Maria Felix

Name at birth: Maria de los Angeles Felix Guerena

Maria Felix was one of the biggest movie stars in Mexico, the strong and sexy leading lady in nearly fifty movies. She became a star in the 1940s and was known as "La Doña," after her character in Doña Bárbara (1943). Her iconic status in Mexico has been compared to that of Marilyn Monroe's in the United States, and her love life was as newsworthy as her film appearances. Her other films include Rio Escondido and Enamorada, both released in 1947, and Luis Buñuel's Fever Mounts at El Pao (1959). After a television series in 1970, Felix appeared in only one film, but she remained in the news, famous for her fashion sense and jet-setting image (she also owned racehorses). She died on her 88th birthday from what was called a heart attack, but her brother suggested that she had been poisoned. Her body was exhumed three weeks later, the family proclaimed she had died of natural causes and the matter was settled.