Sara Montiel

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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Abad and the second or
maternal family name is Fernández.

Excelentísima Señora Doña

Sara Montiel

MML

Montiel in 1955

Born María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isidora Abad

Fernández
 10 March 1928

Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real), Spain

Died 8 April 2013 (aged 85)

Madrid, Spain

 Spanish
Nationality
 Mexican (since 1951)

Other names  María Alejandra

 Sarita Montiel

Occupation  Actress

 Singer

Years active 1943–2013
 Anthony Mann
Spouses

(m. 1957; div. 1963)

 José Vicente Ramírez Olalla

(m. 1964; div. 1970)

 José Tous Barberán

(m. 1979; died 1992)

 Antonio Hernández
 (m. 2002; div. 2005)

Children  Thais Tous Abad

 José Zeus Tous Abad

María Antonia Abad Fernández MML (10 March 1928 – 8 April 2013), known

professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish actress and singer,
who also held Mexican citizenship since 1951.[1][2][3] She began her career in the 1940s
and became the most internationally popular and highest paid star of Spanish cinema in
the 1960s. She appeared in nearly fifty films and recorded around 500 songs in five
different languages.[4]
Montiel was born in Campo de Criptana in the region of La Mancha in 1928.[5] She
began her acting career in Spain starring in films such as Don Quixote (1947)
and Madness for Love (1948). She moved to Mexico where she starred in films such
as Women's Prison (1951) and Red Fury (1951). She then moved to the United States
and worked in three Hollywood English-language films Vera
Cruz (1954), Serenade (1956) and Run of the Arrow (1957). She returned to Spain to
star in the musical films The Last Torch Song (1957) and The Violet Seller (1958).
These two films netted the highest gross revenues ever recorded internationally for films
made in the Spanish-speaking movie industry during the 1950s/60s and made her
immensely popular.[5][6][7][8] She then established herself also as a singer thanks to the
songs she performed in her films and combined filming new musical films, recording
songs and performing live.
Throughout her career, Montiel's personal life was the subject of constant media
attention in the Spanish-speaking world. She was married four times and adopted two
children.

Contents

 1Career
 2Personal information
 3Filmography
 4Discography
 5Awards
 6Honours
 7Legacy
o 7.1Museum
o 7.2In popular culture
 8Notes
 9References
 10External links
Career[edit]
Montiel started in movies at sixteen[4] in her native Spain, where she appeared in a
secondary role in her first movie, Te quiero para mí (I want you for myself) in 1944,
[7]
 immediately followed by a leading role in Empezó en boda (It Began with a Wedding)
also in 1944.[9][10] They were followed by roles in films such as Mariona
Rebull (1946), Don Quixote (1947) and Madness for Love (1948). In April 1950,
accompanied by her mother, she moved to Mexico and starred in a dozen films there in
less than five years, including Women's Prison (1951), Red Fury (1951) and Cinnamon
Skin (1953).[11]

Sara Montiel attending the San Sebastián International Film Week in 1956.

