Lupe Vélez
Encyclopedia
Lupe Vélez was a Mexican
film actress. Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville
. She was seen by Fanny Brice
who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had progressed to leading roles. With the advent of talking pictures Vélez acted in comedies, but she became disappointed with her film career, and moved to New York
where she worked in Broadway productions.
Returning to Hollywood in 1939, she made a series of comedies. She also made some films in Mexico. Vélez's personal life was often difficult; a five year marriage to Johnny Weissmuller
and a series of romances, were highly publicized. She is often associated with the nicknames "The Mexican Spitfire" and "The Hot Pepper".
in Mexico
, the daughter of an army officer (Jacobo Villalobos Reyes) and his wife (Josefina Vélez), an opera singer, both from prominent families in the state of San Luis Potosí. Her father refused to let her use his last name in theater because at that time it was considered inappropriate for a person from a well-to-do family to be an actor, so she used her mother's surname. Lupe was educated at a convent school in Texas
. From an early age, she had a strong temper and an explosive personality. She took dancing lessons and in 1924, made her performing debut at the Teatro Principal in Mexico City
, along with stars like Maria Conesa, Prudencia Grifell
and Mimí Derba
. In 1923 she moved to Texas
, where she began dancing in vaudeville shows and finding work as a sales assistant. She moved to California
, where she met the comedienne Fanny Brice
, who promoted her career as a dancer. In 1926 she was cast in her first film by Hal Roach
.
Vélez's first feature-length film was The Gaucho
(1927) starring Douglas Fairbanks
. The next year, she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
, the young starlets deemed to be most promising for movie stardom. Most of her early films cast her in exotic or ethnic roles (Hispanic, Native American, French, Russian, even Asian).
She worked under the direction of notable film directors like Victor Fleming
in The Wolf Song
(1929) opposite Gary Cooper
; D. W. Griffith
in Lady of the Pavements
(1928); Tod Browning
in Where East Is East
opposite Lon Chaney
and Cecil B. DeMille
in The Squaw Man
in 1931. By the end of the silent era the sparkling personality of Lupe rivalled that of the Flapper Girl, Clara Bow
.
Within a few years Vélez found her niche in comedies, playing beautiful but volatile foils to comedy stars. Her slapstick battle with Laurel and Hardy
in Hollywood Party
and her dynamic presence opposite Jimmy Durante
in Palooka (both 1934) are typically enthusiastic Vélez performances. She was featured in the final Wheeler & Woolsey
comedy, High Flyers (1937), doing impersonations of Simone Simon
, Dolores del Río
, and Shirley Temple
.
In 1934, Velez was one of the victims of the "open season" of the "reds" in Hollywood. With Dolores del Río
, Ramón Novarro
and James Cagney
, she was accused of promoting communism in California.
Vélez was now nearing 30 and had not become a major star. Disappointed, she left Hollywood for Broadway
. In New York, she landed a role in You Never Know, a short-lived Cole Porter
musical. After the run of You Never Know, Vélez looked for film work in other countries. Returning to Hollywood in 1939, she snared the lead in a B comedy for RKO Radio Pictures, The Girl from Mexico. She established such a rapport with co-star Leon Errol
that RKO made a quick sequel, Mexican Spitfire, which became a very popular series. Vélez perfected her comic character, indulging in broken-English malaprops, troublemaking ideas, and sudden fits of temper bursting into torrents of Spanish invective. She occasionally sang in these films, and often displayed a talent for hectic, visual comedy. Vélez enjoyed making these films and can be seen openly breaking up at Leon Errol's comic ad libs.
The Spitfire films rejuvenated Lupe Vélez's career, and for the next few years she starred in musical and comedy features for RKO, Universal Pictures
, and Columbia Pictures
in addition to the Spitfire films. In one of her last films, Columbia's Redhead from Manhattan, she played a dual role: one in her exaggerated comic dialect, and the other in her actual speaking voice, which was surprisingly fluid and had only traces of a Mexican accent.
Lupe Vélez was very popular with Spanish-speaking audiences. In 1943, she returned to Mexico and starred in the movies La Zandunga
(1938), and an adaptation of Émile Zola
's novel Nana
(1944), which was well received. Subsequently, she returned to Hollywood.
