Felix, Maria (1915–)

Mexican actress. Born Maria de Los Angeles Felix Guereña in Alamos, Sonoras, Mexico, in 1915.

Selected films:

El Peñon de las Animas (1942); Doña Barbara (1943); Amok (1944); Le Mujer de todos (1946); Rio Escondido (Hidden River, 1947); Vertigo (1947); Enamorada (1948); Mare Nostrum (Sp., 1948); Doña Diabla (1949); La Corona negra (Sp., 1951); Messalina (It., 1951); La Pasión desnuda (Arg., 1952); Camelia (1953); La Belle Otéro (Fr., 1954); French Cancan (Fr., 1955); Les Héros sont fatigués (Heroes and Sinners, Fr., 1955); La Escondida (1956); Faustina (1956); Flor de Mayo (Beyond All Limits, 1957); La Cucaracha (1958); La Fièvre monte à El Pao (Los Ambiciosos or Republic of Sin, Fr./Mex., 1959); Sonatas (1959); La Estrella vacia (The Empty Star, 1960); Juana Gallo (1961); La Bandida (1962); Amor y Sexo (1963); La Valentina (1965); Le Generala (1970).

A strikingly beautiful, forceful actress, Maria Felix was the leading box-office attraction in the Spanish-speaking world from the early 1940s. In addition to Mexico, she worked in Spain, Italy, and France where she played La Belle Abbesse in Jean Renoir's French Cancan (1955). Her later films included La Fièvre mont à El Pao (1959), in which she starred with Gérard Philipe, France's most popular star of his generation. (Philipe became ill while making the picture and died of a heart attack before his 37th birthday.) Widowed by her fifth husband, Felix retired to Mexico in the 1970s.