Mecha Ortiz | |
|---|---|
 Mecha Ortiz in Mujeres que trabajan (1938). | |
| Born | María Mercedes Varela Nimo Domínguez Castro 24 September 1900 |
| Died | 20 October 1987 (aged 87) |
| Occupation | actress |
| Years active | 1936–1976 |
| Known for | Sapho |
Mecha Ortiz (née María Mercedes Varela Nimo Domínguez Castro; 1900–1987) was a classic Argentine actress who appeared in films between 1937 and 1981, during the Golden Age of Argentine Cinema. At the 1944 Argentine Film Critics Association Awards, Ortiz won the Silver Condor Award for Best Actress for her performance in Safo, historia de una pasión (1943), and won it again in 1946 for her performance in El canto del cisne (1945). She was known as the Argentine Greta Garbo and for playing mysterious characters, who suffered by past misfortunes in love, mental disorders, or forbidden love. Safo, historia de una pasión was the first erotic Argentine film, though there was no nudity. She also played in the first film in which a woman struck a man and the first film with a lesbian romance. In 1981, she was awarded the Grand Prize for actresses from the National Endowment for the Arts.