, before marrying Olympic athlete Johnny Weissmuller
(of Tarzan fame) in 1933, and later, in 1938, Mexican actor Arturo de Córdova
. In the early 1940s she was also linked romantically with Clayton Moore, later known for his television role as the Lone Ranger; Moore insists in his autobiography that he was only a social escort. About her romance with Cooper, Marlene Dietrich
said "Gary was totally under the control of Lupe". The marriage with Weissmuller lasted five years; they repeatedly split and finally divorced in 1938. However, her love affair with Gary Cooper lasted until her death.
Andy Warhol
's underground film, Lupe (1965), starring Edie Sedgwick
as Lupe, is loosely based on this fateful night, suggesting that she was found with her head in the toilet due to nausea caused by the overdose. Another report says she tripped and fell head-first into the toilet, knocking herself unconscious and drowning.
In a poll of Mexican filmgoers, actresses like Marquita Rivera
and Amalia Aguilar
were chosen to star in a Hollywood film based on the life of the actress. However, due to the controversy over Vélez's suicide at that time, the film was never produced.
There is skepticism surrounding whether it was simply the shame of bearing an illegitimate child that led Vélez to end her life. Throughout her life she showed signs of extreme emotion, mania and depression. Consequently, it has been suggested that Vélez suffered from bipolar disorder
, which, left untreated, ultimately led to her suicide. Rosa Linda Fregoso writes that Vélez was known for her defiance of contemporary moral convention, and it seems unlikely that she could not have reconciled an "illegitimate child."
Lupe Vélez was laid to rest in the Civil Cemetery of Sorrows (Panteón Civil de Dolores), in the Tacubaya section of Mexico City, in a walled section within the itself walled cemetery, reserved for artists and administered by the National Association of Actors (A.N.D.A.).
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
film actress. Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. She was seen by Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...
who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had progressed to leading roles. With the advent of talking pictures Vélez acted in comedies, but she became disappointed with her film career, and moved to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where she worked in Broadway productions.
Returning to Hollywood in 1939, she made a series of comedies. She also made some films in Mexico. Vélez's personal life was often difficult; a five year marriage to Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
and a series of romances, were highly publicized. She is often associated with the nicknames "The Mexican Spitfire" and "The Hot Pepper".
Early life
Vélez was born María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez in the city of San Luis PotosíSan Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí, commonly called SLP or simply San Luis, is the capital of, and most populous city in the Mexican state of the same name. The city lies at an elevation of 1,850 meters...
in Mexico
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...
, the daughter of an army officer (Jacobo Villalobos Reyes) and his wife (Josefina Vélez), an opera singer, both from prominent families in the state of San Luis Potosí. Her father refused to let her use his last name in theater because at that time it was considered inappropriate for a person from a well-to-do family to be an actor, so she used her mother's surname. Lupe was educated at a convent school in Texas
Texas
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...
. From an early age, she had a strong temper and an explosive personality. She took dancing lessons and in 1924, made her performing debut at the Teatro Principal in 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...
, along with stars like Maria Conesa, Prudencia Grifell
Prudencia Grifell
Prudencia Grifell , born Prudencia Grifell Masipon, was a prolific actress of the Golden Era of the Cinema of Mexico.-Early life:...
and Mimí Derba
Mimí Derba
Mimí Derba was a Mexican actress and the first female director in Mexico. Derba founded one of the very first Mexican production companies, Azteca Films. She had a successful career in Vaudeville before entering films.-External links:....
. In 1923 she moved to Texas
Texas
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...
, where she began dancing in vaudeville shows and finding work as a sales assistant. She moved to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where she met the comedienne Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...
, who promoted her career as a dancer. In 1926 she was cast in her first film by Hal Roach
Hal Roach
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
.
Film career
The Gaucho
The Gaucho is a 1927 movie starring Douglas Fairbanks and Lupe Vélez set in Argentina. The lavish adventure extravaganza, filmed at the height of Fairbanks' box office clout, was directed by F...
