María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez (July 18, 1908 – December 14, 1944), credited as Lupe Vélez, was a Mexican actress and one of the first Latinas to gain success in Hollywood.
Initially a vaudeville actress in her native Mexico, she made the transition to Hollywood with the Laurel and Hardy short film Sailors, Beware!. She made her feature film debut in the 1927 silent film The Gaucho, followed by 1928's Stand and Deliver. She was able to make the transition to talkies and worked steadily throughout the 1930s, eventually headlining a series of eight popular films as the character Carmelita Lindsay, beginning with The Girl From Mexico. She distinguished herself from her Mexican contemporaries from The Golden Age of Hollywood, Katy Jurado and Dolores del Río, with a clear knack for comedy.
She was married to Johnny Weissmuller from 1933 to 1939. Vélez died by suicide in 1944, at the age of 36, after taking an overdoese of the barbiturate Seconal. She was pregnant at the time, and the popular theory was that she had killed herself due to a falling-out with the baby's father. This has been disputed by other sources, however, due to Vélez' known turbulent personal life. Furthermore, an account of her death published in the 1959 book Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger, became an urban legend due to its convoluted (and embarrasing) details.note Despite this version of events contradicting published reports and the official ruling (which state Vélez was simply found slumped over her bed), this story nonetheless is often repeated as fact or for comedic effect, such as in the pilot episode of Frasier, and in The Simpsons episode "Homer's Phobia".
Because of her tendency to play sassy, temperamental, exotic, and foreign beauties, Vélez was nicknamed "Mexican Hurricane", "The Mexican Wildcat", "The Mexican Madcap", "Whoopee Lupe" and "The Hot Tamale" by the media. Her filmography helped codify the Spicy Latina archetype in popular culture.
Filmography:
- Sailors, Beware! (1927)
- The Gaucho (1927)
- Stand and Deliver (1928)
- Lady Of The Pavements (1929)
- Wolf Song (1929)
- Where East Is East (1929)
- Tiger Rose (1929)
- Hell Harbor (1930)
- The Storm (1930)
- East Is West (1930)
- Resurrection (1931)
- The Squaw Man (1931)
- The Cuban Love Song (1931)
- The Broken Wing (1932)
- Kongo (1932)
- The Half Naked Truth (1932)
- Hot Pepper (1933)
- Palooka (1934)
- Strictly Dynamite (1934)
- The Morals Of Marcus (1935)
- Gypsy Melody (1936)
- La Zandunga (1938): Lupe
- The Mexican Spitfire (1939-1944)
- The Girl From Mexico (1939)
- Mexican Spitfire (1940)
- Mexican Spitfire Out West (1940)
- The Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941)
- Mexican Spitfire at Sea (1942)
- Mexican Spitfire's Elephant (1942)
- Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost (1942)
- Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event (1943)
- Honolulu Lu (1941)
- Redhead From Manhattan (1943)
- Nana (1944)
