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Katy Jurado was born María Cristina Estela Jurado García into a wealthy family on January 16, 1924. Her early years were spent amid luxury until her family's lands were confiscated by the federal government for redistribution to the landless peasantry. Despite the loss of property, the matriarch of the family, her grandmother, continued to live by her aristocratic ideals. When movie star Emilio Fernandez discovered Katy at the age of 16 and 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 actor Víctor Velázquez.

Jurado eventually made her debut in No matarás (1943) during the what has been called "The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema". Blessed with stunning beauty and an assertive personality, Jurado specialized in playing determined women in a wide variety of films in Mexico and the United States. Her looks were evocative of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, and she used what she called her "distinguished and sensuous look" to carve a niche for herself in Mexican cinema. Indian features were unusual for a film star in Mexico--despite the success of Fernandez, the fabled "El Indio"--and her ethnic look meant she typically was cast as a dangerous seductress, a popular type in Mexican movies. The Mexican media reported that an American movie director at one of her first Hollywood auditions laughed at her derisively because she spoke English so poorly, and an outraged Jurado promptly stormed out of the audition room, cursing in Spanish. As it turned out, that kind of brazen behavior was exactly the type of personality that the director was looking for.

In addition to acting, Jurado worked as a movie columnist and radio reporter to support her family. She also worked as a bullfight critic, and it was at a bullfight that Jurado was spotted by John Wayne and director Budd Boetticher. Boetticher, who was also a professional bullfighter, cast Jurado in his autobiographical film Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), which he shot in Mexico. She was cast in her part despite having very limited English-language skills and had to speak her lines phonetically. Luis Buñuel cast her in his Mexican melodrama The Brute (1953), and then she made her big breakthrough in American films in the role of Gary Cooper's former mistress, saloon owner Helen Ramirez, in High Noon (1952). The role necessitated her moving to Hollywood. She received two Golden Globe nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for that part, for Most Promising Newcomer and Best Supporting Actress, winning the latter. "She planted the Mexican flag in the U.S. film industry, and made her country proud", said National Actors Association official Mauricio Hernandez. Her "High Noon" performance historically proved to be an important acting watershed for Latino women in American movies. Jurado's portrayal undermined the Hollywood stereotype of the flaming, passionate Mexican "spitfire." Previously, Mexican and Latino women in Hollywood films were characterized by an unbridled sexuality, as exemplified by such diverse actresses as Lupe Velez, Dolores Del Río (who came to loathe Hollywood and returned to Mexico in the 1940s), and Rita Hayworth, nee Margarita Cansino. Although Jurado's character was forced to kow-tow to the stereotype in "High Noon", delivering such lines as, "It takes more than big, broad shoulders to make a man," the actress' great dignity in her role as a moral arbiter among the competing factions of the marshal and his fiancée, the townspeople and the gunmen out to kill the marshal showed her Helen Ramirez to be in control and controlled by nothing, not even her former love for the marshal. Her restrained performance, delivered with a great deal of conviction, emphasized the shortcomings of the rest of the other characters. Her moral integrity is the reason she, like the marshal, must abandon the town.

With her superb performance, Jurado proved that Latino women could be more than just sexpots in the American cinema. Importantly, working against the tropes of a racist cinema, she used her talent to introduce into the American cinema the model of the un-stereotyped Mexican woman who is identifiably Mexican. One of the best examples of this can be seen at the end of the middle of her career, when Jurado played sheriff Slim Pickens' wife and partner in Sam Peckinpah's elegiac Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). Determined and tough as nails, Jurado's character was clearly her screen husband's equal, and she had a very moving scene with Pickens as his character faced death. Jurado was blessed with extraordinary eyes, which were both beautiful and expressive, their beauty and strength never fading with age. Two years after "High Noon", Jurado received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Spencer Tracy's Indian wife in Edward Dmytryk's Broken Lance (1954), making her the first Mexican actress thus honored.

She refused to sign a contract with a major Hollywood studio in order to be able to return to Mexico between her American roles to star in Mexican films. She +remained in Los Angeles for 10 years, marrying Ernest Borgnine, her co-star in The Badlanders (1958), in 1959. During their tempestuous relationship, Jurado and Borgnine separated and reconciled before finally separating for good in 1961. The tabloids reported that Borgnine had abused her, and their separation proved rocky as well, as they fought over alimony. Their divorce became final in 1964. Borgnine summed up his ex-wife as "beautiful, but a tiger", a bon mot that described her on-screen persona as well (she had two children with former husband Victor Velasquez, a daughter and a son, who tragically was killed in an automobile accident in 1981).

