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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 229896" data-attributes="member: 7">Dolores del Rio (1904─1983) was Hollywood's first Mexican film star. To many contemporary critics, she was viewed as the female equivalent of 1920s heart-throb Rudolph Valentino, and she was often characterized generically as a "female Latin lover". She came from a family of wealthy farmers and bankers in Victoria de Durango, Mexico, where she spent the majority of her youth. Del Rio met American filmmaker Edwin Carewe in 1925, who championed her desires of movie stardom. She would make her film debut in Joanna (1925), and was quickly fore-fronted as one of the rising young stars in Hollywood. She was voted one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1926, along with Joan Crawford, Mary Astor, Janet Gaynor, and Fay Wray. She was soon ushered into films like The Loves of Carmen (1927) and Ramona (1928), which were hits. In late 1928, she was invited to be a part of a radio telecast, as were Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and John Barrymore among others, for The Dodge Brothers Hour to prove that their speaking voices would make the transition to the sound films that were sweeping American cinema. She met Cedric Gibbons, an influential art director for MGM, in 1930. He helped secure her an exclusive contract with RKO, where she would star in Girl of the Rio (1931). Producer David O. Selznick telephoned filmmaker King Vidor about making a film centered on a love story in the South Seas, that would star del Rio and Joel McCrea, and would be punctuated by del Rio jumping into a volcano at the end. The resulting film was Bird of Paradise (1932), which drew controversy for its on-screen nudity, but was a popular audience success. She was then recruited to headline Flying Down to Rio (1933), a global success, that introduced the partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to audiences. She was hired by Jack Warner in 1934 to make two films for Warner Brothers. She first starred in the Busby Berkeley musical comedy Wonder Bar (1934), co-starring Al Jolson, and then played the title role in Madame Du Barry (1934). The latter film generated a certain amount of controversy, primarily around the decision of the producers to shift the story into a sex farce with del Rio as the sultry centerpiece. The next year she starred in I Live for Love and In Caliente (both 1935), both which enjoyed only minor box office success. Del Rio was eventually released from her Warner Brothers contract in 1936. Over the next few years, she moved frequently among the movie studios, especially Universal and Fox, appearing in a handful of different pictures, all of which were critical and financial failures. Cedric Gibbons, despite his position at MGM, was not able to secure del Rio any significant employment at his studio, where the leading ladies were Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainier, and Jean Harlow. While the executives at MGM were quick to praise del Rio for her beauty, they felt that Latina women had no place in their stories. After years of suffering poor scripts and indifferent box office returns for her pictures, del Rio's public popularity steadily declined. She was now far more prominent for being a clotheshorse in fashion advertisements, while her film career seemed increasingly irrelevant to Hollywood. She was placed on a list entitled "box office poison" in 1938, sharing the distinction with the likes of Garbo, Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Edward Arnold, John Barrymore, Marlene Dietrich, and Mae West among others. The list was submitted by independent theater owner Harry Brandt, and was intended to explain that while these stars earned substantial salaries, their films were not financially successful in theaters.  Cedric Gibbons would secure a leading role for Dolores in the film The Man from Dakota (1940), but it was mainly crafted as a star vehicle for Wallace Beery. That same year, she became friends with influential filmmaker Orson Welles. He eventually cast her opposite Joseph Cotten in the film Journey Into Fear in 1942, but their rapidly deteriorating relationship resulted in the majority of her role being reduced. From 1943 to 1959, del Rio worked almost exclusively in Mexican films, appearing in a string of successful pictures, many achieving considerable critical and financial accolades. She returned to Hollywood in 1960 to co-star as Elvis Presley's mother in the western Flaming Star. She continued to work fairly consistently until the late 1970s, when she last appeared briefly in the Anthony Quinn film The Children of Sanchez (1978). Dolores del Rio died of liver failure at age seventy-eight in 1983.     <img src="http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/37/3706/5VCAF00Z/posters/in-caliente-dolores-del-rio-1935.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

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