Popular and iconic Mexican actress and comedian Carmen Salinas died last night at the age of 82, following a stroke that left her in a coma last month. She had a prolific acting career in cinema and television participating in over one hundred films working and working with numerous filmmakers including as Roberto Gavaldón, María Novaro, Arturo Ripstein, Alfonso Arau, Alberto Isaac, Patricia Riggen, and Tony Scott. She was also an iconic actress of the highly popular Mexican sex comedies of the late seventies and early eighties.
Born in Torreón on October 5, 1939, she made her television debut in the 1964 soap opera La Vecindad. In 1970 she made her film debut in La vida inútil de Pito Pérez by Roberto Gavaldón starring Ignacio López Tarso and Lucha Villa. Two years later she worked with Gavaldón again in the role of Lucila in the dark comedy Doña Macabra. She also worked with director Alberto Isaac on Nest of Virgins / El rincón de las vírgenes (1972) and Tívoli (1975), and with Alfonso Arau in Inspector Calzonzin (1974).
In 1975 she played the iconic role of La Corcholata, a drunkard sex worker, in the box office sensation Bellas de noche (the title a spoof of Luis Buñuel’s Belle du Jour) by Miguel M. Delgado starring Sasha Montenegro and Jorge Rivero. The movie launched the highly popular Mexican sexplotation ficheras genre of Mexican cinema, based on the Italian erotic comedies, that flourished in the late seventies and through the eighties, and that were also known as the Mexican sex comedies film genre.
Salinas reprised her crowd-pleasing role of La Corcholata in numerous films including Las ficheras, the 1977 sequel to Bellas de noche, La pulquería (1981), Mañosas pero sabrosas (1984), and El rey de las ficheras (1989). Other Mexican sex comedies credits include Noches de cabaret (1978), Las cariñosas (1979), El rey de los albures (1982), Esta noche cena Pancho (1986), and El caifán del barrio (1986).
In addition to her popular roles in the fichera genre, she also alternated her career with roles in arthouse and mainstream films such as El lugar sin límites / Hell Without Limits (1978) by Arturo Ripstein; Mexicano ¡Tú puedes! (1986) by José Estrada; El día que muriió Pedro Infante (1984) by Claudio Isaac; and Camino largo a Tijuana (1988) by Luis Estrada.
In 1991 she played the role of Doña Tí in the acclaimed film Danzón by María Novaro, which had its world premiere at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. During the nineties and the aughts she continued balancing her popular television career with cinema, combining her work in soap operas with films such as City of the Blind /Ciudad de ciegos (1991) by Alberto Cortés; Gimme the Power /Todo el poder (2000) by Fernando Sariñana; Zapata (2004) by Alfonso Arau; and Cartas a Elena / Letters to Elena (2011) by Llorent Barajas.
She also acted in Tony Scott’s thriller Man on Fire (2004) starring Denzel Washington, in Patricia Riggen’s acclaimed Sundance drama Under the Same Moon / Bajo la misma luna (2007), and in the comedy Have You Seen Lupita? / ¿Alguien ha visto a Lupita? by Chilean director Gonzalo Justiniano.
