Silvia Pinal, the revered film and tv actress who left an indelible mark on Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema, has died. She was 93.
Mexico’s culture secretary, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, in addition to the Asociación Nacional de Intérpretes announced Pinal’s passing on social media. The Associated Press reported that Pinal had been hospitalized for a urinary infection several days ago.
During a prolific acting and producing profession that spanned seven a long time, Pinal gained international fame for toplining three Sixties classics written and directed by Luis Buñuel: the Palme d’Or co-winner Viridiana (1961), The Exterminating Angel (1962) and Simon of the Desert (1965).
Pinal got her start within the theater within the late Nineteen Forties working with Cuban-born director Rafael Banquells, who would change into the primary of her 4 husbands. Her breakthrough in cinema got here in 1950 when at 18 she landed back-to-back leading roles opposite two of Mexico’s biggest film stars, first with Germán Valdés (aka Tin-Tan) within the comedy The King of the Neighborhood and with Mario Moreno (aka Cantinflas) in The Doorman.
She also worked alongside famed actor-singer Pedro Infante in Un Rincón Cerca del Cielo (1952).
Still, Pinal’s most celebrated roles would come greater than a decade later while collaborating with the surrealist genius Buñuel, regarded by many critics as one in all the best filmmakers of all time. Viridiana, her first of three collaborations with the Spanish-born helmer, was made possible by her second husband, Mexican producer Gustavo Alatriste, and her performance as a platinum-blonde novice combating her faith was arguably probably the most impressive of her profession.
Viridiana was banned in Spain by the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco and condemned by the Vatican’s official newspaper for its “blasphemous” criticism of the Catholic Church. It also was prohibited in Pinal’s native Mexico, but after a visit to France, she managed to return home with a print that was often used for personal screenings.
In The Exterminating Angel, Pinal portrays one in all the guests who arrive at a mansion for a ceremonial dinner after which are unable to flee.
“A friend of mine made a clever point that I should repeat here: that Buñuel invented reality shows with The Exterminating Angel,” she said in a 2006 Criterion Collection interview. “What’s [the film] if not a reality show about individuals who can’t leave that room?”
And within the 45-minute Simon of the Desert, her character tries to tempt Saint Simeon Stylites (Claudio Brook) from leaving his post atop of pillar, where he remained for six years, six months and 6 days to prove his devotion to God.
Of Pinal’s 100-plus acting credits, she worked mostly in Mexico, though she did appear in several pictures featuring Hollywood talent, including the MGM co-production Guns for San Sebastian (1968), an motion film starring Anthony Quinn and Charles Bronson and Samuel Fuller’s Shark (1969), featuring Burt Reynolds.
On television, Pinal won over audiences because the presenter and producer of Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real, a 1986-2007 anthology melodrama based on real-life stories submitted by viewers. The hit program, which aired throughout Latin America, tackled social themes that received scant attention in Mexico within the ’80s and ’90s, including domestic violence, LGBT discrimination and girls’s rights.
Pinal also was a number one figure in musical theater in Mexico. She starred in and produced local versions of Broadway musicals equivalent to Hello, Dolly!, A Chorus Line and Cats, and he or she owned several theaters in Mexico City.
Later in life, she juggled show business with a profession in politics; she served as a federal lawmaker within the early ’90s and headed the Mexican actors guild ANDA from 2010-14.
Born on Sept. 12, 1931, in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora, Pinal took the last name of her stepfather, the journalist and politician Luis G. Pinal, as a homage to the person who raised her. Her mother worked in a seafood restaurant and her biological father, Moises Pasquel, was an orchestra conductor.
Three of her former spouses worked in show business, and their children and grandchildren had jobs in every part from film and TV to music and modeling. Along with her third husband, the pop singer Enrique Guzman, she had two children, including musician Alejandra Guzman, a Latin Grammy-winning artist who has sold greater than 30 million albums. Given the family’s many success stories in entertainment, it’s sometimes called the “Pinal Dynasty.”
Her survivors also include children Alejandra Guzman, film and TV actress Sylvia Pasquel and musician Luis Enrique Guzman.