Hollywood came calling afterwards, and she was introduced to United States
moviegoers in the film Vera Cruz (1954), directed by Robert Aldrich. She was offered
the standard seven-year contract at Columbia Pictures, which she refused, afraid of
Hollywood's typecasting policies for Hispanics. Instead she freelanced at Warner
Bros. in Serenade (1956), directed by Anthony Mann, whom she married in 1957, and
at RKO in Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow (1957).
Between November 1956 and January 1957, before filming Run of the Arrow, she
filmed in Barcelona the musical film The Last Torch Song during a vacation in Spain
and as a deference to its director Juan de Orduña.[12] The film, that was filmed with a
very low budget, became unexpectedly a worldwide megahit. Initially, the songs in the
film were going to be sung by a professional singer who would dub Montiel, but due to
the low budget, she eventually sang the songs herself. [13] The film soundtrack album also
became a hit.
Following this success, in June 1957 she signed with producer Benito Perojo a lavish
contract to make four films in three years,[14] being the first of them The Violet Seller, a
1958 large-budget international co-production musical film. [15] The economic agreement
was ten million pesetas[a] (US$240,000 as of 1957)[b] for four films,[16] which means that
she was to receive 2.5 million pesetas (US$60,000) per film, making her the highest-
paid Spanish star at a time when the highest-paid stars were netting one million pesetas
(US$24,000) per film.[17] The success of The Violet Seller surpassed that of The Last
Torch Song, and in a contractual dispute for the next film, A Girl Against
Napoleon (1959), the agreement was improved on her benefit. [18] She also signed a
contract with Hispavox to record and release the soundtrack albums of her films for
which she netted the 10% of the records sale as royalties.[19] The Violet
Seller soundtrack album, the first with them, topped sales in Spain and in Latin America
and, in July 1959, Hispavox served a Golden Disk award to her for the number of
records sold there.[20]
All this made her a film and singing international superstar. [11][6] Almost all of her next
films earned high box office results and she combined filming, recording songs and
performing live. She was the highest paid star of Spanish cinema, but many years later,
she began to say that she had been paid more than US$1 million for each film, [5] and the
press widely spread it, but this amount is far from what was published back then.
Among the next films during the 1960s and early 1970s were My Last
Tango (1960), Pecado de amor (1961), The Lovely Lola (a 1962 version of La Dame
aux Camélias), Casablanca, Nest of Spies (1963), Samba (1964), The Lost
Woman (1966), Tuset Street (1967), Esa Mujer (1969) and Variety (1971). The
film Variety was banned in Beijing in 1973.
In 1974, she announced her retirement from movies, as she become dissatisfied with
the movie industry and the overt nudity in films, [21] but continued performing live,
recording and starring on her own variety television shows in Spain. In 2002 she was
the advertising image of the MTV Europe Music Awards held in Barcelona.[22][23][24]
In November 2009, singer Alaska who forms the Spanish pop
group Fangoria with Nacho Canut, invited Montiel to record a track sharing vocals with
her for the re-release of the band's album Absolutamente. They recorded the title track
"Absolutamente" as a duet. The music video for the song was released on 18
December 2009.[25] Well into her eighties, she had no plans to retire, and continued
working in various projects.[9] In May 2011, after almost forty years without making a
movie, she performed in a feature film directed by Óscar Parra de Carrizosa. The film
title is Abrázame and was shot on location in La Mancha.
She is considered "one of the most important actresses in the history of Spain", [4] and
has been described by Spain's press as a "myth of Spanish cinema." [26] She has also
been characterized as "the most beautiful woman of twentieth century Spain." [27] She has
also been called a "sexual, feminist, and gay icon for Francoist Spain."[28]

Personal information[edit]
Monument to Montiel in Campo de Criptana.

Montiel, whose complete name was María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isidora
Abad Fernández, was born in 1928 in Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real), Spain.[5] She
entered films after winning a talent contest at age fifteen. [11][29] In her first movie, she was
credited as "María Alejandra" a shortened version of her real name. For her next film,
she changed her name to Sara, after her grandmother, and Montiel after
the Montiel fields in La Mancha region of her birth. It was in Mexico where she first
learned how to read and write, taught by the poet León Felipe, and in 1951 she
acquired Mexican dual nationality.[11] She was married four times,[30][11] and was ex-
communicated by the Catholic Church in Spain for the civil-wedding ceremony of her
first marriage:[11]