(1927) starring Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
. The next year, she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
, the young starlets deemed to be most promising for movie stardom. Most of her early films cast her in exotic or ethnic roles (Hispanic, Native American, French, Russian, even Asian).
She worked under the direction of notable film directors like Victor Fleming
Victor Fleming
Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...
in The Wolf Song
The Wolf Song
The Wolf Song, also known as Wolf Song, is a 1929 silent film with a synchronized score and sound effects directed by Victor Fleming and starring Gary Cooper and Lupe Vélez. This Pre-Code film is notable for showing full frontal nudity...
(1929) opposite 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...
; D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...
in Lady of the Pavements
Lady of the Pavements
Lady of the Pavements is a silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lupe Vélez, William Boyd, and Jetta Goudal. Griffith reshot the film to include a couple of musical numbers, making it a part-talkie.-Preservation:The Vitaphone sound-on-disc system was employed for sound sequences...
(1928); Tod Browning
Tod Browning
Tod Browning was an American motion picture actor, director and screenwriter.Browning's career spanned the silent and talkie eras...
in Where East Is East
Where East Is East
Where East Is East, is a 1929 silent movie starring Lon Chaney, Sr. as an animal trapper in Laos. The picture is Chaney's penultimate silent film and the last of his collaborations with director Tod Browning...
opposite Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...
and Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
in The Squaw Man
The Squaw Man (1931 film)
The Squaw Man is a film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It was the third version of the same play that he filmed, and the first in sound. It stars Warner Baxter in the leading role. The film lost $150,000 in its initial release...
in 1931. By the end of the silent era the sparkling personality of Lupe rivalled that of the Flapper Girl, Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
.
Within a few years Vélez found her niche in comedies, playing beautiful but volatile foils to comedy stars. Her slapstick battle with Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
in Hollywood Party
Hollywood Party (1934 film)
Hollywood Party is a musical film starring Jimmy Durante. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film had no director credited, although it has been asserted that Richard Boleslawski, Allan Dwan, Edmund Goulding, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, George Stevens and Sam Wood...
and her dynamic presence opposite Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
in Palooka (both 1934) are typically enthusiastic Vélez performances. She was featured in the final Wheeler & Woolsey
Wheeler & Woolsey
Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were a famous American film comedy team of the 1930s....
comedy, High Flyers (1937), doing impersonations of Simone Simon
Simone Simon
Simone Thérèse Fernande Simon was a French film actress who began her film career in 1931.-Early life:Born in Béthune, Pas-de-Calais France, she was the daughter of Henri Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French engineer, airplane pilot in World War II, who died in a concentration camp, and Erma Maria...
, 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...
, and Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
.
In 1934, Velez was one of the victims of the "open season" of the "reds" in Hollywood. With 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...
, Ramón Novarro
Ramón Novarro
Ramón Novarro was a Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino...
and James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
, she was accused of promoting communism in California.
Vélez was now nearing 30 and had not become a major star. Disappointed, she left Hollywood for 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 New York, she landed a role in You Never Know, a short-lived Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
musical. After the run of You Never Know, Vélez looked for film work in other countries. Returning to Hollywood in 1939, she snared the lead in a B comedy for RKO Radio Pictures, The Girl from Mexico. She established such a rapport with co-star Leon Errol
Leon Errol
Leon Errol , was an Australian-born American comedian and actor, popular in the first half of the 20th century.-Biography:...
that RKO made a quick sequel, Mexican Spitfire, which became a very popular series. Vélez perfected her comic character, indulging in broken-English malaprops, troublemaking ideas, and sudden fits of temper bursting into torrents of Spanish invective. She occasionally sang in these films, and often displayed a talent for hectic, visual comedy. Vélez enjoyed making these films and can be seen openly breaking up at Leon Errol's comic ad libs.
The Spitfire films rejuvenated Lupe Vélez's career, and for the next few years she starred in musical and comedy features for RKO, Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, and Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
in addition to the Spitfire films. In one of her last films, Columbia's Redhead from Manhattan, she played a dual role: one in her exaggerated comic dialect, and the other in her actual speaking voice, which was surprisingly fluid and had only traces of a Mexican accent.
