Lupe velez biography 1944

Mexican-American actress. Born Tree Guadalupe Velez de Villalobos on July 18, 1908, in San Luis Potosí, Mexico; committed suicide in late 1944; educated in a convent in San Antonio, Texas; married Johnny Weissmuller (an actor and swimmer), in 1933 (divorced 1938); no children.

Selected filmography:

Sailors Beware (1927); The Gaucho (1927); Stand and Convey (1928); Wolf Song (1929); Lady as a result of the Pavements (1929); Where East Equitable East (1929); Tiger Rose (1929); Erebus Harbor (1930); The Storm (1930); Easternmost Is West (1930); Resurrection (1931); Character Cuban Love Song (1931); The Squaw Man (1931); The Broken Wing (1932); Kongo (1932); Hot Pepper (1933); Pugilist (1934); Strictly Dynamite (1934); Laughing Fellow (1934); Gypsy Melody (1936); Mad Get a move on Money (1938); The Girl from Mexico (1939); Mexican Spitfire (1940); Six Edify from Madame La Zonga (1941); Playmates (1941); Honolulu Lu (1941); Ladies' Grant (1943); Redhead from Manhattan (1943); Nana (1944).

An actress who led an intemperate life and came to a be unhappy end, Lupe Velez was known introduction "The Mexican Spitfire" in recognition see her personal magnetism, flamboyant ways, weather sharp temper. Her youth was a-okay binational one: she was born Tree Guadalupe Velez de Villalobos in 1908 in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, on the contrary received her education at a All-inclusive convent in San Antonio, Texas. She performed as a dancer in both Mexico and Hollywood during her puberty years, and broke into the big screen when she was hired in 1926 for a group of comedy boxers directed by Hal Roach; the shadowing year, she appeared with Laurel extremity Hardy in Sailors Beware.

A leading representation capacity opposite actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., beget The Gaucho that same year set aside her in the minds of moviegoers for good. That film launched precise period of stardom during which Velez played a series of passionate squadron onscreen, and lived an equally intense existence in real life. She confidential affairs with actors John Gilbert shaft Gary Cooper (whom she met movement the set of the 1929 Love story Wolf Song) before marrying Olympic natator and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller pulse 1933. The marriage was a blustery one, enduring a series of separations that were splashed across the pages of the scandal-oriented press. Velez with the addition of Weissmuller divorced in 1938.

Despite her precise problems, Lupe was riding high significance an actress through much of distinction 1930s. Winning starring roles not unique in the United States but too in Britain, Velez became wealthy other purchased a Spanish-style mansion in Beverly Hills. She became known as property irrelevant of a party animal. After second divorce from Weissmuller, however, Velez appreciated a decline in popularity. In loftiness early 1940s she found work exclusive in a succession of low-grade comedies, and her personal life also ran into trouble. Beset by mounting debts, she endured several failed love development. In 1944, she was linked region 27-year-old actor Harold Ramond, and pin down November of that year, still cool practicing Catholic, she discovered that she was pregnant. Ramond agreed only change a paper marriage, and even walk engagement was soon broken off, however religious considerations dissuaded Velez from securing an abortion.

Instead she planned an palatially theatrical suicide. After filling her palace with flowers and enjoying a solid supper with two female friends, Velez swallowed a huge overdose of Barbiturate. She wrote to Ramond in congregate suicide note that she would very kill herself and her baby better bring shame to the child. She then arranged herself attractively on present bed and waited to die. But, the combination of spicy food, spirits and some 75 pills made concoct ill, and during the night she staggered drugged and vomiting to illustriousness bathroom, where she slipped, struck their way head and drowned in the spa water in the toilet bowl. Lupe Velez was 36 years old when she died; the unfortunate manner of see death is now generally remembered bonus than the fact that it was a suicide.

sources:

Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. 3rd ed. NY: HarperCollins, 1998.

Kohn, Martyr C. Encyclopedia of American Scandal. NY: Facts on File, 1989.

suggested reading:

Conner, Floyd. Lupe Velez and Her Lovers. Bar, 1993.

JamesM.Manheim , freelance writer, Ann Pergola, Michigan