 Anthony Mann (American actor, film director); 1957–

63 (divorced)
 José Vicente Ramírez Olalla (attorney); 1964–70
(divorced)
 José Tous Barberán (attorney, journalist); 1979–92
(Tous's death); this union produced two adopted
children: Thais (born 1979) and José Zeus (born
1983)[31]
 Antonio Hernández (Cuban videotape operator);
2002–05 (divorced)
In 2000, Montiel published her autobiography Memories: To Live Is a Pleasure, an
instant best seller with ten editions to date. A sequel Sara and Sex followed in 2003. In
these books, she revealed other relationships in her past, including one-night
stands with writer Ernest Hemingway[11] as well as actor James Dean.[32] She also claimed
a long-term affair in the 1940s with playwright Miguel Mihura[11] and mentioned that
science wizard Severo Ochoa, a Nobel Prize winner, was the true love of her life. [11][33]
In her later years, she became an iconic figure to the gay community, and noted
"Cuando voy a actuar a alguna ciudad de EE UU allí están todos los gays de la ciudad"
(Whenever I perform in any city in the US, all the gays from that city show up). [21] Montiel
died in 2013 at her home in Madrid at the age of eighty-five from congestive heart
failure,[34][29] and was buried in the San Justo Cemetery in Madrid.[9]

Filmography[edit]
Year Title Role Country Notes

1943 Te Quiero Para Mí Ana María Spain Credited as "María Alejandra"

1944 Empezó en Boda Spain

Yoyita, hija del

1945 Bambú Spain
gobernador

1945 Se le Fue el Novio Spain

El Misterioso Viajero del Cristina

1945 Spain
Clipper Gutiérrez

1946 Por el Gran Premio Spain

1946 Mariona Rebull Lula Spain

1947 Don Quixote Antonia Spain Released in the U.S. in 1949

María Luisa
1947 Alhucemas Spain
Pereira

1948 Confidencia Elena Spain

1948 Madness for Love Aldara Spain Released in the U.S. in 1949
Year Title Role Country Notes

as The Mad Queen

1948 La Mies es Mucha Guyerati Spain

1949 Vidas Confusas Spain

1950 Pequeñeces... Monique Spain

1951 Women's Prison Dora Mexico

Stronghold is its English version

Mexico /
1951 Red Fury María Stevens with Veronica Lake in Montiel's
United States
part

