Sara Montiel
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| Sara Montiel | |
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| Born | María Antonia Abad March 10, 1928 Spain |
| Years active | (1948 - ) |
Sara Montiel (also Sarita Montiel or Saritísima) (born March 10, 1928) is a Spanish singer, and actress. She is still a much-loved and internationally known name in the Spanish-speaking movie and music industries. She was born in Campo de Criptana in the region of New Castile in 1928 as María Antonia Abad (complete name María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isidora Abad Fernández). After her unprecedented international hit in Juan de Orduña's El Último Cuplé in 1957, Montiel achieved the status of mega-star in Europe and Latin America. She was the first woman to distill sex openly in Spanish cinema at a time when even a low cut dress was not acceptable.
Montiel was the most commercially successful Spanish actress during the mid twentieth century in much of the world. Miss Montiel's film "Varietes" was banned in Beijing in 1973. Her films "El Último Cuple" and "La Violetera" netted the highest gross revenues ever recorded for films made in the Spanish speaking movie industry during the 50s and 60s. She also played the role of Antonia, the niece of Don Quixote, in the 1947 Spanish film version of Cervantes's great novel.
She was recently portrayed in the Pedro Almodóvar film Bad Education by a male actor in drag (Gael García Bernal) as the transsexual character Zahara, and a film clip from one of her movies was used as well.
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[edit] Acting career
Montiel started in movies at 16 in her native Spain where she filmed her first international success playing an Islamic princess in the 1948 film Locura de Amor. Later she conquered Mexico, starring in a dozen films in less than five years. Hollywood came calling afterwards, and she was introduced to US moviegoers in the film Vera Cruz (1954) co-starring with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, and directed by Robert Aldrich. She was offered the standard seven-year contract at Columbia Pictures, which she quickly refused, afraid of Hollywood's typecasting policies for Hispanics. Instead she free-lanced at Warner Bros. with Mario Lanza and Joan Fontaine in Serenade (1956), directed by Anthony Mann, and at RKO in Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow (1957), opposite Rod Steiger and Charles Bronson.
That same year she married Anthony Mann but returned briefly to Spain to star in a low budget film musical El Ultimo Cuplé as a favor to producer-director Juan de Orduña who had helped her career in the early days. This film made her unexpectedly the number one actress-singer of that year in Europe and Latin America and she accepted a multi-million dollar offer for more films and recordings in Europe. It was obvious that Hollywood could not offer anything better, so she moved back to Spain and to a career that is now legendary. Fifteen monumentally successful films followed her Cuplé success (including La Violetera (1958), Carmen, la de Ronda (1959, a very personal rendition of the Carmen myth), Mi Ultimo Tango (1960), Pecado de Amor(1961), La Bella Lola (1962, her own version of "Camille"), La Reina del Chantecler (a 1963 blockbuster specially in the Soviet Union and countries behind the Iron Curtain), Noches de Casablanca, (a 1963 tribute to Hollywood's Casablanca), Samba (1964), La Dama de Beirut (1965), La Mujer Perdida (1966), Tuset Street (1967), Esa Mujer (1969), Varietés (1971), etc. During these years she also recorded over 30 highly successful albums and appeared on stage and television all over the world.
In 1974 Montiel announced her retirement from movies but continued performing live, recording and starring on her own variety television shows in Spain. She kept on at that pace well into the 1990s. In 2000 her autobiography Memories: To Live Is A Pleasure became a huge best seller, followed by a second part Sara and Sex, which highlighted her love life.
In 2006 Montiel temporarily put aside her career in order to help her adopted son Zeus with his first recordings.
[edit] Filmography
- Te Quiero para Mi - 1944 (credited as "Maria Alejandra")
- Empezó en Boda - 1944
- Bambu" - 1945
- Se Le Fue el Novio - 1945
- El Misterioso Viajero del Clipper -1946
- Por El Gran premio - 1946
- Vidas Confusas - 1947
- Confidencia - 1947
- Mariona Rebull - 1947
- Don Quijote de la Mancha (Don Quixote in the U.S.) - 1947 (released in the U.S. in 1949)
- Alhucemas - 1948
- Locura de amor (The Mad Queen in the U.S.) - 1949
- La Mies es Mucha - 1949
- Pequeñeces - 1950
- That Man from Tangier -1950 (released in the U.S. 1953)
- Furia Roja - 1950 (English version: "Stronghold" with Veronica Lake in the Montiel part)
- Cárcel de mujeres - 1951
- Ahí viene Martín Corona - 1951
- El Enamorado - 1951
- Ella, Lucifer y Yo - 1952
- Yo Soy Gallo Dondequiera - 1952
- Piel Canela - 1953
- Porque Ya No Me Quieres - 1953
- Se Solicitan Modelos - 1954
- Frente Al Pecado De Ayer - 1954
- Yo No Creo en Los Hombres - 1954
- Vera Cruz - 1954
- Donde el círculo termina -1955 (Circle of Death in the U.S.)
