Sarah montiel

“Saritísima” is actually called María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isadora Abad Fernández (it is difficult to memorize it). She was born on March 10, 1928 in Campo de Criptana, in the heart of the Don Quixote Route, in the area of ​​La Mancha known as Campos de Montiel, from where she got her stage name (“Sara” was given in homage to her maternal grandmother ). The daughter of a farmer and a hairdresser, since she was little she stood out for her extreme beauty and her singing skills, which impressed Vicente Casanova, owner of the Cifesa production company, who heard her singing saetas in a Holy Week procession. He took care that she received declamation and singing courses.

When he was 15 years old, he won a prize for new values ​​organized by Cifesa. She was given an amount of money and the chance to make her film debut in a small role as a student in I love you for myself , followed by It Started at a Wedding . After leading roles in titles such as Don Quixote de la Mancha and La mies es mucha , she became a celebrity in Spain for her role as Aldara, a Moorish princess, in Locura de amor , by Juan de Orduña , which was a box office success.

His ‘Aldara’ became a legend especially in Mexico, where it was established between 1950 and 1954, at the height of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. There she starred in Furia roja , with the legendary Arturo de Córdova , followed by 12 other films, including Cárcel de mujeres , with Katy Jurado . In Mexico, she also triumphed as a singer, going on tour with the Agustín Lara orchestra.

He leaves the Aztec country when he receives the call from Hollywood. Burt Lancaster ‘s production company recruits her for one of the main roles in Veracruz , by Robert Aldrich , where she plays Nina, the girlfriend of the character of the great Gary Cooper , a mercenary who joins his rival (Lancaster), to put himself at the service of the best bidder. She apparently had a small affair with Cooper, which she interpreted as coming on to her, due to the actress’s language difficulties, who learned the script phonetically. She maintained her friendship with the actor until his death, when he last visited her in Madrid, already very ill, he would ask out loud: “Where’s my Montielita?” Her most illustrious lover was the writerErnest Hemingway , from whom she learned to smoke Cuban cigars, although she was also related to another great writer, the Spanish Miguel Mihura .

The work of the Spanish in Veracruz raises passions in the Mecca of Cinema, and Columbia offers her the opportunity to become the new Rita Hayworth if she signs a seven-year contract. She prefers not to be tied down, and reaches an agreement with Warner to shoot Two Passions and One Love , with Mario Lanza , Joan Fontaine and Vincent Price , during which filming she fell in love with the director, Anthony Mann , with whom she married.

Samuel Fuller cast her in the leading female role of the excellent and controversial western Yuma , the illustrious precedent of Dances with Wolves and Avatar , where a southern soldier, O’Meara ( Rod Steiger ), goes to live with the Indians at the end of the War of Secession. Sara Montiel stands out as the Yellow Moccasin Indian, who welcomes O’Meara into her teepee.

Remember that at that time the glamor of Hollywood was the ‘no more’. “The mystery around the stars had to be increased. We would go to the studio in a gold Cadillac and we weren’t allowed to mess around, or go shopping, unless it was a very exclusive designer’s boutique.” Thus, the diva admits that she has never set foot in a supermarket.

Just when it seemed that Sara Montiel had a bright future in Hollywood, she decided to take a vacation in her native Spain, where she met Juan de Orduña , with whom she had a great friendship since they worked together. The astute Orduña managed to convince her that, even though she was resting, he would give her a few days to shoot a musical drama entitled El último cuplé . She was going to sing in playback, but due to lack of budget to hire a professional singer, it was decided that Sara herself would sing herself. Although for the actress it was “pecata minuta” a minor production next to the films she was shooting in the United States, she ended up accepting so as not to make her friend Orduña ugly.

When the filming finished, he returned to Hollywood where he found out that that little movie became a mass phenomenon that in Spain generated long queues and ran for a year, and that it was later released in various European countries and in Latin America, where it also swept. At the same time, the album with the songs was breaking sales records. Several European producers, extremely surprised that a Spanish film could be so profitable, decided to offer the actress a substantial contract, who couldn’t believe what had happened either. “In Spain people started to dress and do their hair like me,” she recalls.

Finally, seeing that better professional horizons were opening up for her in her native country than in Hollywood, she decided to return to her land, where she revalidated her success with La violetera , along with Raf Vallone , followed by titles that almost always repeated the formula of a successful singer. unfortunate in love, and who were well received: Carmen la de Ronda , My Last Tango , La reina del Chantecler , La dama de Beirut or Casablanca Nights . After Five pillows for one night , by Pedro Lazaga, leaves the big screen at a time when Spanish cinema replaces melodramas and musicals with the crude by-products of Destape.

She went on to star in stage shows, and became a regular guest and host of television shows. After divorcing Mann in 1961, she was together with José Vicente Ramírez Olaya, Seat’s press officer, but she was not happy, especially because of the drama she experienced because her wishes for motherhood were cut short, after suffering a fall when she was eight months pregnant. “They took the dead child out of me and I felt bad.” She tried to give birth until she was 51 years old, but unfortunately she suffered eleven miscarriages. After joining the Mallorcan businessman Pepe Tous, she adopted a girl, Thais, and a boy, Zeus.

After the death of Tous, Sara Montiel monopolized the covers of the tabloids when she married in 2002, at the age of 74, with the Cuban Tony Hernández, 33, who did not last a year with her and who became a regular at the means dedicated to the heart. When it seemed that the actress had been relegated to the cannon fodder of the most scandalous television programs, she announced her return to the cinema as a secondary with the comedy Abrázame , Óscar Parra de Carrizosa’s debut. She passed away on April 8, 2013 at her Madrid home, at the age of 85.