Lupe Vélez was very popular with Spanish-speaking audiences. In 1943, she returned to Mexico and starred in the movies La Zandunga
La Zandunga (film)
La Zandunga is a 1938 Mexican romantic drama film directed by Fernando de Fuentes and starring the "Mexican Spitfire" Lupe Vélez.-Plot:In a little town around Tehuantepec, in Oaxaca, México, live a beautiful and cheerful girl named Lupe , in love with a stranger marine named Juancho . The man...
(1938), and an adaptation of Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
's novel Nana
Nana (1944 film)
Nana is a 1944 Mexican film by Celestino Gorostiza and Roberto Gavaldón. It is an adaptation of Emile Zola's novel Nana. It was the last film of the Mexican star Lupe Vélez.-Plot:Based in the Emile Zola same name novel...
(1944), which was well received. Subsequently, she returned to Hollywood.
Romances
Emotionally generous, passionate, and high-spirited, Vélez had a number of highly publicized affairs, including a particularly emotionally draining one with Gary CooperGary 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...
, before marrying Olympic athlete Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
(of Tarzan fame) in 1933, and later, in 1938, Mexican actor Arturo de Córdova
Arturo de Córdova
Arturo de Córdova was a Mexican film actor. He made over one hundred films in all.-Career:He was born in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. Most of Córdova's films were made in Mexico and he became a major motion picture actor in Latin America and Spain winning three Silver Ariel's and received four other...
. In the early 1940s she was also linked romantically with Clayton Moore, later known for his television role as the Lone Ranger; Moore insists in his autobiography that he was only a social escort. About her romance with Cooper, Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
said "Gary was totally under the control of Lupe". The marriage with Weissmuller lasted five years; they repeatedly split and finally divorced in 1938. However, her love affair with Gary Cooper lasted until her death.
Death
In the mid-1940s, she had a relationship with the young actor Harald Maresch, and became pregnant with his child. However, other reliable accounts place Gary Cooper, with whom Lupe had had a romantic relationship for years and up to her death, as the father of her unborn child, either making her alleged suicide note bogus, or Maresch only a scapegoat. Unable to face the shame of giving birth to an illegitimate child, she decided to take her own life. Her alleged suicide note read, "To Harald: May God forgive you and forgive me, too; but I prefer to take my life away and our baby's, before I bring him with shame, or killing him. Lupe." She retired to bed after taking an overdose of sleeping pills. According to newspaper accounts, her body was found by her secretary and companion of ten years, Beulah Kinder, on her bed surrounded by flowers, as she had wished.Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's underground film, Lupe (1965), starring Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick
Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...
as Lupe, is loosely based on this fateful night, suggesting that she was found with her head in the toilet due to nausea caused by the overdose. Another report says she tripped and fell head-first into the toilet, knocking herself unconscious and drowning.
In a poll of Mexican filmgoers, actresses like Marquita Rivera
Marquita Rivera
Marquita Rivera , a.k.a. "Queen of Latin Rhythm", was a Puerto Rican actress, singer and dancer.Dubbed the "Queen of La Conga", "Queen of Latin Rhythm" and "Latin Hurricane" during various stages of her career, Rivera, went on to enjoy a strong musical career both in the United States and in her...
and Amalia Aguilar
Amalia Aguilar
Amalia Aguilar is a Cuban and Mexican film actress and dancer of the Golden age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. She was considered one of the icons of the Rumberas film.- Early life :...
were chosen to star in a Hollywood film based on the life of the actress. However, due to the controversy over Vélez's suicide at that time, the film was never produced.
There is skepticism surrounding whether it was simply the shame of bearing an illegitimate child that led Vélez to end her life. Throughout her life she showed signs of extreme emotion, mania and depression. Consequently, it has been suggested that Vélez suffered from bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
, which, left untreated, ultimately led to her suicide. Rosa Linda Fregoso writes that Vélez was known for her defiance of contemporary moral convention, and it seems unlikely that she could not have reconciled an "illegitimate child."
Lupe Vélez was laid to rest in the Civil Cemetery of Sorrows (Panteón Civil de Dolores), in the Tacubaya section of Mexico City, in a walled section within the itself walled cemetery, reserved for artists and administered by the National Association of Actors (A.N.D.A.).