Jurado played the wife of Marlon Brando's nemesis Dad Longworth (Karl Malden) in One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Brando's sole directorial effort. In her role she also was the mother of a young woman who was Brando's love interest, thus marking a career transition point as she assumed the role of a mature woman. As Jurado aged, she appeared in fewer films, but notable among them included Arrowhead (1953) with Charlton Heston, Trapeze (1956) in support of Burt Lancaster and Man from Del Rio (1956) with her fellow Mexican national Anthony Quinn who, unlike Jurado, had become an American citizen. She also appeared with Quinn in _Barabbas (1962)_and The Children of Sanchez (1978).

She appeared on the Western-themed American TV shows Death Valley Days (1952), The Rifleman (1958), The Westerner (1960) and The Virginian (1962). Her career in the US began to wind down, and she was reduced to appearing in "B" pictures like Smoky (1966) with Fess Parker and the Elvis Presley movie Stay Away, Joe (1968). She attempted to commit suicide in 1968, and then moved back home to Mexico permanently, though she continued to appear in American films as a character actress. Her last American film appearance was in Stephen Frears' The Hi-Lo Country (1998), capping a half-century-long American movie career that continued due to her talent and remarkable presence, long after her extraordinary good looks had faded.

Aside from acting in films in the US and Europe, she continued to act in Mexican films. Her most memorable role in Mexican movies was in Nosotros los pobres (1948) (aka "We the Poor") opposite superstar Pedro Infante. Though in the latter part of her career she appeared occasionally in American films shot in Mexico (including an appearance with her former mentor, Emilio Fernandez, in "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" and John Huston's Under the Volcano (1984)), she appeared mostly in Mexican movies in the last decades of her career, becoming a prominent and highly respected character actress. She played the leader of a religious cult in the Bunuel-like satire Divine (1998). Jurado won three Ariel awards, the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar, a Best Supporting Actress award in 1954 for Bunuel's The Brute (1953) a Best Actress Award in 1974 for Fe, esperanza y caridad (1974) and a Best Supporting Actress award in 1999 for "El evangelio de las Maravillas". She also was awarded a Special Golden Ariel for Lifetime Achievment in 1997. In the north, she was honored with a Golden Boot Award by the Motion Picture & Television Fund in 1992 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Jurado was an avid promoter of her home state of Morelos as a location for filmmakers.

Towards the end of her life, she suffered from heart and lung ailments. Katy Jurado died on July 5, 2002, at the age of 78 at her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She was survived by her daughter.

Rosemarie Bowe frequently turned heads with her flashing turquoise eyes, sultry mane of black hair and sparkling personality. Effortlessly diverting attention from the scenic location spots of her mid-'50s film adventures and dramas, her stroll before the cameras was short--it was over within a few years.

The Montana-born beauty was the daughter of a building contractor, Dennis Bowe, and his wife Ruby. She and her siblings (Clara and Sydney) were raised in Tacoma, Washington, where Rosemarie first developed an interest in the arts. Dancing and appearing in operetta-styled musicals at her high school in Tacoma, she graduated and attended Tacoma Community College for one semester before being drawn to modeling. Finding work as a photographer's model and fashion cover girl in the Seattle area, she was the winner of pageant titles, including "Miss Tacoma", and was an official entrant in the "Miss Washington" contest. Eventually she relocated to Los Angeles, where she ultimately made the cover of Life magazine, among others.

Rosemarie broke into films in the early 1950s, primarily as an extra (model, swimmer) in MGM musicals. Within a few years she had moved into TV episodic work and earned a co-starring role in the voodoo adventure The Golden Mistress (1954) which was written and directed by Abner Biberman under the pseudonym Joel Judge (he also had a supporting role as her father). The film, starring Shirley Temple's ex, John Agar, was obvious hokum but did take the time to emphasize its lovely newcomer. Rosemarie was quite stunning as a jungle captive and signed on to play a few other decorative, damsel-in-distress roles.

