María Félix

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Birth name María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña
Nationality Mexique
Birth 8 april 1914 at Álamos (Mexique)
Death 8 april 2002 (at 88 years) at Mexico City (Mexique)
Awards Officier des Arts et des Lettres‎

María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña ([maˈɾia ˈfeliks] (8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was a Mexican film actress. She was considered one of the most important female figures of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She was also considered one of the most beautiful film actresses of her time, and one of the greatest erotic myths of the Spanish-language cinema. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of the Latin American cinema in the 1940s and 1950s.

She was known as La Doña, a name derived from her character in the film Doña Bárbara (1943), and María Bonita, thanks to the anthem composed exclusively for her, as a wedding gift by her third husband, the Mexican composer Agustín Lara. She completed a film career that included 47 films made in Mexico, Spain, France, Italy and Argentina.

Biography

María was married four times. Her first marriage (1931–1938) was with the cosmetics sales agent Enrique Alvarez Alatorre. María herself came to say that her first marriage meant to her freedom, leaving her house where she was prey. Soon, due to jealousy of her husband, María felt sick and started divorce proceedings. He fathered with her only son, the also actor Enrique Álvarez Félix. In a visit to the child when he lived with his mother in Mexico City, Alvarez refused to return her and took it with him to Guadalajara. María was able to recover her son years later with the help of her second husband, Agustin Lara.

María's relationship with her son was distant in his early years, because she sent him for many years to schools abroad "to discipline". Years later, Enrique returned to Mexico and decided to start a career as an actor in film and television.
With regard to her son, María went on to comment: Enrique is a very gifted, with admirable common sense man. He's my best friend. I have so much fun with him. He's not a "mama's boy" as many believe. Self-employed, fight like being independent. He has his own career, his audience, his poster and assumes his responsibilities without relying on me.
The unexpected death of Enrique as a result of a heart attack in 1996, plunged María into deep sadness, although in public she always showed great fortitude.

Her second marriage (1945–1947) was with the famous Mexican composer Agustín Lara. María was a fan of Lara since her adolescence. They met accidentally and unfriendly in a phone booth on the street. Some time later, they were formally introduced by a mutual friend, the actor Tito Novaro. From that time the couple began a highly publicized relationship, which culminated in marriage in 1945. Lara immortalized María in a huge number of songs, such as Humo en los ojos (Smoke in the eyes), Cuando vuelvas (When you come back), Dos puñales (Two daggers), Madrid and especially the famous theme Maria Bonita, composed in Acapulco during their honeymoon. Maria Bonita will become one of the most popular Lara songs worldwide.
However, excessive jealousy of Lara ended their relationship in 1947. María herself said in a fit of violent jealousy, Lara even tried to kill her. The separation was imminent.

After her second divorce, Maria lived romances as some notorious men like the Mexican aviation entrepreneur Jorge Pasquel, the Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín and the Argentine actor Carlos Thompson. María and Thompson on the verge of reaching the altar, but at the last moment María repented.

In 1953, when María returned to Mexico after her stay in Europe and Argentina, she was reunited with an "old enemy": the actor and singer Jorge Negrete. Unlike their difficult first meeting ten years ago on the set of El peñón de las ánimas, María found Negrete, in her own words: "surrendered to my feets". After a brief romance, the couple married in 1953, in a tumultuous ceremony, transmitted by radio to all Latin America, held at the House of Catipoato in Tlalpan owned by María. Unfortunately. Negrete was already ill when the marriage took place. Negrete died eleven months after at a hospital in Los Angeles, California, while María was in Europe shooting La Belle Otero. María's appearance at his funeral dressed in trousers, caused a huge scandal, which led María to take refuge in Europe.

During her stay in France, María met, through the painter Leonor Fini, the French writer Jean Cau, assistant of the writer Jean Paul Sartre. With Cau, María also lived a famous romance.

Her fourth marriage (1956–1974), was with the Romanian-born, French banker Alexander Berger. Maria met Berger in the 1940s, but then both were married. Years later they met again. María remained married 18 years with Berger. She tried becoming a mother again, but an accident during a filming in 1957, caused that María lost the child. Berger died in 1974 as a result of lung cancer just months after the death of the mother of Marìa, which plunged her into a deep depression. But she decided to emerge triumphant and take a new passion: The horses.
Some of her horses wins major international equestrian awards. María kept her horses for 11 years.

His last romantic relationship was the Russian-French painter Antoine Tzapoff. About him, María said: I don't know if he's the man who has most loved me, but he's who has loved me better.

The press speculated a strong rivalry between María and Dolores del Río, the other leading female figure of Mexican cinema and a successful Hollywood star. About this "rivalry" Maria Felix, said in her autobiography in 1993: With Dolores I had no rivalry. On the contrary, we were friends and always treat each other with great respect, each with their own personality. We were completely different. She was refined, interesting, gentle on the deal, and I'm energetic, arrogant and bossy.