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1927 | What Women Did for Me | uncredited | short subject |
| Sailors, Beware! | Baroness Behr (uncredited) | Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema... silent short |
|
| The Gaucho The Gaucho The Gaucho is a 1927 movie starring Douglas Fairbanks and Lupe Vélez set in Argentina. The lavish adventure extravaganza, filmed at the height of Fairbanks' box office clout, was directed by F... |
The Mountain Girl | Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro.... adventure. |
|
| 1928 | Stand and Deliver | Jania | |
| 1929 | Hollywood Snapshots #11 | Herself | short subject |
| Lady of the Pavements Lady of the Pavements Lady of the Pavements is a silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lupe Vélez, William Boyd, and Jetta Goudal. Griffith reshot the film to include a couple of musical numbers, making it a part-talkie.-Preservation:The Vitaphone sound-on-disc system was employed for sound sequences... |
Nanon del Rayon | aka Lady of the Night (UK) | |
| The Wolf Song The Wolf Song The Wolf Song, also known as Wolf Song, is a 1929 silent film with a synchronized score and sound effects directed by Victor Fleming and starring Gary Cooper and Lupe Vélez. This Pre-Code film is notable for showing full frontal nudity... |
Lola Salazar | ||
| Where East Is East Where East Is East Where East Is East, is a 1929 silent movie starring Lon Chaney, Sr. as an animal trapper in Laos. The picture is Chaney's penultimate silent film and the last of his collaborations with director Tod Browning... |
Toyo Haynes | With Lon Chaney Lon Chaney, Sr. Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema... |
|
| Tiger Rose | Rose | ||
| 1930 | Hell Harbor | Anita Morgan | |
| The Storm | Manette Fachard | ||
| East Is West | Ming Toy | Spanish language version was filmed, also starring Vélez |
|
| 1931 | Resurrection Resurrection (1931 English-language film) Resurrection is a 1931 English-language adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel Resurrection produced by Universal Studios. It was an all-talking version starring John Boles and Lupe Vélez. It was directed by Edwin Carewe, who had also directed the previous 1927 silent adaptation. A Spanish language... |
Katusha Maslova | |
| Resurrección Resurrection (1931 Spanish-language film) Resurrection is a 1931 Spanish-language adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel Resurrection produced by Universal Studios the same year they made the first English-language all-talking version of the film. The film was directed by Eduardo Arozamena and David Selman and starred Gilbert Roland and... |
Katyusha Maslova | ||
| The Squaw Man The Squaw Man (1931 film) The Squaw Man is a film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It was the third version of the same play that he filmed, and the first in sound. It stars Warner Baxter in the leading role. The film lost $150,000 in its initial release... |
Naturich | ||
| The Cuban Love Song | Nenita Lopez | ||
| 1932 | The Voice of Hollywood No. 13 | Herself | short subject |
| Men in Her Life | Julia Clark | Spanish language version of 1931 film | |
| The Broken Wing | Lolita | ||
| Kongo Kongo (1932 film) Kongo is a 1932 talking Pre-Code film produced and distributed by MGM. It was directed by William J. Cowen and starred Walter Huston, reprising his 1926 Broadway stage role. Lupe Vélez and Virginia Bruce co-star with Huston in this filmization of the 1926 Broadway play, which starred Huston... |
Tula | ||
| The Half-Naked Truth The Half-Naked Truth The Half-Naked Truth is a pre-Hayes Code comedy directed by Gregory LaCava and featuring Lee Tracy as a carnival pitchman who finagles his girlfriend, a fiery hoochie dancer played by Lupe Vélez, into a major Broadway revue under the auspices of an impresario portrayed by Frank... |
Teresita | ||
| 1933 | Hot Pepper Hot Pepper (1933 film) Hot Pepper is a comedy film starring Lupe Vélez, Edmund Lowe, and Victor McLaglen, directed by John G. Blystone and released by Fox Film Corporation... |
Pepper | |
| Mr. Broadway Mr. Broadway (1933 film) Mr. Broadway is a 1933 comedy film written by Abel Green and Ed Sullivan. The film was directed by Johnnie Walker and stars Ed Sullivan along with a cast of celebrity walk-ons.-Plot synopsis:... |
