DOLORES DEL RIO the First Major Female Latin American Crossover star in Hollywood By Historian and Author Marc Wanamaker
Dolores Del Rio United Artists 'The Bad One' 1930 on location at Palos Verdes Coast.
Maria de los Dolores Asunsolo y Lopez Negrete (1904-1983) was known professionally as Dolores del Rio. Her career spanned more than 50 years and she became very popular in both the Anglo and Latin world. Having a notable career in English speaking countries, Dolores was also one of the most important female figures in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.
Dolores began her film career in Hollywood in 1925 and appeared in a string of successful films including Resurrection (1927) and Ramona (1928). Del Rio came to be considered a sort of feminine version of Rudolph Valentino, a “Female Latin Lover”. With the advent of sound, she acted in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to musical comedies. Among her most successful films of the 1930s included, Bird of Paradise (1932), Flying Down to Rio (1933), and Madame Du Barry (1934).
'Ramona' Tec-Art-Inspiration Pictures 1928 'Ramona' Dolores Del Rio Sheet Music
In the early 1940s Dolores returned to Mexico and joined the Mexican film industry which at that time was at its peak. During this time, she became an important star in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Del Rio continued her success in Mexican films during the 1950s. She returned to Hollywood in 1960 to appear in several film projects and continued to alternate between the Hollywood and Mexico in both films and television.
Dolores’s parents were members of the Mexican aristocracy that existed during the period in history of Mexico when the dictator Porfirio Diaz was president in the 1870s-1880s. Her family lost all its assets during the Mexican Revolution between 1910 and 1920. The young Dolores became a professional dancer and she married a young Mexican aristocrat with the surname Del Rio. By 1925 Dolores and her husband Jaime went to Hollywood to seek their fortune in the motion picture business. They were helped by director Edwin Carewe who was with Inspiration Pictures Corporation and her first film Joanna (1925), directed by Carewe which led to other film roles that accented her beauty and mystery.
Inspiration Pictures 1928 'Revenge' with Dolores Del Rio
By 1926 Dolores was cast by director Raoul Walsh at Fox Studio in What Price Glory (1926) which became a commercial success. In 1927 Dolores was hired by United Artists for the film Resurrection (1927) and then alternated between Fox, United Artists and then MGM Studio.
Although her career was successful, her personal life was turbulent. Her marriage to Jaime Martinez ended in 1928. In the following year Dolores made her first sound film, Evangeline (1929) made by United Artists and employing the new Vitaphone Sound System where Dolores had dialogue in a film with music and sound effects. By 1930 she made her first ‘Talkie’ film, The Bad One (1930) with success.
Mayfair Club Party - Ambassador Hotel with Joel McCrea and wife with Cedric Gibbons and Dolores Del Rio
In 1930 Dolores met MGM art director Cedric Gibbons at a party at Hearst Castle. A romance ended in marriage and they lived in Santa Monica for several years while Dolores entered a contract with RKO Studios to perform in Girl of the Rio (1931). The big break came with the production of RKO’s Flying Down to Rio (1933) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. By 1934 Warner Bros Studio signed her to appear in the musical Wonder Bar (1934). One of her most important films she made in 1934 was Madame Du Barry (1934), which was a sex farce which became her most popular films while she worked in Hollywood.
'Ramona' Tec Art Studio-Inspiration Pictures 1928 'Ramona', Dir. Edwin Carewe, Dolores Del Rio and Warner Baxter
By 1937 Dolores was signed by Universal Pictures and appeared in The Devil’s Playground (1937) and then several other Universal films that were not very successful. Her husband Cedric Gibbons used his influence at MGM Studio and secured the main role in the film The Man From Dakota (1940). But this film did not gain her any higher recognition than Greta Garbo or Joan Crawford. Shortly thereafter, she began a romance with director Orson Welles which led to her divorce from Gibbons. Dolores was seen attending the premiere of Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) in New York. At the beginning of 1942 she started working on Journey Into Fear (1943) with Welles as the producer.
Decor Art Bison Citizen Kane Hollywood Welles and Dolores Del Rio
Between 1943-1959 Dolores Del Rio re-entered the Mexican Film Industry with a few films in Hollywood that she appeared in. In 1947 director John Ford cast her as an indigenous woman in ‘The Fugitive with Henry Fonda that was filmed in Mexico. In the next few years she alternated acting in films throughout South America and Mexico. In the 1960s Dolores returned to Hollywood after 18 years and was hired by 20thCFox Studios to appear in the Elvis Presley film, Flaming Star (1960) and in 1964 John Ford cast her in Cheyenne Autumn (1964). Throughout the 1960s, del Rio produced and starred in Mexico in theater and television projects.
Since the late 1950s, del Rio became the main promoter of the Acapulco International Film Review and was a representative for other artistic groups in Mexico such as, Mexican Actors Guild, Cultural Festival Cervantino and others. In 1978 Dolores was given the White House diploma and silver plaque for her work in cinema and as a cultural ambassador of Mexico in the United States. In 1982, she was awarded the George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
On April 11, 1983, Dolores del Rio died at the age of 78 in Newport Beach California. It was said that on the day she died, an invitation to attend the Oscars was sent to her. She is buried at the Panteon de Dolores in Mexico City, Mexico in ‘The Rotunda of Illustrious Persons’. She is remembered as a figure of veneration even beyond her death and is remembered as one of cinema’s lasting icons in film history.
Marc Norman Wanamaker (born October 1, 1947 in Los Angeles) is an historical author, writing on early Los Angeles and Hollywood. He is the founder of Bison Archives, which manages research on the motion picture industry. He helped form and worked with the American Film Institute. He was a co-founder of the Los Angeles International Film Exposition and American Cinematheque.
