Lupe Velez

Mexican Spitfire Lupe Velez in a 1942 portrait sitting by photographer Ernest Bachrach. She was born on July 18 in 1908, in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. She began her career as a performer in Mexican vaudeville in the early 1920s. After moving to the US, she made her first film appearance in a short film in 1927 and by the end of the decade she had progressed to leading roles in numerous films such as "The Gaucho" (1927), "Lady of the Pavements" (1928) and "Wolf Song" (1929). In 1933, Velez appeared in the films "The Half-Naked Truth" and "Hot Pepper." She received even more success with her brief appearance in the multi-feature film "Hollywood Party" (1934), which she makes a magnificent comic routine with Laurel and Hardy. Over the next few years, Velez worked for various studios as a freelance actress; she also spent two years in England where she filmed "The Morals of Marcus" and "Gypsy Melody" (both 1936). In 1939, she was cast opposite Leon Errol and Donald Woods in a B-comedy "The Girl from Mexico." Despite being a B film, it was a hit with audiences and RKO re-teamed her with Errol and Wood for a sequel, "Mexican Spitfire." That film was also a success and led to a series of Spitfire films (eight in all). Other films included "Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga" (1941), "Playmates" (1941), and "Redhead from Manhattan" (1943). Nicknamed "The Mexican Spitfire" by the press, Velez's personal life was as colorful as her screen persona. She had several highly publicized romances and a very stormy marriage with Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller. By 1944, Velez was dating a handsome Austrian named Harald Ramond. As the story goes, she soon found out she was pregnant with his child. A devout Catholic, Velez wanted Ramond to marry her, but he refused. For her, this betrayal would be the end of the road. Four months pregnant, Velez overdosed on sleeping pills and tragically died aged only 36.

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