- Serenade - 1956
- Run of the Arrow - 1957
- El último cuplé - 1957
- La Violetera - 1958
- Carmen la de Ronda (The Devil Made a Woman in the U.S. and UK.) - 1958
- Mi Último Tango - 1960
- Pecado de Amor - 1961
- La Bella Lola - 1962
- Noches De Casablanca - 1963
- Samba - 1964
- La Dama de Beirut - 1965
- La Mujer Perdida - 1966
- Tuset Street - 1967
- Esa Mujer - 1969
- Varietés - 1971
- Cinco Almohadas para una Noche - 1973
- Asaltar los Cielos(documental - 1996) As herself.
- Sara Una Estrella (documental - 2001) As herself.
- Machin, Toda Una Vida (documental -2002) As herself.
- A Thousand Clouds of Peace - 2003 (Sara's recording of "Nena" used as theme song)
- Bad Education -2004 (features a couple of Sara's songs and film clips)
[edit] Discography
- Sara Montiel en Mexico
- El Último Cuple
- La Violetera
- Baile con Sara Montiel
- Carmen la de Ronda
- Besos de Fuego
- Mi Último Tango
- El Tango
- Pecado de Amor
- La Bella Lola
- Noches De Casablanca
- Samba
- La Dama de Beirut
- Canta Sarita Montiel
- Esa Mujer
- Sara
- Varietés
- Sara... Hoy
- Saritisima
- Anoche con Sara
- Purisimo Sara
- Sara De Cine
- Sara A Flor de Piel
- Amados Mios
- Todas Las Noches A Las Once
- Sara Montiel La Diva
- Sara Montiel La Leyenda
[edit] Awards
- "Gold Medal", 2001, Spain's Academy of the Films and the Arts
- The Legion of Honor
- Ben Gurion Medal of Valor, 1981
- Premio del Sindicato 1957 (Spain's Oscar equivalent) Best female performance for El Último Cuple
- Premio del Sindicato 1958 (Spain's Oscar equivalent) Best female performance for La Violetera
[edit] Personal Information
Montiel was born Maria Antonia Alejandra Abad Fernández on March 10, 1928 in Campo de Criptana in the province of Ciudad Real, Spain. She entered films after winning a beauty and talent contest at age 15. In her first movie she was credited as "Maria Alejandra" a shortened version of her real name. For her next film she changed her name to Sara, after her grandmother, and Montiel after the Montiel fields in the Castile-La Mancha region of her birth. She has been married four times:
- Anthony Mann (American, Actor & Film Director) In Beverly Hills, California 1957-1963 (divorced)
- José Vicente Ramírez-Olaya(Industrial Attorney) Rome, Italy 1964-1978 (marriage annulled)
- José Tous-Barberán(Attorney-Journalist) Palma de Mallorca, Spain 1979-1992 (Tous death)
- This marriage produced two adopted children: Thais (born 1979) Zeus (born 1982)
- Antonio Hernández (Cuban, Videotape Operator) Madrid, Spain 2002-2005 (divorced)
During the Francisco Franco dictatorship Spanish stars were forbidden to behave in any way that could be perceived at odds with Christian principles and morality, consequently they kept their private lives very private. Montiel was no exception. Pre-marital or out of wedlock relationships were never mentioned and her civil marriage to Anthony Mann was underplayed along with the divorce.
Her 1964 Catholic wedding in Rome was granted great publicity but no one was informed that the marriage only lasted a couple of months. By 1965 the couple had separated and Montiel had started a very secret love affair with Italian actor Giancarlo del Duca (aka Giancarlo Viola) It was all kept under wraps since divorce was illegal in both Italy and Spain.
In 1970 Sara broke up with Giancarlo and started a long-term relationship with José Tous. By the mid '70s censorship in Spain was abolished and the truth began coming out. Montiel requested an annulment of her second marriage and the Catholic Church granted it in 1978. The following year she married Tous in a civil ceremony and the marriage was successful until his death of cancer in 1992. By 1993 Sara was back with Giancarlo Viola without the benefit of marriage. In 2002 the couple parted and Montiel married a much younger man who resided in Cuba, a union that was doomed from the start and ended with a sordid divorce in 2004. Soon after, Giancarlo was back in Montiel's life and they seem committed to each other in spite of the fact that Montiel lives in Madrid and her boyfriend remains in Italy.
In 2000 Montiel published her autobiography "Memories: To Live Is A Pleasure", an instant best seller with ten editions to date. A sequel "Sara and Sex" followed in 2003. In these books Montiel revealed other relationships in her past including one-night stands with writer Ernest Hemingway as well as actor James Dean. She also claimed a long term affair in the 1940s with playwright Miguel Mihura and mentioned that science wizard Severo Ochoa, a Nobel Prize winner, was the true love of her life.
At this point she is considered one of the highest paid celebrities in the television talk show circuit in Spain and it is only fair since she remains the most legendary star ever born in that country. In 2007 she seems to be ready for another world tour although she has been helping her son Zeus launch his own singing career. Whatever the future holds for this remarkable woman it is certain that Sara Montiel is as full of surprises today as ever.
[edit] External links
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