. It was directed by Roberto Rodríguez and starred Colón. The success of the play allowed Rodríguez and Colón to form the first permanent Hispanic theatrical group, and for the group to have its own space, Teatro Arena, located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 43rd and 44th street.[21]
In 1993, Colón received anObie Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater. In 2000, she received the HOLARaúl Juliá Founders Award, presented by theHispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA). Colón's biography,Míriam Colón: Actor and Theater Founder, was written by Mayra Fernandez in 1994. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Colón the National Medal of Arts for her contributions as an actress. The citation reads as follows: "Ms. Colón has been a trailblazer in film, television, and theater, and helped open doors for generations of Hispanic actors."[4]
Colón was married to George Paul Edgar from 1966 until his death in 1976.[16] In 1987, she married actor and physician Freddy Valle, with whom he continued living at New York.[6]
She was an avid collector of ancestral arts including pre-Columbian, tribal African, historic Native American, and other tribal art. She collected Mid-East artifacts, abstract paintings, and modern sculpture. A Pablo Picasso sketch she owned, she signed with a crayon, and it was auctioned for $6500 on June 16, 2019. At her death, she owned at least six signed movie posters of Al Pacino'sScarface and at least seven signedScarface soundtrack albums.[22]
Rivera, Miluka (2010).Legado Puertorriqueño en Hollywood: Famosos y Olvidados. Kumaras Center for the Arts and Etiquette.ISBN9780578069937.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
Colón's debut in "Los Peloteros" onYouTube
