Lupe Velez

Lupe Velez was born Maria Guadalupe Villalobos Velez on July 18, 1908, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. At 13, her family sent her to a convent in Texas, where she later admitted she was not much of a student because she was so rambunctious. She once planned to become a champion roller skater, but life took a different turn. Her family faced hard times, so Lupe returned to Mexico to help financially. She worked as a salesgirl for $4 a week, turning most of her salary over to her mother while keeping a little for dancing lessons. With her mature shape and grand personality, she decided to try show business, which she figured was more glamorous than sales or dancing. In 1924, she began her career on the Mexican stage, wowing audiences with her natural beauty and talent. By 1927, she had emigrated to Hollywood, where Hal Roach discovered her and cast her in a comedy with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Douglas Fairbanks then cast her in The Gaucho (1927) alongside himself and Mary Pickford. For five years, she took dramatic roles before switching to comedy. In 1933, she played the lead in Hot Pepper, which showcased her comedic talents and vital personality. She was delightful. The following year, she appeared in three more comedies: Strictly Dynamite, Palooka, and Laughing Boy. Her popularity grew so much that a series of films was written around her character, Carmelita Lindsay, in the "Mexican Spitfire" series. Audiences loved her madcap adventures, but she was perhaps just as well known for her stormy love affairs. She married Johnny Weissmuller in 1933, but the marriage lasted only five years and was filled with battles. She also had a failed romance with Gary Cooper, who never wanted to marry her. By 1943, her career was waning, so she went to Mexico to revive it. There, she earned her best reviews yet in the Mexican version of Naná (1944). Bolstered by that success, she returned to the US and starred in her final film, Ladies' Day, as Pepita Zorita. On December 13, 1944, tired of a failed romance with Harald Maresch and pregnant with his child, she died by suicide with an overdose of Seconal. She was 36.