Lupita Tovar

Lupita Tovar was a Mexican-American actress who starred in silent and sound films in the 1930s and 1940s. She appeared in the first Mexican talkie film, Santa (1932), and the Spanish version of Dracula (1931). She married Paul Kohner, a Hollywood agent, and had two children. She died in 2016 at age 106. Tovar was born in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, Mexico, the daughter of a railroad worker and an Irish-Mexican mother. She moved to Mexico City with her family when she was eight years old. She was discovered by documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty in a dance class and won a screen test competition that led to a contract with Fox Studios. She moved to Hollywood in 1928 and began her film career. ¹ Tovar starred in several Spanish-language versions of Hollywood films, such as The Cat Creeps (1930), The Cisco Kid (1931), and Dracula (1931). She also worked with directors like John Ford, William Wyler, and King Vidor. She returned to Mexico in 1932 to star in Santa, a film based on a novel by Federico Gamboa. The film was a huge success and is considered a classic of Mexican cinema. ¹ Tovar married Paul Kohner, a Czech-born producer and agent, in 1932. They had two children, Susan Kohner, who became an Oscar-nominated actress, and Pancho Kohner, who became a film producer. Tovar retired from acting in the mid-1940s to focus on her family. She later became a grandmother to screenwriters Chris and Paul Weitz, who dedicated their film About a Boy (2002) to her. ¹ Tovar received several honors and awards for her contribution to cinema, such as the Golden Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film in 1997, the Nosotros Golden Eagle Award in 2001, and the National Medal of Arts from the U.S. government in 2006. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She died in Los Angeles on November 12, 2016, at the age of 106. ¹²