Katy Jurado | |
|---|---|
 Jurado in 1953 | |
| Born | María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García (1924-01-16)16 January 1924 Mexico City,[1] Mexico |
| Died | 5 July 2002(2002-07-05) (aged 78) Cuernavaca, Mexico |
| Resting place | Panteón de la Paz, Cuernavaca, Mexico |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1943–2002 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Signature | |
 | |
María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García (16 January 1924 – 5 July 2002), known professionally asKaty Jurado (/dʒəˈrɑːdoʊ/jə-RAH-doh,Spanish:[ˈkatixuˈɾaðo]), was a Mexican actress.
She acted in popular Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. Her talent for playing a variety of characters helped pave the way for Mexican actresses in American cinema.[2] She was the first Latin American actress nominated for anOscar, as Best Supporting Actress for her work inBroken Lance (1954), and was the first to win aGolden Globe Award, for her performance inHigh Noon (1952).
María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, known from early childhood as "Katy", was born on 16 January 1924, inMexico City Mexico,[1][3][4] the daughter of Luis Jurado Ochoa, a lawyer, and Vicenta García, a singer. Jurado's younger brothers were Luis Raúl and Óscar Sergio.Her mother was a singer who worked for the Mexican radio stationXEW (the oldest radio station in Latin America). Her mother was sister of Mexican musician Belisario de Jesús García, author of popular Mexican songs such asLas Cuatro Milpas. Jurado's cousinEmilio Portes Gil was President of Mexico (1928–1930).[1]
Jurado lived her first years and studied at a school run by nuns in theGuadalupe Inn neighborhood of Mexico City. She later studied to be a bilingual secretary. She wanted to study law and become a lawyer.[1] Her singular beauty drew attention since she was a teenager, and she was invited to work as an actress by producers and filmmakers, among themEmilio Fernández (one of the most prominent Mexican filmmakers at that time) who offered her a role in his first movieThe Isle of Passion (1941). Although her godfather was Mexican actorPedro Armendáriz, her parents never gave their consent.[5]
Another filmmaker interested in her was Mauricio de la Serna who offered her a role in the filmNo matarás (1943).[6] She signed the contract without authorization from her parents, and when they found out, they threatened to send her to a boarding school inMonterrey. Around this time, she met the aspiring actor Víctor Velázquez and married him soon afterward. Her marriage was largely motivated by the desire to continue a career as an actress and to escape the yoke of her parents.[7] Velazquez was the father of her children, Victor Hugo and Sandra. The marriage ended in 1943, shortly after Jurado began her film career.
Jurado debuted as an actress in the Mexican filmNo matarás (1943). From that moment on, her acting talent, but above all her exotic beauty and sensual appeal, gave her the opportunity to work in numerous films. She specialized in playing wicked and seductive women.[2] Jurado said:
I knew that my body was provocative, but also that I was not beautiful, although yes, I admit, my physique was different and very sensual.[6]
She appeared in 16 more films over the next seven years in what film historians have named theGolden Age of Mexican cinema. She acted with acclaimed Mexican film stars such asPedro Infante,Sara Montiel,Pedro Armendáriz and others. In 1953, she starred inLuis Buñuel's filmEl Bruto, for which she received anAriel Award for Best Supporting Actress, Mexico's equivalent of anAcademy Award.[citation needed]
In addition to acting, Jurado worked as a movie columnist, radio reporter, and bullfight critic to support her family.[8] She was on assignment when filmmakerBudd Boetticher and actorJohn Wayne spotted her at a bullfight. Neither knew she was an actress. However, Boetticher, who was also a professional bullfighter, cast Jurado in his 1951 filmBullfighter and the Lady, oppositeGilbert Roland, as the wife of an aging matador. She was not interested in working in American films but accepted because the film would be shot in Mexico. She had rudimentary English language skills and memorized and delivered her lines phonetically. Despite this limitation, her strong performance brought her to the attention of Hollywood producerStanley Kramer, who cast her in the classic WesternHigh Noon (1952), starringGary Cooper andGrace Kelly. Jurado learned to speak English for the role, studying and taking classes two hours per day for two months. She played saloon owner Helen Ramírez, former love of reluctant hero Cooper's Will Kane. She earned aGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and gained notice in the American movie industry.[9]
From the success of the film, Jurado began working on numerous American films, most of them in theWestern genre. In 1953, she had a role inSan Antone, directed byJoseph Kane and oppositeRod Cameron. In the same year, she had a role inArrowhead withCharlton Heston andJack Palance, playing an evilComanche woman, the love interest of Heston's character.
