Katy Jurado
January 16th, 1924 - July 5th, 2002
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It was said of Katy Jurado that “She planted the
Mexican flag in the U.S. film industry and made her country proud”.
From the late 1930’s until the early 1950’s, Mexico
led the world in Spanish language films, producing up to 125 pictures
a year. Katy was one of their leading actresses when director
Budd Boetticher saw her sitting in a bullfight arena where he
was shooting scenes for “Torero” (“The Bullfighter
and the Lady”) in 1951. She got the role of Chelo Estrada
without knowing a word of English.
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Katy was born Maria Christina Jurado Garcia in
Guadalajara, Mexico to an upper middle-class family and,
even as a child, knew she wanted to be an actress. She married
at 16 so that she could pursue a career in films without
parental consent and had two children before the marriage
ended in divorce (however her death notice only listed one
daughter surviving her). Katy’s first film “No
mataras” was released in 1943 and the fiery beauty
was on her way.
American audiences got their first real look at
Katy when she played Helen Ramirez, a Mexican woman of questionable
virtue, in “High Noon” (1952). In 1954 she became
the first Mexican-born actress ever to be nominated for
an Academy Award for her role opposite Spencer Tracy in
“Broken Lance” and won Mexico’s highest
award the same year for her performance as the jealous mistress
of a butcher hired by her husband to evict tenants in “El
Brutus”.
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Katy married for a second time on New Year’s Eve,
1959 to actor Ernest Borgnine but the marriage only lasted about
2 1/2 years. She continued to make films on both sides of the
border as well as television movies and guest spots. In Mexico,
she is most remembered for her role in the 1957 melodrama “Nosotros
Los Pobres” (We The Poor) opposite Mexican heartthrob Pedro
Infante. In America she gave her all to an Elvis Presley picture
“Stay Away, Joe” where she played Annie Lightcloud,
Presley’s stepmother. Katy gained 22 lbs. in 22 days to
look the part and worked with a broken foot ( she limped through
the entire film).
Her last film role was as Esperanza, an elderly
writer, in “A Beautiful Secret” (2002) just
before her death. It won awards at both the Sarasota Film
Festival and the film festival at Guadalajara.
Katy Jurado died at home in Cuernavaca, Mexico
on July 5th, 2002 of lung and heart disease. She was 78.
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Here are some of her other films:
Arrowhead (1953)
The Racers (1955)
Trapeze (1956)
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Barabbas (1962)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
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