Katy Jurado
Encyclopedia
Katy Jurado born María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García in Mexico, D.F., was a Mexican actress who had a successful film career both in Mexico
and in Hollywood.
Jurado had already established herself as an actress in Mexico in the 1940s when she came to Hollywood becoming a regular in Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. She worked with many Hollywood legends, including Gary Cooper
in High Noon
, Spencer Tracy
in Broken Lance
, and Marlon Brando
in One-Eyed Jacks
, and such respected directors as Fred Zinneman (High Noon), Sam Peckinpah
(The Wild Bunch
and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
) and John Huston
(Under the Volcano
).
Jurado made seventy one films during her career. She became the first Latin American actress nominated for an Academy Award, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in 1954's Broken Lance
, and was the first to win a Golden Globe. Like many Latin actors, she was typecast to play ethnic roles in American films. By contrast, she had a greater variety of roles in Mexican films; sometimes she also sang and danced.
. Both families lost much of their wealth during the Mexican revolution
. Family's lands were confiscated by the federal government for redistribution to the landless peasantry. However, Jurado still lived well. Her father was a cattle baron and orange farmer, and her mother was a well-known opera singer who gave up the stage to marry and raise a family. Jurado's cousin, Emilio Portes Gil
, was president of Mexico beginning in 1928. Despite the loss of property, the matriarch of the family, her grandmother, continued to live by her aristocratic ideals.
Jurado moved with her family to Mexico City
in 1927 and studied journalism. Discovered by Director Emilio Fernández when she was sixteen, Jurado went against family wishes and began pursuing a career in acting. Emilio Fernández
wanted to cast her in one of his films, Jurado's grandmother objected to her wish to become a movie actress. To get around the ban, Katy slipped from the grasp of her family's control by marrying the Mexican actor and writer Víctor Velázquez against her parents' wishes. Together, they had a son and a daughter, Victor Hugo and Sandra. The marriage ended in divorce in 1943, and the children remained with Jurado's family in Mexico when she traveled to the United States to work.
During her early years in the Mexican cinema she appeared with stars like Carmen Montejo
, Maria Elena Marques
, David Silva
and others. In 1943, she had her first success with her third film La vida inútil de Pito Perez, for which she received an Ariel, the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar. In 1948, her performance in Nosotros los pobres
, opposite the well-known Mexican actor Pedro Infante
, brought her fame. She worked with Infante once again in El Seminarista (1949). In 1951, she starred in Cárcel de Mujeres, with the Spanish star Sara Montiel
. Jurado's popularity with audiences also landed her a radio show in Mexico.
In addition to acting, Jurado worked as a movie columnist, radio reporter and bullfight critic to support her family. She was on assignment when Director Budd Boetticher
and actor John Wayne
spotted her at a bullfight. Neither knew at the time that she was an actress. However, Boetticher, who was also a professional bullfighter, cast Jurado in his 1951 film Bullfighter and the Lady, opposite Gilbert Roland
as the wife of an aging matador. Jurado stayed close to home, as the film was made on location in Mexico. At that time, Jurado had very limited English language skills. She memorized and delivered her lines phonetically. Despite this handicap, her strong performance brought her to the attention of Hollywood producer Stanley Kramer
. Kramer cast her in the classic Western High Noon
, starring Gary Cooper
and Grace Kelly
.
Jurado quickly learned to speak English for the role, studying and taking classes two hours a day for two months. Jurado delivered a powerful performance as the saloon owner Helen Ramírez, former love of reluctant hero Will Kane, in one of the most memorable films of the era. She earned a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and gained widespread notice in the American movie industry. Only two other Mexican actresses have been nominated since then: Salma Hayek
as Best Actress in 2002 for Frida
and Adriana Barraza
as Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for Babel.
In 1954 Jurado replaced Dolores del Río
in the film Broken Lance
for which she received an Academy Award nomination, playing Spencer Tracy
's Comanche
wife and the mother of Robert Wagner
.
Despite her notable Hollywood success in the early 1950s, Jurado continued with some performances in Mexico. In 1953 she starred in the Luis Buñuel
's box-office success El Bruto, for which she received an Ariel Award
. The same year she starred in Arrowhead
with Charlton Heston
and Jack Palance
, playing a Comanche. In a 1955 interview with Louella Parsons
, Jurado commented on the mostly Indian roles she was given: " I don't mind dramatic roles. I love to act, any character at all. But just once I would like to be my Mexican self in an American motion picture".