In 1954, actressDolores del Río was accused of being a communist sympathizer at the height of theMcCarthy era, and the U.S. government refused permission for her to work in the filmBroken Lance, directed byEdward Dmytryk and where she was going to interpretSpencer Tracy's Comanche wife. Jurado was selected for the role despite the resistance of the studio because of her youth.[9] After viewing footage of her scenes, studio executives were impressed.[10] Her performance garnered anAcademy Award nomination. Jurado was the first Latin American actress to compete for the Oscar.[11]
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In the same year, Jurado appeared withKirk Douglas in theHenry Hathaway filmThe Racers. In 1955, Jurado filmedTrial, directed byMark Robson, withGlenn Ford. It was a drama about a Mexican boy accused of raping a white girl, with Jurado playing the mother of the accused. For this role, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.[12] In the same year, she traveled to Italy for the filming ofTrapeze, directed byCarol Reed, withBurt Lancaster andTony Curtis. On set, Jurado had severe friction with the film's other female star, actressGina Lollobrigida.[5]
Despite the fact that she always stated that acting in the theater did not please her, in 1956, Jurado debuted onBroadway in the playThe Best House in Naples (1956), byEduardo de Filippo.[13]
In 1956, she participated in the filmMan from Del Rio (1956), oppositeAnthony Quinn, one of the few Hollywood movies to have Mexican actors as main stars.[10] Later she acted in WesternsDragoon Wells Massacre (1957) withBarry Sullivan, andThe Badlanders (1958), withAlan Ladd andErnest Borgnine. In 1957, she debuted on television with a guest appearance in an episode ofPlayhouse 90. In 1959, she acted for the first time underSam Peckinpah's direction in an episode ofThe Rifleman. In 1962 she appeared as the historical characterLa Tules in an episode ofDeath Valley Days.[14]
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In 1959,Marlon Brando, with whom Jurado maintained a close friendship, invited her to participate inOne-Eyed Jacks, his first film as director. After marrying Ernest Borgnine, they founded their own production company called Sanvio Corp. The couple traveled to Italy where they partnered with the producerDino de Laurentiis inBarabbas (where both acted with Anthony Quinn) andI briganti Italiani, directed byMario Camerini.
In 1961, Jurado returned to Mexico and filmedLa Bandida (1963) where she shared credits with Pedro Armendáriz and the temperamental Mexican actressMaría Félix, with whom Jurado had friction on the set.[15] Her stormy marriage with Borgnine ended in 1963. Depressed, Jurado returned to Mexico and established her residence in the city of Cuernavaca; however, she decided to alternate her work with films between Mexico and the United States.In 1965, Jurado returned to Hollywood for the filmSmoky, directed byGeorge Sherman, starringFess Parker. In 1966, she played the mother ofGeorge Maharis's character inA Covenant with Death. In 1968, she appeared in the filmStay Away, Joe in the role of the half-Apache stepmother ofElvis Presley's character.[9]
In the next years, Jurado alternated her work between Hollywood and Mexico. In 1970, she filmedThe Bridge in the Jungle oppositeJohn Huston. In 1973, she appeared inPat Garrett and Billy the Kid, directed bySam Peckinpah.
Jurado received one of her better dramatic roles in the third of the three short stories comprising the Mexican filmFé, Esperanza y Caridad (1973). Directed byJorge Fons, Jurado was cast as a lower-class woman who suffers a series of bureaucratic abuses as she tries to claim the remains of her dead husband. For this performance, she won theAriel Award for Best Actress, her secondSilver Ariel Award of the Mexican Cinema.[16] In the same year, Jurado starred on Broadway again in theTennessee Williams playThe Red Devil Battery Sign with Anthony Quinn andClaire Bloom.
In 1974, Jurado appeared in the American filmOnce Upon a Scoundrel (1974) opposite the comedianZero Mostel. In 1975, she participated in the Mexican filmLos albañiles, again directed by Jorge Fons. The film was awarded theGolden Bear of theBerlinale 1975. In 1976, she played the role of Chuchupe in the filmPantaleón y Las Visitadoras, an adaptation of the novelCaptain Pantoja and the Special Service byMario Vargas Llosa, who also directed the film. However, the filming of this movie turned into a disaster due to the differences between Jurado and Vargas Llosa. Vargas Llosa fired Jurado from the film, and she sued him legally.[17]
In 1978, she played a small role in the filmThe Children of Sanchez, where she shares credits with Anthony Quinn and Dolores del Río. In 1980, Jurado filmedLa Seducción, directed byArturo Ripstein, for which she was nominated for another Ariel Award for Best Actress.
In 1981, her son Victor Hugo died tragically in an accident on a highway near Monterrey while she was filming a movie in Mexico City. This tragedy plunged her into a deep depression that she could never overcome and led her to abandon her acting career for a few years. In 1984, John Huston convinced her to resume her career as an actress. She acted in Huston's filmUnder the Volcano. In the same year, she co-starred in the short-lived television seriesa.k.a. Pablo, a sitcom withPaul Rodriguez.
