Sara Montiel

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Abad and the second or maternal family name is Fernández.
Sara Montiel
MML
Montiel in 1955
Born
María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isidora Abad Fernández

(1928-03-10)10 March 1928
Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real), Spain
Died8 April 2013(2013-04-08) (aged 85)
Madrid, Spain
Nationality
  • Spanish
  • Mexican (since 1951)
Other names
  • María Alejandra
  • Sarita Montiel
Occupations
  • Actress
  • Singer
Years active1943–2013
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1957; div. 1963)​
  • José Vicente Ramírez Olalla
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1964; div. 1970)​
  • José Tous Barberán
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1979; died 1992)​
  • Antonio Hernández
    ​
    ​
    (m. 2002; div. 2005)​
Children
  • Thais Tous Abad
  • José Zeus Tous Abad

María Antonia Abad Fernández MML (10 March 1928 – 8 April 2013), known professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish-Mexican actress and singer.[1][2][3] She began her career in the 1940s and became the most internationally popular and highest paid star of Spanish cinema in the 1960s. She appeared in nearly fifty films and recorded around 500 songs in five different languages.[4]

Montiel was born in Campo de Criptana in the region of La Mancha in 1928.[5] She began her acting career in Spain starring in films such as Don Quixote (1947) and Madness for Love (1948). She moved to Mexico where she starred in films such as Women's Prison (1951) and Red Fury (1951). She then moved to the United States and worked in three Hollywood English-language films Vera Cruz (1954), Serenade (1956) and Run of the Arrow (1957). She returned to Spain to star in the musical films The Last Torch Song (1957) and The Violet Seller (1958). These two films netted the highest gross revenues ever recorded internationally for films made in the Spanish-speaking movie industry during the 1950s/60s and made her immensely popular.[5][6][7][8] She then established herself also as a singer thanks to the songs she performed in her films and combined filming new musical films, recording songs and performing live.

Throughout her career, Montiel's personal life was the subject of constant media attention in the Spanish-speaking world. She was married four times and adopted two children.

  1. ^ "Etapa en México" [Stage in Mexico]. saramontiel.es (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2022. En 1951 Sara Montiel adquirió la nacionalidad mexicana, y revelaría años más tarde: "Me hice mexicana, claro. Todavía tengo mi carta de nacionalidad en la caja fuerte. Cuando me casé con Tony Mann, en Los Ángeles, me casé con mi otro pasaporte, el mexicano" ("I became Mexican, of course. I still have my nationality card in the safe. When I married Tony Mann, in Los Angeles, I married with my other passport, the Mexican")
  2. ^ "La Gran Diva: Remembering Sara Montiel". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  3. ^ "Sara Montiel es hoy de las 'Imprescindibles'". Diario de Sevilla (in European Spanish). 2019-12-15. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Muere Sara Montiel". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 2013-04-08. Retrieved 2020-05-08.