In 1956, she had a supporting role in Trapeze
. Later, she appeared in The Racers
, Trial
. On the set of The Badlanders
, she met her costar Ernest Borgnine
, who became her second husband on December 31, 1959. The couple founded the movie production company SANVIO CORP. With her husband's support, she starred in Dino de Laurentis Italian productions like Barabbas and I braganti italiani. However her tumultuous marriage with Borgnine ended in divorce in 1963. He called her "beautiful, but a tiger".
In 1958 she starred in Broadway
in the Tennessee Williams
play The Red Devil Battery Sign
, with Anthony Quinn
and Claire Bloom
. She had a torrid affair with the actor Marlon Brando
. Brando, who was involved at the time with Movita Castaneda
and was having a parallel relationship with Rita Moreno
, was smitten with Katy Jurado after seeing her in High Noon
. He told Joseph L. Mankiewicz
that he was attracted to "her enigmatic eyes, black as hell, pointing at you like fiery arrows". Katy recalled years later in an interview that "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 ". However, their first date became the beginning of an extended affair that lasted many years and peaked at the time they worked together on One-Eyed Jacks
(1960), a film directed by Brando. "Marlon asked me to marry many times, but for me my children were first", she said. "Our friendship pact was sealed with an Indian ritual for the rest of our lives." She also maintained a close friendship with stars like Anthony Quinn
, Burt Lancaster
, Sam Peckinpah
, Frank Sinatra
, Dolores del Río
, John Wayne
and many others. Early in her career in Hollywood, she had an affair with John Wayne
; she later claimed that he wanted to marry her.
and Stay Away, Joe
(1968), playing the half-Apache
mother of Elvis Presley
. In 1966 she reprised her "Helen Ramirez" role from High Noon (1952) in a High Noon TV pilot called The Clock Strikes Noon Again which co-starred Peter Fonda as the son of Will Kane. In 1968, Jurado became depressed and attempted suicide by ingesting sleeping pills. She had left a suicide note for her family and was discovered in time to save her life. After her suicide attempt, she moved back to Mexico permanently, though she continued to appear in American films as a character actress. She revived both her personal and professional lives and, in 1972, married again, on a private island she owned off the coast of southern Mexico. During this period she appeared in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
(1972).
Jurado again appeared on television and in films during the 1970s. Tragedy stuck when her son died in an automobile accident in 1981 at the age of 35. In the following years she worked on television both in The United States and in Mexico. She did guest appearances on Playhouse Drama and The Rifleman
. She also co-starred in the short-lived television series a.k.a. Pablo
in 1984, a situation comedy series for ABC
, with Paul Rodriguez
.
In 1984, she acted in the Mexican-American production Under the Volcano
, directed by John Huston
. In 1985, Jurado was named film promotion commissioner for the Mexican state of Morelos. In that position, she issued filming permits, found locations for movies, and arranged accommodations for film crews. The position provided her with the opportunity to arrange and develop national and international motion pictures in her beloved Mexico. Her last American film appearance was in Stephen Frears
's Western The Hi-Lo Country
, capping a half-century-long American movie career. In 1992 Jurado was honored with the Golden Boot Award for her notable contribution to the western
movies.
In 1998, she completed a timely Spanish-language film for director Arturo Ripstein
called El Evangelio de las Maravillas
about a millennium sect. She won the best supporting Actress silver Ariel for this role. In 2002 she appeared in her last movie Un secreto de Esperanza
.
Towards the end of her life, she suffered from heart and lung ailments. She died of kidney failure and pulmonary disease on July 5, 2002, at the age of 78 at her home in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. She was buried in Cuernavaca, Mexico, at the Panteón de la Páz cemetery. She was survived by her daughter.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and in Hollywood.
Jurado had already established herself as an actress in Mexico in the 1940s when she came to Hollywood becoming a regular in Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. She worked with many Hollywood legends, including Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
in High Noon
High Noon
High Noon is a 1952 American Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The film tells in real time the story of a town marshal forced to face a gang of killers by himself...
, Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
in Broken Lance
Broken Lance
Broken Lance is a 1954 Western film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Sol C. Siegel. The movie stars Spencer Tracy and features Katy Jurado, Richard Widmark, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Eduard Franz, Hugh O'Brian and Earl Holliman.Shot in color and...
, and Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
in One-Eyed Jacks
One-Eyed Jacks
One-Eyed Jacks, a 1961 Western, is the only film directed by actor Marlon Brando, who also played its lead character, Rio.The film was originally to be directed by Stanley Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah...
, and such respected directors as Fred Zinneman (High Noon), Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...
(The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah about an aging outlaw gang on the Texas-Mexico border, trying to exist in the changing "modern" world of 1913...
and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. Co-star Bob Dylan composed multiple songs for the movie's score and the album Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was released the same year.The film was noted for...
) and John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
(Under the Volcano
Under the Volcano (film)
Under the Volcano is a 1984 film directed in Mexico by John Huston with Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Andrews and Katy Jurado heading the cast...
).
Jurado made seventy one films during her career. She became the first Latin American actress nominated for an Academy Award, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in 1954's Broken Lance
Broken Lance
Broken Lance is a 1954 Western film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Sol C. Siegel. The movie stars Spencer Tracy and features Katy Jurado, Richard Widmark, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Eduard Franz, Hugh O'Brian and Earl Holliman.Shot in color and...
, and was the first to win a Golden Globe. Like many Latin actors, she was typecast to play ethnic roles in American films. By contrast, she had a greater variety of roles in Mexican films; sometimes she also sang and danced.
Early life
Katy Jurado was born Maria Christina Jurado Garcia on January 16, 1924, in Mexico City. One of three children, Jurado had a privileged childhood. Both her maternal and paternal families were wealthy, six generations earlier, they had owned much of the land that became the state of TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Both families lost much of their wealth during the Mexican revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
. Family's lands were confiscated by the federal government for redistribution to the landless peasantry. However, Jurado still lived well. Her father was a cattle baron and orange farmer, and her mother was a well-known opera singer who gave up the stage to marry and raise a family. Jurado's cousin, Emilio Portes Gil
Emilio Portes Gil
Emilio Cándido Portes Gil was President of Mexico from 1928 to 1930.-Biography:Portes Gil was born in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the state of Tamaulipas in northeast Mexico....
, was president of Mexico beginning in 1928. Despite the loss of property, the matriarch of the family, her grandmother, continued to live by her aristocratic ideals.
Jurado moved with her family to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
in 1927 and studied journalism. Discovered by Director Emilio Fernández when she was sixteen, Jurado went against family wishes and began pursuing a career in acting. Emilio Fernández
Emilio Fernández
Emilio "El Indio" Fernández was an actor, screenwriter and director of the cinema of Mexico. He is best known for his work as director of the film Maria Candelaria which won the Grand Prix at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.-Early life:Fernández was born in Mineral del Hondo, Coahuila...
wanted to cast her in one of his films, Jurado's grandmother objected to her wish to become a movie actress. To get around the ban, Katy slipped from the grasp of her family's control by marrying the Mexican actor and writer Víctor Velázquez against her parents' wishes. Together, they had a son and a daughter, Victor Hugo and Sandra. The marriage ended in divorce in 1943, and the children remained with Jurado's family in Mexico when she traveled to the United States to work.
Career in Mexico
Jurado began acting in Mexican films starting in 1943, with the movie No Matarás (Thou Shalt Not Kill), and went on to appear in sixteen more films over the next seven years during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Her very particular features were the key of her notable success. Blessed with a stunning beauty and an assertive personality, Jurado specialized in playing determined women in a wide variety of films. Her looks, evocative of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, allowed her to carve a niche for herself in the Mexican cinema. However she typically was cast as a dangerous seductress cum man-eater, a popular type in Mexican movies.During her early years in the Mexican cinema she appeared with stars like Carmen Montejo
Carmen Montejo
Carmen Montejo is a Mexican actress of telenovelas, stage and the Golden age of the cinema of Mexico....
, Maria Elena Marques
María Elena Marqués
María Elena Marqués was a Mexican actress who was a star of Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s.In her best-known role, Marqués starred in the 1947 film La perla ; she played the wife of a fisherman who finds the ill-fated pearl. The film was based on John Steinbeck's book The Pearl...
