Mexican actress Ana Ofelia Murguía passed away today, the last day of 2023, at the age of 90 due to undisclosed causes. A leading actress of her generation, the Ariel-winning performer collaborated with some of Mexico's finest filmmakers, including Arturo Ripstein, Felipe Cazals, José Estrada, Paul Leduc, Alfonso Arau, and María Novaro, starring in over ninety films. In a more recent role, she lent her voice to the character of Mama Coco in Disney/Pixar’s acclaimed 2017 animated movie, Coco.
Born on December 8, 1933, in Mexico City, Murguía studied acting at the National School of Theater of the Fine Arts and Literature Institute, making her theater debut in 1954. She worked on some of the most acclaimed Mexican films of the seventies, including Cazals' El Apando (1976) and Las Poquianchis; Hermosillo’s Naufragio (1978) and Amor libre (1979); and Ripstein’s The Black Widow / La viuda negra (1977) and Life Sentence / Cadena perpetua (1979).
Her filmography includes El profeta Mimi (Estrada, 1973), México, México, ra ra ra (Gustavo Alatriste, 1976), Maten al león (Estrada, 1977), Pedro Páramo (José Bolaños, 1977), Mary My Dearest / María de mi corazón (1981), ¿Cómo ves? (Leduc, 1985), Morir en el golfo (Alejandro Pelayo, 1990), El jardín del Edén (Novaro, 1994), Nobody Will Speak of Us When We're Dead / Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto (Agustín Díaz Yañez, 1995), El anzuelo (Ernesto Rimoch, 1996), Otilia Rauda (2001), Bandidas (Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, 2006), Párpados azules (Ernesto Contreras, 2007), Tear This Heart Out / Arráncame la vida (Roberto Snyder, 2008), Las buenas hierbas (Novaro 2010), Fecha de caducidad (Kenya Márquez, 2012), and The Last Call / Tercera Llamada (Francisco Franco, 2013).
Murguía received 17 Ariel Awards nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, winning the award three times: Best Supporting Actress in Life Sentence (Ripstein) in 1979, for Los motivos de luz (Cazal) in 1986, and for The Queen of the Night / La reina de la noche (Ripstein) in 1996. In 2011, she received the Golden Ariel for Lifetime Achievement. She also won the Best Actress Award at the Havana Film Festival for her role as Joaquina in the 1992 film Mi querido Tom Mix by Carlos García Agraz.
In 2017, she contributed to the American box office hit Coco—the Disney-Pixar animated movie directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina—voicing the character of Mama Coco, the great-grandmother of Miguel, the protagonist. Additionally, she participated in the popular Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, starring Gael García Bernal, in 2015.
