Dolores Del Rio- Biography

Also Credited As:

Dolores Asunsolo, Lolita Dolores Martinez Asunsolo Lopez Negrette

About Dolores Del Rio

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.

Partners

Husband

Cedric Gibbons. had long association with MGM; reportedly was bisexual; married in 1930; divorced in 1941

Companion

Orson Welles. Dated Del Rio c. 1939-1942 while she was married to Cedric Gibbons ; acted together in the film, "Journey into Fear" (1942)

Husband

Jamie Martinez Del Rio. married early in 1921 when Dolores was 15; 18 years her senior; divorced in December 1928; died soon thereafter after an operation in Berlin

Husband

Lewis A Riley. married in 1959; survived her

Family

Father

Jesus L Asunsolo. from a prominent Spanish-Basque family in Chihuahua; director of the Bank of Durango; died 1940

Mother

Antonia Lopez Negrete de Asunsolo. descended from the Toltecs; died 1962

Education

Convent of St Joseph

Career Milestones

Criticized during the McCarthy era of the 1950s for having aided anti-Franco refugees from the Spanish Civil War

Under contract to RKO in early 1930s

1910

Family fled to Mexico City to escape Pancho Villa

1912

Began taking dancing lessons from noted dancer Felipa Lopez (date approximate)

1925

Arrived in Hollywood August 27

1925

Film acting debut in "Joanna"

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

1926

After small parts in four films, played first important lead in "What Price Glory?"

1926

Selected as one of 13 WAMPAS (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) "Baby Stars" of the year

1929

Voice first heard on film in part-talkie, "Evangeline"

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"

1934

Beauty ranked second only to Garbo's by famed photographer Baron George Hoyningen-Huene in August issue of Photoplay magazine

1936

Journeyed to England to star in "Accused"

1942

Last Hollywood lead, "Journey Into Fear"

1943

Returned to Mexico; signed contract giving her a percentage of the profits from her films

1947

One-shot return to Hollywood at John Ford's request; played opposite Henry Fonda in Ford's "The Fugitive"

1956

Debuted onstage in New England summer stock touring production of "Anastasia"

1957

Made US TV debut in "Old Spanish Custom", an episode of the "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars"

1958

Debuted on Mexican stage in Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windemere's Fan", which she had filmed in Buenos Aires in 1948

1960

Returned to Hollywood; played Elvis Presley's mother in "Flaming Star"

1978

Appeared in first American film in nearly a dozen years, opposite Anthony Quinn in "The Children of Sanchez"; also her last