Katy Jurado

María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García (16 January 1924 – 5 July 2002), known professionally as Katy Jurado ( , ), was a Mexican actress. She followed in the footsteps of earlier Mexican actresses in Hollywood, including Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, and María Félix. And her talent for playing a variety of characters helped to promote later Mexican actresses in American cinema. She acted in popular Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. She was the first Latin American actress nominated for an Oscar, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in Broken Lance, and was the first to win a Golden Globe Award, for her performance in High Noon (1952).

Life and career 1924–1943: Childhood and early years María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, known from early childhood as "Katy", was born on 16 January 1924, in Mexico City, Mexico, 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 station XEW (the oldest radio station in Hispanic America). Her mother was sister of Mexican musician Belisario de Jesús García, author of popular Mexican songs such as "Las Cuatro Milpas". Jurado's cousin Emilio Portes Gil was president of Mexico (1928–1930).

Jurado lived her first years and studied at a school run by nuns in the Guadalupe Inn neighborhood of Mexico City. She later studied to be a bilingual secretary. She wanted to study law and become a lawyer.

Her singular beauty drew attention since she was a teenager, and she was invited to work as an actress by producers and filmmakers, among them Emilio Fernández (one of the most prominent Mexican filmmakers at that time), who offered her a role in his first movie The Isle of Passion (1941). Although her godfather was Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz, her parents never gave their consent.

Another filmmaker interested in her was Mauricio de la Serna, who offered her a role in the film No matarás (1943). She signed the contract without authorization from her parents, and when they found out, they threatened to send her to a boarding school in Monterrey. Around this time, she met 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. Velázquez was the father of her children, Victor Hugo and Sandra. The marriage ended in 1943, shortly after Jurado began her film career.

1943–1951: First Mexican films Jurado debuted as an actress in the Mexican film No 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.

In the same year, Jurado appeared with Kirk Douglas in the Henry Hathaway film The Racers. In 1955, Jurado filmed Trial, directed by Mark Robson, with Glenn 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. In the same year, she traveled to Italy for the filming of Trapeze, directed by Carol Reed, with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. On set, Jurado had severe friction with the film's other female star, actress Gina Lollobrigida.

Despite the fact that she always stated that acting in the theater did not please her, in 1956, Jurado debuted on Broadway in the play The Best House in Naples (1956), by Eduardo de Filippo.

In 1956, she participated in the film Man from Del Rio (1956), opposite Anthony Quinn, one of the few Hollywood movies to have Mexican actors as main stars. Later, she acted in Westerns Dragoon Wells Massacre (1957) with Barry Sullivan and The Badlanders (1958), with Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine. In 1957, she debuted on television with a guest appearance in an episode of Playhouse 90. In 1959, she acted for the first time under Sam Peckinpah's direction in an episode of The Rifleman. In 1962, she appeared as the historical character La Tules in an episode of Death Valley Days.

In 1959, Marlon Brando, with whom Jurado maintained a close friendship, invited her to participate in One-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 producer Dino de Laurentiis in Barabbas (where both acted with Anthony Quinn) and I briganti Italiani, directed by Mario Camerini.

In 1961, Jurado returned to Mexico and filmed La Bandida (1962), where she shared credits with Pedro Armendáriz and temperamental Mexican actress María Félix, with whom Jurado had friction on the set. Her stormy marriage with Borgnine ended in 1963. Depressed, Jurado returned to Mexico and established her residence in the city of Cuernavaca; she decided to alternate her work, though, with films between Mexico and the United States.

In 1965, Jurado returned to Hollywood for the film Smoky, directed by George Sherman, starring Fess Parker. In 1966, she played the mother of George Maharis's character in A Covenant with Death. In 1968, she appeared in the film Stay Away, Joe in the role of the half-Apache stepmother of Elvis Presley's character.

1970–2002: Later years In the next years, Jurado alternated her work between Hollywood and Mexico. In 1970, she filmed The Bridge in the Jungle opposite John Huston. In 1973, she appeared in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, directed by Sam Peckinpah.

Jurado received one of her better dramatic roles in the last of the three short stories comprising the Mexican film Fé, Esperanza y Caridad (1973). Directed by Jorge 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 the Ariel Award for Best Actress, her second Silver Ariel Award of the Mexican Cinema. In the same year, Jurado starred on Broadway again in the Tennessee Williams play The Red Devil Battery Sign with Anthony Quinn and Claire Bloom.

In 1974, Jurado appeared in the American film Once Upon a Scoundrel (1974) opposite comedian Zero Mostel. In 1975, she participated in the Mexican film Los albañiles, again directed by Jorge Fons. The film was awarded the Golden Bear of the Berlinale 1975. In 1976, she played the role of Chuchupe in the film Pantaleón y Las Visitadoras, an adaptation of the novel Captain Pantoja and the Special Service by Mario 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.

In 1978, she played a small role in the film The Children of Sanchez, where she shares credits with Anthony Quinn and Dolores del Río. In 1980, Jurado filmed La Seducción, directed by Arturo Ripstein, for which she was nominated for another Ariel Award for Best Actress.

In 1981, her son Victor Hugo died in an accident on a highway near Monterrey while she was filming a movie Barrio de campeones 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 film Under the Volcano. In the same year, she co-starred in the short-lived television series a.k.a. Pablo, a sitcom with Paul Rodriguez.

In the 1990s, Jurado appeared in two Mexican telenovelas. In 1998, she completed a Spanish-language film for director Arturo Ripstein titled El Evangelio de las Maravillas. She won her second Ariel Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role.

Jurado had a cameo in the film The Hi-Lo Country (1998) by Stephen Frears, who called her his "lucky charm" for his first Western.

In 2002, she made her final film appearance in Un secreto de Esperanza. The film was released posthumously.

Jurado appeared in a musical revue presented at the in Mexico City.

Personal life Marriages

Katy Jurado was married twice. Her first husband was Mexican actor Víctor Velázquez (who was the stepfather of the popular Mexican actresses Tere and Lorena Velázquez). Her marriage was largely motivated by the desire to continue a career as an actress and to escape the yoke of her parents. Velázquez 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 American actor Ernest Borgnine. Jurado and Borgnine met when he was filming Vera Cruz (1954) in Mexico. Jurado affirms that from that moment, Borgnine did not stop pursuing her. They were married on 31 December 1959. She was buried in Cuernavaca at the Panteón de la Paz cemetery.

Legacy

Jurado has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7065 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to motion pictures.

In 1953, Jurado was captured in a portrait by Mexican artist Diego Rivera.

In 1992, she was honored with the Golden Boot Award for her notable contribution to the Western genre.

In 1998, Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel composed a song for her titled, "Que rechula es Katy (What a beauty is Katy)".

She was honored with a Google Doodle on 16 January 2018.

Filmography