, David Silva
David Silva
David Josué Jiménez Silva is a Spanish footballer who plays for Manchester City and the Spanish national team. Silva is capable of playing on the wing, as a traditional number 10 and sometimes as a supporting striker...
and others. In 1943, she had her first success with her third film La vida inútil de Pito Perez, for which she received an Ariel, the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar. In 1948, her performance in Nosotros los pobres
Nosotros los pobres
Nosotros los pobres is a 1948 Mexican drama film directed by Ismael Rodríguez.-Plot:Two kids take a book from a trash can. They begin to read the story of a poor neighborhood in Mexico City. Carpenter Pepe "El Toro" lives with his daughter "Chachita" and woos pretty Celia, known as "La Chorreada"...
, opposite the well-known Mexican actor Pedro Infante
Pedro Infante
José Pedro Infante Cruz , better known as Pedro Infante, is the most famous actor and singer of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and is an idol of the Latinamerican people, together with Jorge Negrete and Javier Solís, who were styled the Tres Gallos Mexicanos . He was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa,...
, brought her fame. She worked with Infante once again in El Seminarista (1949). In 1951, she starred in Cárcel de Mujeres, with the Spanish star Sara Montiel
Sara Montiel
Sara Montiel is a Spanish singer, and actress. She is still a much-loved and internationally known name in the Spanish-speaking movie and music industries....
. Jurado's popularity with audiences also landed her a radio show in Mexico.
Career in Hollywood
Budd Boetticher
Oscar "Budd" Boetticher, Jr. was a film director during the classical period in Hollywood most famous for the series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starring Randolph Scott.Known for their sparse style, dramatic rocky locations near Lone Pine, California, and recurring stories of...
and actor John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
spotted her at a bullfight. Neither knew at the time that she was an actress. However, Boetticher, who was also a professional bullfighter, cast Jurado in his 1951 film Bullfighter and the Lady, opposite Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
as the wife of an aging matador. Jurado stayed close to home, as the film was made on location in Mexico. At that time, Jurado had very limited English language skills. She memorized and delivered her lines phonetically. Despite this handicap, her strong performance brought her to the attention of Hollywood producer Stanley Kramer
Stanley Kramer
Stanley Earl Kramer was an American film director and producer. Kramer was responsible for some of Hollywood's most famous "message" movies...
. Kramer cast her in the classic Western High Noon
High Noon
High Noon is a 1952 American Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The film tells in real time the story of a town marshal forced to face a gang of killers by himself...
, starring Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
and Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
.
Jurado quickly learned to speak English for the role, studying and taking classes two hours a day for two months. Jurado delivered a powerful performance as the saloon owner Helen Ramírez, former love of reluctant hero Will Kane, in one of the most memorable films of the era. She earned a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and gained widespread notice in the American movie industry. Only two other Mexican actresses have been nominated since then: Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...
as Best Actress in 2002 for Frida
Frida
Frida is a 2002 biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera....
and Adriana Barraza
Adriana Barraza
Adriana Barraza is a Mexican film and television actress and director. She has also been nominated for a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Broadcast Film Critics Association and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is also a veteran actress of Televisa telenovelas...
as Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for Babel.
In 1954 Jurado replaced Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
in the film Broken Lance
Broken Lance
Broken Lance is a 1954 Western film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Sol C. Siegel. The movie stars Spencer Tracy and features Katy Jurado, Richard Widmark, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Eduard Franz, Hugh O'Brian and Earl Holliman.Shot in color and...
for which she received an Academy Award nomination, playing Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
's Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
wife and the mother of Robert Wagner
Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
.
Despite her notable Hollywood success in the early 1950s, Jurado continued with some performances in Mexico. In 1953 she starred in the Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
's box-office success El Bruto, for which she received an Ariel Award
Ariel Award
The Ariel is the Mexican Academy of Film Award. It has been awarded annually since 1947. The award recognizes excellence in motion picture making, such as acting, directing and screenwriting in Mexican cinema. It is considered the most prestigious award in the Mexican movie industry.- History :The...