1951 Captain Poison Angustias Spain

1952 Necesito Dinero María Teresa Mexico

Here Comes Martin

1952 Rosario Mexico
Corona

El Enamorado / Vuelve
1952 Rosario Mexico
Martín Corona

1953 She, Lucifer and I Isabel Mexico

Spain /
1953 That Man from Tangier Aixa
United States

1953 Cinnamon Skin Marucha Mexico /

Year Title Role Country Notes

Cuba

1953 Yo soy gallo dondequiera Rosalia Mexico

She does not appear in the final

1953 Reportaje Mexico
cut

Rosaura Moreno
1954 Porque Ya No Me Quieres Mexico
/ Lilia

1954 Se solicitan modelos Rosina Mexico

1954 Vera Cruz Nina United States

Frente al Pecado de Ayer / Mexico /

1955 Lucecita
Cuando se Quiere de Veras Cuba

Yo no Creo en los María Caridad Mexico /

1955
Hombres Robledo Cuba

1956 Serenade Juana Montes United States

1956 Where the Circle Ends Isabel Mexico Circle of Death in the U.S.

1957 The Last Torch Song Maria Luján Spain

Yellow
1957 Run of the Arrow United States
Moccasin

1958 The Violet Seller Soledad Moreno Spain

Year Title Role Country Notes

The Devil Made a Woman in the

1959 A Girl Against Napoleon Carmen Spain
U.S. and U.K.

1960 My Last Tango Marta Andreu Spain

Magda Beltrán /
1961 Pecado de amor Spain
Sor Belén

1962 The Lovely Lola Lola Spain

1962 Queen of The Chantecler La Bella Charito Spain

1963 Casablanca, Nest of Spies Teresa Vilar Spain

Belén / Laura
1965 Samba Spain / Brazil
Monteiro

1965 La dama de Beirut Isabel Llanos Spain

1966 The Lost Woman Sara Fernán Spain

1967 Tuset Street Violeta Riscal Spain

Soledad Romero
1969 Esa Mujer Spain
Fuentes

1971 La casa de los Martínez Herself Spain

1971 Variety Ana Marqués Spain

Year Title Role Country Notes

Cinco Almohadas para una Rosa López /

1974 Spain
Noche Ana

1996 Asaltar los Cielos Herself Spain Documental

2002 Sara Una Estrella Herself Spain Documental

2002 Machin, Toda Una Vida Herself Spain Documental

2011 Abrázame Sara Montiel Spain Final film role

Discography[edit]
 Sara Montiel en Mexico
 Canciones de la Película "El Último Cuple" - Spain:
Columbia. UK: London 5409
 La Violetera - Spain: Hispavox. US: Columbia - EX
5056
 Baile con Sara Montiel
 Carmen la de Ronda - Spain: Hispavox. US:
Columbia EX 5020
 Besos de Fuego
 Mi Último Tango - Spain: Hispavox. US: Columbia
EX 5048
 El Tango
 Pecado de Amor - Spain: Hispavox. US: Columbia
EX 5092
 La Bella Lola
 Noches De Casablanca
 Samba
 La Dama de Beirut
 Canta Sarita Montiel
 Esa Mujer
 Sara
 Varietés
 Sara... Hoy
  Saritisima
 Anoche con Sara
 Purisimo Sara
 Sara De Cine
 Sara A Flor de Piel
 Amados Mios
 Todas Las Noches A Las Once
 Sara Montiel La Diva
 Sara Montiel La Leyenda
 Besame - Spain: Hispavox. US: Columbia EX 5077
(1962)
 Songs From The Film Besame - Spain: Hispavox.
US: Columbia EX 5135

Awards[edit]
Year Award Category Work Result Ref

Circle of Cinematographic Writers Best Main The Last Torch

1957 Won [35]

Awards Actress Song

Circle of Cinematographic Writers Best Main

1958 The Violet Seller Won [36]

Awards Actress

National Syndicate of Spectacle

1959 Best Actress The Violet Seller Won [37]

Awards

Circle of Cinematographic Writers

1999 Tribute Award - Won [38]

Awards

Honours[edit]
 1997 - Gold Medal of the Academy of
Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain.[39]
 2001 - Rita Moreno HOLA Award for Excellence.[40]
 2008 - Gold Medal of Merit in Labour (Kingdom of
Spain, 5 December 2008).[41]
 2012 - "Reina de la Belleza Honorífica".[42]
Legacy[edit]
Museum[edit]
The Sara Montiel Museum, opened in 1991, is a museum in Campo de Criptana
dedicated to her. It is housed in a sixteenth century windmill and displays photographs,
wardrobe and personal belongings of the actress as well as posters of her films. In May
2021 it reopened after undergoing a restoration and modernization. [43]
In popular culture[edit]
Correos, the Spanish postal service, issued in 2014 a sheet of stamps in tribute to three
recently deceased famous Spanish cinema artists: Sara Montiel, Alfredo
Landa and Manolo Escobar. The stamp that pays tribute to Montiel depicts her in a
scene from The Violet Seller.[44]
She was portrayed in the Pedro Almodóvar film Bad Education (2004) by a male actor
in drag (Gael García Bernal) as the cross-dressing character Zahara, and a film clip
from one of her movies was used, as well.[2]

Notes[edit]
^ a. In Spain, ten million pesetas (€60,101) in 1957, adjusted for
inflation using the consumer price index, in 2022 would be
approximately €3 million,[45] while its purchasing power would be €10–
16 million.[46]
^ b. The exchange rate in June 1957 was of forty-two pesetas to the
United States dollar.[47]

