Sara Montiel
| Sara Montiel | |
|---|---|
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Montiel in 1956.
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| Born |
María Antonia Abad Fernández 10 March 1928 Campo de Criptana, Ciudad Real, Spain |
| Died | 8 April 2013 (aged 85) Madrid, Spain |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Occupation | Singer, actress |
| Years active | 1942–2012 |
| Spouse(s) | Antonio Hernández (2002–2005; divorced) José Tous Barberán (1979–1992; his death; 2 children) José Vicente Ramírez Olalla (1964–1970; divorced) Anthony Mann (1957–1963; divorced) |
María Antonia Abad Fernández (10 March 1928 – 8 April 2013) known professionally as Sara Montiel (also Sarita Montiel or Saritísima) was a Spanish singer and actress.
Montiel was born in Campo de Criptana in the region of Castile–La Mancha in 1928 as María Antonia Abad (complete name María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isidora Abad Fernández). She worked in Europe, Latin America and United States. Her films The Last Torch Song and The Violet Seller netted the highest gross revenues ever recorded for films made in the Spanish-speaking movie industry during the 1950s/60s. Montiel's film Variety was banned in Beijing in 1973. She played the role of Antonia, the niece of Don Quixote, in the 1947 Spanish film version of Cervantes's great novel.
She was portrayed in the Pedro Almodóvar film Bad Education by a male actor in drag (Gael García Bernal) as the cross-dressing character Zahara, and a film clip from one of her movies was used, as well.
Montiel started in movies at 15 in her native Spain where she filmed her first movie playing an Islamic princess in the 1948 film Madness for Love, released in the U.S. as The Mad Queen. Later worked in Mexico, starring in a dozen films in less than five years. Hollywood came calling afterwards, and she was introduced to United States moviegoers in the film Vera Cruz (1954) co-starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, and directed by Robert Aldrich. She was offered the standard seven-year contract at Columbia Pictures, which she refused, afraid of Hollywood's typecasting policies for Hispanics. Instead she freelanced at Warner Bros. with Mario Lanza and Joan Fontaine in Serenade (1956), directed by Anthony Mann, and at RKO in Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow (1957), opposite Rod Steiger and Charles Bronson.
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