Easily one of the most beautiful women of her era and one of the most gorgeous people ever to make it to the ranks of film stardom. Del Rio's career in the 1920s and 30s unfortunately suffered from too many exotic, two-dimensional roles designed with Hollywood's cliched ideas of ethnic minorities in mind. Her best-remembered film from this period is "Flying Down to Rio" (1933), which partnered Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for the first time. One of her more interesting parts was her last American lead, in "Journey Into Fear" (1942), set up by and co-starring Del Rio's then paramour, Orson Welles. It took a return to the stage and screen in her native Mexico (where she won that country's equivalent of a Best Actress Oscar four times and was lauded as "the first lady of Mexican theater") and later Hollywood character parts (e.g., in John Ford's "The Fugitive" 1947 and his "Cheyenne Autumn" 1964) for her talent to be fully displayed.
- Also Credited As:
Dolores Asunsolo, Lolita Dolores Martinez Asunsolo Lopez Negrette
- Born:
August 3, 1905 in Durango, Mexico
- Died:
April 11, 1983.
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Job Titles:
Actor, Dancer
Significant Others
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Companion: Orson Welles. was involved with Del Rio for a time in the early 1940s; acted together in the film, "Journey into Fear" (1942)
Milestones
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1910 Family fled to Mexico City to escape Pancho Villa
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1912 Began taking dancing lessons from noted dancer Felipa Lopez (date approximate)
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1925 Arrived in Hollywood August 27
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1925 Film acting debut in "Joanna"
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1925 Painter friend Adolfo Best Maugard brought honeymooning director Edwin Carewe and his wife Mary Aiken and married film stars Claire Windsor and Bert Lytell to visit Del Rios; Carewe offered Del Rio a Hollywood contract
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1926 After small parts in four films, played first important lead in "What Price Glory?"
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1926 Selected as one of 13 WAMPAS (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) "Baby Stars" of the year
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1929 Voice first heard on film in part-talkie, "Evangeline"
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1932 Starred in film, "Girl of the Rio", which drew formal protest from the Mexican government for portraying the Mexican system of justice as "a reflection of who could pay the most for the verdict of their liking"
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1934 Beauty ranked second only to Garbo's by famed photographer Baron George Hoyningen-Huene in August issue of Photoplay magazine
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1936 Journeyed to England to star in "Accused"
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1942 Last Hollywood lead, "Journey Into Fear"
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1943 Returned to Mexico; signed contract giving her a percentage of the profits from her films
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1947 One-shot return to Hollywood at John Ford's request; played opposite Henry Fonda in Ford's "The Fugitive"
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1956 Debuted onstage in New England summer stock touring production of "Anastasia"
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1957 Made US TV debut in "Old Spanish Custom", an episode of the "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars"
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1958 Debuted on Mexican stage in Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windemere's Fan", which she had filmed in Buenos Aires in 1948
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1960 Returned to Hollywood; played Elvis Presley's mother in "Flaming Star"
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1978 Appeared in first American film in nearly a dozen years, opposite Anthony Quinn in "The Children of Sanchez"; also her last
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Criticized during the McCarthy era of the 1950s for having aided anti-Franco refugees from the Spanish Civil War
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Under contract to RKO in early 1930s