Argentine-born Mexican actress and singer Rosita Quintana, one of Mexico’s top stars of the country’s Golden Age of Cinema, died today at age 96 in Mexico City after undergoing surgery to remove a tumor in her thyroid. With a professional career spanning over 70 years and 60 films, she was best known internationally for her performance in the title role of Luis Buñuel’s 1951 film Susana.
Née Trinidad Rosa Quintana Muñoz on July 16, 1925 in Buenos Aires. She debuted as a singer at age 15 performing with one of the most popular local orchestras at the time. She also worked as a tango singer at the Café Nacional, and later was part of a revue at the Teatro Casino. Under the invitation of Mexican actor Jorge Negrete, she was invited to perform in Mexico in 1947, where she decided to stay to continue her professional career.
Her film debut was in La santa del barrio by Chano Urueta in 1948. The following year she performed in the popular comedy Calabacitas tiernas opposite superstar comedian Germán Valdés Tin Tán and directed by Gilberto Martínez Solares. Between the late forties and early fifties she performed in almost twenty films.
In 1951, she starred in Susana by director Buñuel based on the novel by Manuel Reachi, and also starring Fernando Soler, Víctor Manuel Mendoza, María Gentil Arcos, and Luis López Somoza. Quintana played a beautiful and sultry wayward orphan who escapes from incarceration and ends up at a plantation where she disrupts a working family's daily routines and chemistry. The film, a twist on the traditional Mexican melodrama, reads as a black comedy and offers a poignant critique of Mexican family values.
Other film credits include Soy Charro de Levita (1949) by Gilberto Martínez Solares, La ausente (1950) by Julio Bracho, El mil amores (1954) by Rogelio A. González, La duda (1954) by Alejandro Galindo, and El octavo infierno (1964) by René Múgica. Her last acting role was in the 2005 comedy El club de la eutanasia by Agustín Tapia.