. The same year she starred in Arrowhead
Arrowhead (film)
Arrowhead is a 1953 western film directed by Charles Marquis Warren and starring Charlton Heston and Jack Palance. The film is based on the novel Adobe Walls by W.R.Burnett. The screenplay was also by Charles Marquis Warren.-Plot synopsis:...
with Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
and Jack Palance
Jack Palance
Jack Palance , was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.-Early life:Palance, one of five children, was born Volodymyr...
, playing a Comanche. In a 1955 interview with Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons was the first American news-writer movie columnist in the United States. She was a gossip columnist who, for many years, was an influential arbiter of Hollywood mores, often feared and hated by the individuals, mostly actors, whose careers she could negatively impact via her...
, Jurado commented on the mostly Indian roles she was given: " I don't mind dramatic roles. I love to act, any character at all. But just once I would like to be my Mexican self in an American motion picture".
In 1956, she had a supporting role in Trapeze
Trapeze (film)
Trapeze is a 1956 circus film directed by Carol Reed and starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida, making her debut in American films....
. Later, she appeared in The Racers
The Racers
The Racers is a 1955 film directed by Henry Hathaway. It stars Kirk Douglas and Bella Darvi. -Cast:*Kirk Douglas as Gino Borgesa*Bella Darvi as Nicole*Gilbert Roland as Dell'Orro*Cesar Romero as Carlos Chavez*Lee J. Cobb as Maglio...
, Trial
Trial (1955 film)
Trial is a 1955 American film directed by Mark Robson and written by Don Mankiewicz . It stars Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy and Juano Hernandez...
. On the set of The Badlanders
The Badlanders
The Badlanders is a western film directed by Delmer Daves and starring Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine. It was written by Richard Collins, based upon the novel The Asphalt Jungle by W.R. Burnett.-Plot:...
, she met her costar Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
, who became her second husband on December 31, 1959. The couple founded the movie production company SANVIO CORP. With her husband's support, she starred in Dino de Laurentis Italian productions like Barabbas and I braganti italiani. However her tumultuous marriage with Borgnine ended in divorce in 1963. He called her "beautiful, but a tiger".
In 1958 she starred in Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in the Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
play The Red Devil Battery Sign
The Red Devil Battery Sign
The Red Devil Battery Sign is a 1975 drama written by American playwright Tennessee Williams. It was revised substantially before publication....
, with Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
and Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...
. She had a torrid affair with the actor Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
. Brando, who was involved at the time with Movita Castaneda
Movita Castaneda
Maria "Movita" Castaneda is an American actress best known for being the second wife of actor Marlon Brando. She was six years older than Brando. In films, she played exotic women/singers, such as in Flying Down to Rio and Mutiny on the Bounty , of which she is the last surviving cast member....
and was having a parallel relationship with Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....
, was smitten with Katy Jurado after seeing her in High Noon
High Noon
High Noon is a 1952 American Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The film tells in real time the story of a town marshal forced to face a gang of killers by himself...
. He told Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve , which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J...
that he was attracted to "her enigmatic eyes, black as hell, pointing at you like fiery arrows". Katy recalled years later in an interview that "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 ". However, their first date became the beginning of an extended affair that lasted many years and peaked at the time they worked together on One-Eyed Jacks
One-Eyed Jacks
One-Eyed Jacks, a 1961 Western, is the only film directed by actor Marlon Brando, who also played its lead character, Rio.The film was originally to be directed by Stanley Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah...
(1960), a film directed by Brando. "Marlon asked me to marry many times, but for me my children were first", she said. "Our friendship pact was sealed with an Indian ritual for the rest of our lives." She also maintained a close friendship with stars like Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
, Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
, Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
, John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
and many others. Early in her career in Hollywood, she had an affair with John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
; she later claimed that he wanted to marry her.
Last years
As her career in the U.S. began to wind down, she was reduced to appearing in the movies Smoky (1966) with Fess ParkerFess Parker
Fess Elisha Parker, Jr. was an American film and television actor best known for his portrayals of Davy Crockett in the Walt Disney 1955-56 TV mini-series and as TV's Daniel Boone from 1964-70...
and Stay Away, Joe
Stay Away, Joe
Stay Away, Joe is a 1968 comedy-drama western film with musical interludes set in modern times and starring Elvis Presley, Burgess Meredith and Joan Blondell. The film was based on the 1953 novel by Dan Cushman, a satirical farce...
