Dolores del Río

Dolores del Río (born María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete; 3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983) was a Mexican actress whose career spanned more than 50 years. Along with a notable movie career in the Golden Age of Hollywood during the 1920s and 1930s, she was considered one of the most important female figures in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema during the 1940s and 1950s, as well as one of the most beautiful actresses of the era. Regarded as the first major female Latin American crossover superstar in Hollywood, she is a quintessential representation of the female face of Mexico in the world. For her contribution to the film industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Del Río was born in Victoria de Durango into a wealthy and aristocratic Mexican family of Spanish ancestry. After being discovered by an American director in Mexico City, she relocated to Los Angeles and made her screen debut in the romantic comedy film Joanna (1925). Del Río subsequently starred in several box-office hits such as What Price Glory (1926), Resurrection (1927), Ramona (1928), and Evangeline (1929). At the peak of her fame in the silent era, she came to be considered a sort of feminine version of Rudolph Valentino, a 'female Latin Lover'. With the advent of talkies, she acted in a range of genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to musical comedies and romantic dramas. Del Río's most successful films of that decade include The Bad One (1930), Bird of Paradise (1932), Flying Down to Rio (1933), and Madame Du Barry (1934). By the end of the 1930s, she was labeled "box office poison" and her movie career soon began to decline. In the early 1940s, she returned to her native country and naturally joined the Mexican film industry, which at that time was at its peak. Del Río helped boost Mexican cinema worldwide, becoming one of the most popular actresses of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.