References[edit]
1. ^ "Etapa en México"  [Stage in
Mexico].  [Link] (in Spanish). Archived
from  the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 28
July  2022. En 1951 Sara Montiel adquirió la
nacionalidad mexicana, y revelaría años más tarde:
"Me hice mexicana, claro. Todavía tengo mi carta de
nacionalidad en la caja fuerte. Cuando me casé con
Tony Mann, en Los Ángeles, me casé con mi otro
pasaporte, el mexicano" ("I became Mexican, of
course. I still have my nationality card in the safe.
When I married Tony Mann, in Los Angeles, I
married with my other passport, the Mexican")
2. ^ Jump up to:a b "La Gran Diva: Remembering Sara
Montiel". [Link]. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
3. ^ "Sara Montiel es hoy de las
'Imprescindibles'". Diario de Sevilla (in European
Spanish). 2019-12-15. Retrieved  2020-05-08.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c Moya, Edwin López (2018-04-
12).  "New Sara Montiel biography is being written in
Philadelphia".  AL DÍA News. Retrieved  2020-05-08.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "PASSINGS: Sara Montiel, Josep
Joan Bigas Luna".  Los Angeles Times. 9 April 2013.
Retrieved January 19, 2022.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b "Muere Sara Montiel a los 85
años". FormulaTV  (in Spanish). Retrieved  2020-05-
08.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b "Sara Montiel". News Europa (in
Spanish). 2020-04-08. Retrieved  2020-05-08.
8. ^ "Muere Sara Montiel".  La Vanguardia (in
Spanish). 2013-04-08. Retrieved  2020-05-08.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b c "Sara Montiel".  [Link] (in
Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-08.
10. ^ Jaime, Víctor Núñez (2013-04-08). "Fallece la
actriz Sara Montiel".  El País (in
Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved  2020-05-08.
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i "La boda de Sara Montiel y
Toni Hernández: el día que se acuñó el ¿Pero qué
pasa? ¿Pero qué invento es esto?". Vanity Fair  (in
Spanish). 2019-10-12. Retrieved  2020-05-08.
12. ^ The Last Torch Song (1957), retrieved  2020-05-08
13. ^ Herreros, Enrique. La Codorniz de Enrique
Herreros (in Spanish). p.  169. Retrieved January
19,  2022.
14. ^ "Montiel signs with Benito Perojo a contract to
make four films in three years". ABC (in Spanish)
(Madrid  ed.). 15 June 1957. pp.  68–69.
Retrieved January 19, 2022.
15. ^ "History of our cinema - La Violetera
(introduction)".  RTVE  (in Spanish). 12 June 2018.
Retrieved January 19, 2022.
16. ^ "Sarita Montiel And Perojo Near An
Adjustment". Variety. 3 September 1958. p.  11.
Retrieved January 19, 2022.
17. ^ "Spain's Top Stars Bursting Bounds Of the
Economy". Variety. 17 July 1957. p.  13.
Retrieved January 19, 2022.
18. ^ "Spain's Sarita Montiel Global Allure Makes Her
Trading Item With Yanks". Variety. 13 May 1959.
p. 21. Retrieved  January 19,  2022.
19. ^ Werb, Hank (16 July 1958). "Chronicle from
Madrid". Variety. p. 62. Retrieved  January 19,  2022.
20. ^ "Golden Disk Montiel".  Variety. 15 July 1959.
p. 19. Retrieved  January 19,  2022.
21. ^ Jump up to:a b "Sara Montiel: Un pájaro
libre".  ABC  (in Spanish). 2013-04-08.
Retrieved 2020-05-08.
22. ^ "Sara Montiel Dies; Actress Was
85" [Link]
23. ^ Olivo, Sara (2017-04-08).  "Hace cuatro años nos
dejó Sara Montiel: la recordamos en sus mejores
momentos (incluye vídeos)". Revista Love  (in
Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-08.
24. ^ "Los 11 momentazos de Sara Montiel (VÍDEOS,
FOTOS)".  El HuffPost (in Spanish). 2013-04-08.
Retrieved 2020-05-08.
