Marisa de Leza

Born on June 9, 1933, also in the capital of Spain, María Luisa González Benés –her real name– began her journey in the cinema at the age of only fourteen with La manigua sin Dios , by Arturo Ruiz Castillo . She established herself with the harsh drama Surcos , by José Antonio Nieves Conde , where she shone as Tonia, the daughter of a peasant couple who emigrates from the countryside to the city without resources, who first works as a maid, and ends up becoming the ‘darling’ of the wealthy Don Roque, attracted by easy wealth. For this work, she won the award for best secondary actress from the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (CEC), which two years later awarded her as the lead for Fuego en la sangre , byIgnacio F. Iquino .

Marisa de Leza also won the Silver Shell for best interpreter, at the San Sebastian Festival, for La patrulla , by Pedro Lazaga , about the reunion of five soldiers after the Civil War. She also participated in some international production shot in Spain, such as Alexander the Great , where she shared the screen with Richard Burton . She combined film shootings with an intense theatrical activity.

In 1957 she married the soccer player Mario Durán, with whom she had three children (Luis Javier, Yolanda and Cristina). Since then she has left the interpretation a little aside. In the 70s she returned with force, becoming a regular on television productions such as Estudio 1 , or the series La barraca , based on the novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez ., where her role as Teresa, the mother of a family who with her husband settles in a Valencian farm, is impressive, but is harassed by her neighbors, angry because they threw out the previous tenant for not paying the rent. “It has been very important for me to adapt that work, and the series has had a great popular impact,” she commented in an appearance on the successful program Aplauso, one of the few audiovisual interviews she gave. “When the author wrote the novel, there must have been many problems there, but I want to make it clear that the Valencians have treated us very well during the filming”, she justified herself. While she was healthy,  Marisa de Leza did not leave the tables, while her last important role was the mother of Lydia Bosch , inYou’re the One (A Story of Then) , by José Luis Garci .