Nothing-special movies more or less came and went but did little to test her dramatic mettle; they were, however, providing the requisite building ground for her to move up the Hollywood ranks. The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954) had Rosemarie playing a slave girl in support of dashing young commoner John Derek and spirited princess Elaine Stewart. In the noirish The Big Bluff (1955), Rosemarie provided a harder edge as a married nightclub singer dallying on the side with lothario John Bromfield who, in turn, is making a play for the affections of wealthy but terminally ill widow Martha Vickers. The View from Pompey's Head (1955) focused more on star Dana Wynter, a scene-stealing Marjorie Rambeau and its Southern-bred racism theme than on Rosemarie's secondary role. Her last leading film assignment was in the preachy western The Peacemaker (1956) as a benevolent lady who tries to help gunfighter-turned-minister James Mitchell (who was then better known for his dancing skills in musicals) tame a corrupt town.

Rosemarie ended her career after marrying Robert Stack, 13 years her senior, on January 23, 1956. The couple eventually became the parents of a daughter (Elizabeth) and son (Charles). Sharing a love with her husband for the outdoors, especially sailing and horseback riding, Rosemarie enjoyed life as a Hollywood celebrity and socialite and expressed no regrets in ending her career. In October of 1969 she survived a serious automobile accident in Sacramento that killed her husband's cousin and left her with injuries requiring plastic surgery. Occasionally she came out of her self-imposed retirement to appear on TV, usually in vehicles starring her husband, such as the mini-movie Murder on Flight 502 (1975).

Her beloved husband, Robert Stack, died in 2003 after 47 years of marriage. Rosemarie passed away many years later on January 20, 2019, at age 86.

Mario Almada was born on 7 January 1922 in Huatabampo, Sonora, Mexico. He was an actor and producer, known for Todo por nada (1969), El tunco Maclovio (1970) and Chido Guan, el tacos de oro (1986). He died on 4 October 2016 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Sasha Montenegro was born on 20 January 1946 in Bari, Puglia, Italy. She was an actress, known for Las vías del amor (2002), Llámenme Mike (1979) and Santo vs. the Killers from Other Worlds (1973). She was married to José López Portillo y Pacheco. She died on 14 February 2024 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Abel Salazar was born on 24 September 1917 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was an actor and producer, known for Valentín de la Sierra (1968), Los adolescentes (1967) and The Brainiac (1962). He was married to Rosita Arenas, Gloria Marín and Alicia Cardenas. He died on 21 October 1995 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Chavela Vargas was born on 17 April 1919 in San Joaquin de Flores, Costa Rica. She was an actress, known for Frida (2002), Julieta (2016) and A Bigger Splash (2015). She died on 5 August 2012 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Luis Alcoriza was born on 5 September 1918 in Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain. He was a writer and director, known for Presagio (1974), Mecánica nacional (1972) and Tlayucan (1962). He was married to Janet Alcoriza. He died on 3 December 1992 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Pancho Córdova was born on 17 August 1916 in Pichucalco, Chiapas, Mexico. He was an actor and writer, known for The Long Goodbye (1973), El águila descalza (1971) and Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970). He died on 7 March 1990 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Sonia Furió was born on 30 July 1937 in Alicante, Spain. She was an actress and director, known for El deseo en otoño (1972), Fiesta en el corazón (1958) and La sombra del otro (1957). She died on 1 December 1996 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Gene Gauntier was born on 17 May 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for A Hitherto Unrelated Incident of the Girl Spy (1911), The Scarlet Letter (1908) and Evangeline (1908). She was married to J.J. Clark. She died on 18 December 1966 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Starting out as the breadwinner for her family, Nina Wilcox Putnam made many sacrifices to succeed. Although she is most known today by her connection to the 1932 classic, "The Mummy", throughout her long life Nina had many claims to fame. In her early career as an accountant she is attached to the origins of the 1040 tax form. Her name made headlines as the wife of Robert Faulkner Putnam, the publisher. In the world of comic books, she had the series, "Sunny Funny Bunny". Beginning in 1929 Nina invaded the land of the comic strip with, "Witty Kitty". However, the career she stayed the longest with was as a novelist. Her most popular work, based on the many editions printed throughout the years, is the children's book, "Sunny Bunny". It didn't hurt that the illustrator was Johnny Gruelle ("Raggedy Ann & Andy"). Her other books include: "Paris Love", "Believe You Me", "Tomorrow We Diet", Winkle Twinkle and "Lollypop". The film Golden Harvest (1933) was based on a play she had written. She was also known as an avid traveler.

