Maria Montez

Adapted from the article Maria Montez (http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.phtml?title=Maria_Montez), from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6340 Hollywood Blvd. Her legacy as the only great star from that country remains, and in 1996 the Maria Montez International Airport opened in Barahona. In 1967 she starred in the television series Bracken's World, and then in several made-for-television movies. Much loved by the people of the impoverished Dominican Republic, in her birthplace of Barahona the city changed the name of an existing street to that bearing her name. Parker never became a big name in Hollywood, despite numerous movies and Oscar nominations. She was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris where her tombstone reads her theatrical year of birth 1918-1951. Her most memorable screen role was as "The Baroness" (Baroness Elsa Schrader) in "The Sound Of Music" 1965.

The 39-year-old Montez died after apparently suffering a heart attack and drowning in her bath. She broke the champagne bottle on the nose of the inaugural trainset for the California Zephyr in San Francisco, CA on March 19, 1949. She also wrote 3 books, two of which were published, as well as penning a number of poems. In 1950 she received the first of three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged, in which she played a prison inmate. There, Maria Montez appeared in several films and a play written by her husband. By 1946 she had starred in Between Two Worlds, Hollywood Canteen, Pride of the Marines and Of Human Bondage. At War's end, the couple had a daughter, Maria Christina, born in Hollywood in 1946 following which they moved to a home in Suresnes, Île-de-France in the eastern suburb of Paris, France. Born in Cedarville, Ohio, she was signed by Warner Brothers in 1941 and debuted that year in They Died With Their Boots On.

While working in Hollywood, she met and married French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont (1911-2001) who had to leave a few days after their wedding to serve in the Free French Forces fighting the Nazis in Europe. Eleanor Parker (born June 26, 1922) is an American actress. Over her career, Maria Montez appeared in 26 films, 21 of which were made in North America and five in Europe. 1951 - Caged. Dubbed the "The Queen of Technicolor," she made her film debut in 1940 opposite Johnny Mack Brown, marking a career that saw her much loved by audiences, usually in adventure films as the beautiful damsel in distress. 1952 - Detective Story. Her screen image was crafted as that of a hot-blooded Latin seductress, playing characters dressed in exotic costumes and sparking jewels. 1956 - Interrupted Melody.

Eventually she accepted an offer from a Hollywood film studio. Determined to become a stage actress, she hired an agent and created a résumé that made her several years younger by listing her birth as 1917 in some instances and 1918 in others. Her marriage lasted several years but in 1939 she ended up in New York City where her exotic looks landed her a job as a model. At a young age, she taught herself to speak English, and in 1932 she married William McFeeters, an American banker working in her seaside home town of Barahona.

The second daughter of 10 children, she was given the name Maria Africa in honor of her diplomat/businessman father's native land, the Spanish Isla de la Palma, on the African continent. Maria Montez was the stage name for Maria Africa Gracia Vidal (June 6, 1912, Barahona, Dominican Republic - September 7, 1951, Paris, France). La Vendetta del corsaro (1951). Amore e sangue (1951).

Il Ladro di Venezia (1950). Portrait d'un assassin (1949). Hans le marin (1948). Siren of Atlantis (1948).

Pirates of Monterey (1947). The Exile (1947). Tangier (1946). Sudan (1945).

Bowery to Broadway (1944). Gypsy Wildcat (1944). Cobra Woman (1944). Follow the Boys (1944).

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944). White Savage (1943). Arabian Nights (1942). The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942).

Bombay Clipper (1942). South of Tahiti (1941). Moonlight in Hawaii (1941). Raiders of the Desert (1941).

That Night in Rio (1941). Lucky Devils (1941). The Invisible Woman (1940). Boss of Bullion City (1940).