25. ^ Music video for Absolutamente 2009 on YouTube
26. ^ "Muere Sara Montiel, mito del cine
español".  ABC  (in Spanish). 2013-04-08.
Retrieved 2020-05-08.
27. ^ "El cuplé final de la Montiel". Diario Sur (in
European Spanish). 2015-02-05. Retrieved 2020-
05-08.
28. ^ "Sara Montiel, el extraño caso de un icono sexual,
feminista y gay en pleno franquismo". El
Confidencial  (in Spanish). 2013-04-14.
Retrieved 2020-05-08.
29. ^ Jump up to:a b "Sara Montiel; adiós a la
Violetera".  LoQueSomos (in Spanish). 2013-04-08.
Retrieved 2020-05-08.
30. ^ Baez, Marcelo (2013-04-23). "An Imaginary
Cocktail Party Tribute to Diva Sara Montiel".  ABC
News. Retrieved  2020-05-08.
31. ^ Boletín Oficial del Estado
32. ^ "35 cosas increíbles que hizo, dijo y cantó Sara
Montiel". Vanity Fair  (in Spanish). 2016-04-08.
Retrieved 2020-05-08.
33. ^ de Llano, Pablo (2018-03-31). "Sara Montiel, el
pan y los hombres". El País  (in
Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved  2020-05-08.
34. ^ "Sara Montiel Dead: Spanish Film Legend Dies At
85".  Huffington Post. 8 April 2013. Retrieved 20
February  2019.
35. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de
1957". Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (in
Spanish). Retrieved January 20, 2022.
36. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de
1958". Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (in
Spanish). Retrieved January 20, 2022.
37. ^ "Noticiario nº 840 B - Cinematography. Syndicate
Awards".  No-Do  (in Spanish). 9 February 1959.
Retrieved January 20, 2022.
38. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de
1999". Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (in
Spanish). Retrieved January 20, 2022.
39. ^ "Medallas de Oro".  Academy of Cinematographic
Arts and Sciences of Spain (in Spanish).
Retrieved January 20, 2022.
40. ^ "HOLA, Sarita!".  Backstage. 2001.
Retrieved January 20, 2022.
41. ^ "REAL DECRETO 2025/2008, de 5 de diciembre,
por el que se concede la Medalla al Mérito en el
Trabajo, en su categoría de Oro, a doña María
Antonia Abad Fernández"  (PDF).  Boletín Oficial del
Estado  (in Spanish) (294): 48978. 5 December
2008. Retrieved  January 19,  2022.
42. ^ "Villarrobledo (Albacete) celebra este fin de
Semana su Feria del Vino". LaCerca  (in Spanish).
Retrieved January 20, 2022.
43. ^ Barba, Cristina (18 May 2021).  "Reabre el Museo
Sara Montiel en Campo de Criptana".  RTVE  (in
Spanish). Retrieved January 20, 2022.
44. ^ "Spanish cinema. Sara Montiel, Alfredo Landa and
Manolo Escobar".  Correos (in Spanish).
Retrieved January 19, 2022.
45. ^ "Would you like to update a personal income or
spending?". INE. Retrieved  January 19,  2022.
 46. ^ Prados de la Escosura, Leandro (2020).  "Six
Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a Spanish
Peseta Amount, 1850 - Present".  MeasuringWorth.
Retrieved January 19, 2022.
47. ^ "Spain Joins OEEC, Announces Economic
Stabilization Program".  Foreign Commerce Weekly.
3 August 1959. p.  21. Retrieved January 19, 2022.

External links[edit]
 Sara Montiel at IMDb
 Sara Montiel's InfoMontiel USA
 Video of Sara Montiel singing "La Violetera"
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 1928 births
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 People from the Province of Ciudad Real
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  Spanish film actresses
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 Spanish emigrants to Mexico
 Naturalized citizens of Mexico
 Singers from Castilla–La Mancha
 Actresses from Castilla–La Mancha
 Actresses from Madrid
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