Lupita Tovar aka Guadalupe Natalia Tovar has made quite a name for herself within the film industry. After gaining notoriety from her role in the Spanish-language version of Dracula, Tovar grew to earn many more memorable roles. It is now being reported that the Mexican actress has passed away.
According to the Washington Post, Tovar's grandson, Paul Weitz, a movie director, writer and producer confirmed the death. Weitz shared that the actress passed away due to a heart ailment last Saturday.
Tovar who was discovered at 16 by Hollywood scouts made her first appearances in films with silent roles. Her arrival in the film capital coincided with the transition to sound, and her limited dramatic training and heavily accented English were barriers to greater stardom.
Despite her heavy accent, her skills were put to use in Spanish-language versions of Hollywood fare. The site reports that the films were made at Universal, with the Spanish-speaking crew working overnight after the English-language cast had clocked out. The idea — often credited to Universal executive Paul Kohner, Ms. Tovar’s future husband — was to tap into the Latin American market demand for sound films and make them at a fraction of the cost of the originals; the sets were already built.
Bst known for horror movies, Tovar worked on the Spanish-language version of The Cat Creeps and was hired after that for the part of Eva Sward in Dracula, the Spanish-language version. The Spanish-language "Dracula" was shot concurrently with the Bela Lugosi version, using the same sets at night — a common practice in the early days of sound film. The National Film Registry of the Library of Congress recently included the Spanish-language version on its list of "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant films.
Tovar went on to increase her star power in a Spanish-language version of “Ten Cents a Dance” (1931), in the dance-hall hostess role played in English by Barbara Stanwyck. The same year, she appeared in the jungle adventure film “East of Borneo” and was a peppery dancer in the Buck Jones Western “Border Law.” Ms. Tovar starred in a 1943 Mexican production of “Resurrection,” based on the Leo Tolstoy novel.
Although her film career in Hollywood dwindled, from 1929 to 1945 Tovar starred in 31 films in both Mexico and the United States. She grew famous, and became friends with legendary artist Diego Tivera, who immortalized her in his paintings according to FOX News Latino.
Tovar later married agent-producer Paul Kohner, whose daughter Susan Kohner was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Douglas Sirk's 1959 melodrama, "Imitation of Life." Her grandchildren, Paul and Chris Weitz, are both Oscar-nominated screenwriters and filmmakers.
We would like to give our deepest condolences to the Tovar family at this time.
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