In the 1990s, Jurado appeared in two Mexicantelenovelas. In 1998, she completed a Spanish-language film for directorArturo Ripstein titledEl Evangelio de las Maravillas. She won her secondAriel Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role.[9]
Jurado had a cameo in the filmThe Hi-Lo Country (1998) byStephen Frears, who called her his "lucky charm" for his first Western.[18]
In 2002, she made her final film appearance inUn secreto de Esperanza. The film was released posthumously.
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Katy Jurado was married twice. Her first husband was the Mexican actor Victor Velázquez (who was the stepfather of the popular Mexican actressesTere andLorena Velázquez). Her marriage was largely motivated by the desire to continue a career as an actress and to escape the yoke of her parents. Velazquez was the father of her children, a boy and a girl. The marriage ended in 1943, shortly after Jurado began her film career.
Her second husband was the American actorErnest Borgnine. Jurado and Borginine met when he was filming in MexicoVera Cruz (1954). Jurado affirms that from that moment Borgnine did not stop pursuing her. They got married on December 31 1959.[2] Jurado declared that her five years of courtship with Borgnine were the happiest of her life, but everything got complicated when they got married due to his uncontrollable jealousy. The temperament of both led to numerous violent confrontations, some of which were documented by the newspapers of the time. Jurado claimed to have suffered physical violence from Borgnine during their marriage.[19] Jurado and Borgnine divorced in 1963. After their divorce, Jurado fell into a severe depression that led her to think about suicide. It was for this reason that she decided to leave Hollywood and settle for the rest of her life in the city ofCuernavaca, in Mexico.[2]
Early in her career in Hollywood, Jurado had affairs with film makerBudd Boetticher and actorTyrone Power but her most famous relationship is the one she had withMarlon Brando.[2][19] Brando was smitten with Jurado after seeing her inHigh Noon.[2] They met when Brando was in Mexico filmingViva Zapata! (1952). He was involved at the time withMovita Castaneda, and was having a parallel relationship withRita Moreno. Brando toldJoseph L. Mankiewicz that he was attracted to "her enigmatic eyes, black as hell, pointing at you like fiery arrows".[8] Jurado commented:
Marlon called me one night for a date, and I accepted. I knew all about Movita. I knew he had a thing for Rita Moreno. Hell, it was just a date. I didn't plan to marry him.[8]
However, their first date became the beginning of an extended affair that lasted intermittently many years. In her maturity, Jurado affirmed that they maintained a "loving friendship," and that both even performed an Indian ritual in which they collected blood from their wrists.[8][20]
Jurado also had a romantic relationship with the Western novelistLouis L'Amour. She said: "I have love letters that he wrote me until the last day of his life. But we never match. Now I think I should have married that man."[19] Jurado claimed to have been one of the people to find the body of Mexican actressMiroslava Stern after her suicide in 1955. According to Jurado, the picture that Stern had between her hands was of the Mexican comedianCantinflas, but artistic manager Fanny Schatz exchanged the photo for one of the Spanish bullfighterLuis Miguel Dominguín.[21]
In 1981, her son died tragically in an accident on a highway nearMonterrey. Jurado was filming a movie when she found out about the accident and professionally wrapped up the shoot after burying her son. This tragedy plunged her into a deep depression that she could never overcome and led her to abandon her acting career for a few years and also to take refuge in alcohol. She later said
When my son died I was filming a movie in Mexico. He took with him half of my life. I could not mourn him as I wanted. I went to the funeral and I had to return to film the movie. Every day when I saw the camera, I hated her. I dedicated to the films a wonderful time I should have given to my children, but it was too late."[20]
Jurado claimed that it was the film makerJohn Huston who rescued her from depression and convinced her to resume her career in the movieUnder the Volcano. Jurado also claimed that, during the filming of the film, Huston confessed to having been in love with her.[20]
Toward the end of her life, Jurado suffered from heart and lung ailments. She died of kidney failure and pulmonary disease on 5 July 2002 at the age of 78 at her home inCuernavaca, Mexico.[22] She was buried in Cuernavaca at the Panteón de la Paz cemetery.[citation needed]
Jurado has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 7065 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to motion pictures.
In 1953, Jurado was captured in a portrait by Mexican artistDiego Rivera.[23]
In 1992, she was honored with theGolden Boot Award for her notable contribution to theWestern genre.
In 1998, Mexican singer-songwriter,Juan Gabriel, composed a song for her titled, "Que rechula es Katy (What a beauty is Katy)".[24][25]
She was honored with aGoogle Doodle on 16 January 2018.[26]