Herself | documentary | |
| 1934 | Palooka Joe Palooka Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher in 1921. The strip debuted in 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers.... |
Nina Madero | aka Joe Palooka Joe Palooka Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher in 1921. The strip debuted in 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers.... |
| Strictly Dynamite | Vera Mendez | ||
| Laughing Boy Laughing Boy (1934 film) Laughing Boy is a 1934 film directed by W. S. Van Dyke and is based on the novel of the same name by Oliver La Farge- Cast :... |
Slim Girl | ||
| Hollywood Party Hollywood Party (1934 film) Hollywood Party is a musical film starring Jimmy Durante. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film had no director credited, although it has been asserted that Richard Boleslawski, Allan Dwan, Edmund Goulding, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, George Stevens and Sam Wood... |
The Jaguar Woman Jane in Schnarzan sequence |
Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema... have a cameo appearance |
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| 1935 | The Morals of Marcus | Carlotta | |
| 1936 | Gypsy Melody | Mila | |
| 1937 | High Flyers | Maria Juanita Rosita Anita Moreno del Valle | |
| Stardust | Carla de Huelva | aka He Loved an Actress (USA) | |
| La Zandunga La Zandunga (film) La Zandunga is a 1938 Mexican romantic drama film directed by Fernando de Fuentes and starring the "Mexican Spitfire" Lupe Vélez.-Plot:In a little town around Tehuantepec, in Oaxaca, México, live a beautiful and cheerful girl named Lupe , in love with a stranger marine named Juancho . The man... |
Lupe | First Spanish-speaking movie in México 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... |
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| 1939 | The Girl from Mexico | Carmelita Fuentes | |
| 1940 | Mexican Spitfire | Carmelita Lindsay | |
| Mexican Spitfire Out West | Carmelita Lindsay | ||
| 1941 | Recordar es vivir | short subject | |
| Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga | Madame La Zonga | ||
| Mexican Spitfire's Baby | Carmelita Lindsay | ||
| Honolulu Lu | Consuelo Cordoba | ||
| Playmates Playmates (1941 film) Playmates is a comedy film directed by David Butler, and starring Kay Kyser and John Barrymore. This was Barrymore's final film.-Cast:*Kay Kyser as Kay Kyser*John Barrymore as John Barrymore*Lupe Vélez as Carmen Del Toro... |
Carmen del Toro | last film of John Barrymore John Barrymore John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III... |
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| 1942 | Mexican Spitfire at Sea | Carmelita Lindsay | |
| Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost | Carmelita Lindsay | ||
| Mexican Spitfire's Elephant | Carmelita Lindsay | ||
| 1943 | Ladies' Day | Pepita Zorita | |
| Redhead from Manhattan | Rita Manners/Elaine Manners | ||
| Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event | Carmelita Lindsay | ||
| 1944 | Nana Nana (1944 film) Nana is a 1944 Mexican film by Celestino Gorostiza and Roberto Gavaldón. It is an adaptation of Emile Zola's novel Nana. It was the last film of the Mexican star Lupe Vélez.-Plot:Based in the Emile Zola same name novel... |
Nana | |
External links
at the Cinema of Mexico site of the ITESM- This is the music video by the Italian group "Il Palco della Musica" performing "Lupe Vèlez", directed by Pier Bruno Scotto. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QHqlr1HplI
- Straight Dope Staff Report: Did Lupe Vélez really drown in the toilet? at straightdope.com "Did Lupe Vélez Really Die On the Toilet?" at The Straight Dope
- The fourth chapter of Tex(t)-Mex: Seductive Hallucination of the "Mexican" in America by William NericcioWilliam NericcioWilliam Anthony Nericcio, aka Memo, is a Chicano literary theorist, cultural critic, American Literature scholar, and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University...
, focuses on the life and death of Lupe Vélez and is entitled, Lupe Vélez Regurgitated or Jesus’s Kleenex: Cautionary, Indigestion-inspiring Ruminations on "Mexicans" in "American" Toilets. - Lupe Vélez as an infant in 1908(University of Washington, Sayre Collection)