Federico Curiel was born on 19 February 1917 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was a director and writer, known for Neutrón, el enmascarado negro (1960), Cazadores de cabezas (1962) and Los autómatas de la muerte (1962). He was married to Stella Defossé Torres. He died on 17 June 1985 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Margarita Isabel was born on 25 July 1943 in Mexico City, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Like Water for Chocolate (1992), Mujeres insumisas (1995) and Cronos (1992). She was married to Mario Iván Martínez Ortega. She died on 9 April 2017 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Gerardo Reyes was born on 25 March 1935 in Balsas, Guerrero, Mexico. He was an actor and writer, known for Jacinto el tullido (1984), Sin fortuna (1980) and El rey de los caminos (1982). He died on 25 February 2015 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Claudio Báez was born on 23 March 1948 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Contrato con la muerte (1985), Narco terror (1985) and Bulldog (1993). He was married to Isaura Espinoza. He died on 19 November 2017 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Charles Mingus is an American jazz double bassist, pianist, composer and bandleader.

A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history, with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dannie Richmond, and Herbie Hancock.

Mingus' compositions continue to be played by contemporary musicians ranging from the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra, to the high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition.

Prolific multi award-winning Mexican composer of over 900 songs (many of which have become standards of Latin music) and 500 soundtracks. He was hand-picked by Walt Disney to write most of the Mexican musical segment for The Three Caballeros (1944), alongside Agustin Lara, Ary Barroso and his frequent collaborator, Ernesto Cortázar. Apart from 'Ay Jalisco, No Te Rajes', his other famous compositions, include 'No Volvere', 'Cantaclaro' and 'Cuando Me Vaya'. The last two were winners of Silver Ariel Awards in 1947 and 1955, respectively. The son of a civil engineer father and a concert pianist mother, Esperon completed his musical education in Mexico, then became an accompanist to silent films. He worked as an arranger/orchestrator until 1933, when he composed his first film score.

Esperon was notable for integrating mariachi music into many of his screen compositions and had noted collaborations with many of the best-known interpreters of contemporary Mexican music, such as Jorge Negrete and 'Lola Beltran'. In 1990, he received the highest award bestowed in his native country, the National Prize of Arts and Sciences, for his contribution to culture.

Leticia Palma was born on 23 December 1920 in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Vagabunda (1950), In the Palm of Your Hand (1951) and Four Against the World (1950). She was married to Emilio Tello Peña. She died on 4 December 2009 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Lilia Aragón was born on 22 September 1938 in Cuautla, Morelos, Mexico. She was an actress and producer, known for Cuna de lobos (1986), La casa al final de la calle (1989) and Ángel de fuego (1992). She was married to Guillermo Mendizábal and Enrique Soto. She died on 2 August 2021 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Kitty Kallen was born on 25 May 1921 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Devil All the Time (2020), The Second Greatest Sex (1955) and Circle of Friends (1995). She was married to Budd Granoff and Clint Garvin. She died on 7 January 2016 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Miguel Zacarías was born on 19 March 1905 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was a producer and director, known for El dolor de los hijos (1949), Soledad (1947) and The Guns of Juana Gallo (1961). He was married to Herlinda Bustos Venegas. He died on 20 April 2006 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Fernando Wagner was born on 7 November 1905 in Göttingen, Germany. He was a director and cinematographer, known for The Wild Bunch (1969), Cartas de amor (1960) and La maldición de la blonda (1971). He was married to Helgard Nitz. He died on 20 October 1973 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Manuel Puig, Juan Manuel Puig Delledonne, was born on December 28, 1932 in General Villegas Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. He was a writer, playwright and actor. He studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires and screenwriting in Italy. He traveled in Europe doing odd jobs. In the 1960's he returned to Argentine where he penned his first major novel, "La traición de Rita Hayworth". Being a left wing symphatizer in a very conservative Argentine, Puig considered it necessary to move and in 1973 he chose Mexico City for his new home. Four of his novels has been filmed. Best known are "El beso de la mujer araña" (1985)," Boquitas pintadas" (1974) and "Pubis Angelical" (1982). He experienced a tremendous success with the novel "El beso de la mujer araña" (Kiss of the Spider Woman), published in 1976. Later in the early 1980's he rewrote the story and turned it into a play as well as a screenplay. He died of a heart attack at 4:55 a.m. on July 22, 1990, Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Berta Domínguez D. was an actress and writer, known for Maya (1981), Where Is Parsifal? (1984) and The Rainbow Thief (1990). She was married to Alexander Salkind. She died on 9 October 2008 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Gloria Lasso was born on 28 October 1922 in Vilafranca del Penedés, Catalonia, Spain. She was an actress and writer, known for Someone, Somewhere (2019), Cuéntame cómo pasó (2001) and Domingos Herdez (1962). She died on 4 December 2005 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.