Carmen de Lirio
Who is Carmen de Lirio?
Carmen Forns Aznar, known by her stage name Carmen de Lirio, was born in Zaragoza on October 31, 1926, and died on August 5, 2014, at age 90. Her stage name was borrowed from the song “La Lirio,” by Concha Piquer. At just thirteen, after the Spanish Civil War, her family moved to Barcelona, her father’s home city, where her relationship with show business began: she worked as a model for painters while studying dressmaking, and began performing in neighbourhood cinemas until she gained complete confidence on stage.
Career
She made her debut on Barcelona’s Paral·lel in 1949 and came to be regarded by many as the finest Spanish star of the 1950s. She was part of Joaquín Gasà’s company, alongside performers such as Alady, Mari Santpere and her close friend Antonio Amaya, and had to constantly contend with censorship under the dictatorship, particularly over the length of her necklines and skirts. She also built an intense career as a stage and film actress, appearing in more than forty films. From the 1960s onward she combined more commercial projects with more prestigious ones, such as “La casa de las palomas” (1971), by Claudio Guerín; “Clara es el precio” (1974), by Vicente Aranda; “La trastienda” (1975), by Jorge Grau; and, much later in her career, an appearance in a film by Isabel Coixet and in “Verónica L.” (1989). She also made occasional appearances on television series.
In 2009 she published her memoirs, titled “Carmen Lirio. Memorias de la mítica vedette que burló a la censura,” in which she recounted with humour her battles with the censors of the era.
Personal life
Carmen de Lirio was one of the great attractions of postwar music hall, admired by businessmen, actors, footballers and bullfighters, and formed an artistic double act with the comedian Miguel Gila. She never hid that her personal life was eventful and that she had numerous suitors during her years of greatest popularity.