(1968), playing the half-Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
mother of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. In 1966 she reprised her "Helen Ramirez" role from High Noon (1952) in a High Noon TV pilot called The Clock Strikes Noon Again which co-starred Peter Fonda as the son of Will Kane. In 1968, Jurado became depressed and attempted suicide by ingesting sleeping pills. She had left a suicide note for her family and was discovered in time to save her life. After her suicide attempt, she moved back to Mexico permanently, though she continued to appear in American films as a character actress. She revived both her personal and professional lives and, in 1972, married again, on a private island she owned off the coast of southern Mexico. During this period she appeared in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. Co-star Bob Dylan composed multiple songs for the movie's score and the album Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was released the same year.The film was noted for...
(1972).
Jurado again appeared on television and in films during the 1970s. Tragedy stuck when her son died in an automobile accident in 1981 at the age of 35. In the following years she worked on television both in The United States and in Mexico. She did guest appearances on Playhouse Drama and The Rifleman
The Rifleman
The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
. She also co-starred in the short-lived television series a.k.a. Pablo
A.k.a. Pablo
a.k.a. Pablo is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from March to April 1984.-Synopsis:Produced by Norman Lear, it focuses on struggling Hispanic stand-up comic Paul Rivera and his large Mexican American family, who still called him by his given name Pablo...
in 1984, a situation comedy series for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, with Paul Rodriguez
Paul Rodríguez
Paul Rodriguez is a Mexican-American stand-up comedian and actor.-Personal life:Rodriguez was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, México to Mexican agriculture ranchers.. His family migrated to East Los Angeles, where he enlisted in the military; he was stationed in Iceland and Duluth, Minnesota...
.
In 1984, she acted in the Mexican-American production Under the Volcano
Under the Volcano (film)
Under the Volcano is a 1984 film directed in Mexico by John Huston with Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Andrews and Katy Jurado heading the cast...
, directed by John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
. In 1985, Jurado was named film promotion commissioner for the Mexican state of Morelos. In that position, she issued filming permits, found locations for movies, and arranged accommodations for film crews. The position provided her with the opportunity to arrange and develop national and international motion pictures in her beloved Mexico. Her last American film appearance was in Stephen Frears
Stephen Frears
Stephen Arthur Frears is an English film director.-Early life:Frears was born in Leicester, England to Ruth M., a social worker, and Dr Russell E. Frears, a general practitioner and accountant. He did not find out that his mother was Jewish until he was in his late 20s...
's Western The Hi-Lo Country
The Hi-Lo Country
The Hi-Lo Country is a 1998 American Western/drama film directed by Stephen Frears, starring Billy Crudup, Woody Harrelson, Cole Hauser, Sam Elliott, Patricia Arquette, Penelope Cruz, Enrique Castillo, and Katy Jurado...
, capping a half-century-long American movie career. In 1992 Jurado was honored with the Golden Boot Award for her notable contribution to the western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
movies.
In 1998, she completed a timely Spanish-language film for director Arturo Ripstein
Arturo Ripstein
Arturo Ripstein y Rosen is a Mexican film director.-Life and career:Ripstein got his break into movies working as an uncredited assistant director for Luis Buñuel. In 1965, he directed his first feature, Tiempo de Morir...
called El Evangelio de las Maravillas
El evangelio de las maravillas
El evangelio de las maravillas is a 1998 Mexican drama film directed by Arturo Ripstein. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Francisco Rabal - Papá Basilio...
about a millennium sect. She won the best supporting Actress silver Ariel for this role. In 2002 she appeared in her last movie Un secreto de Esperanza
Un secreto de Esperanza
Un Secreto de Esperanza is a 2002 Mexican film written and directed by Leopoldo Laborde and starring Katy Jurado, Imanol, Jamie Aymerich and Ana de la Reguera. It is an example of a cinematic homage for the last screen appearance of Katy Jurado...
.
Towards the end of her life, she suffered from heart and lung ailments. She died of kidney failure and pulmonary disease on July 5, 2002, at the age of 78 at her home in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. She was buried in Cuernavaca, Mexico, at the Panteón de la Páz cemetery. She was survived by her daughter.