Sara Montiel
Who is Sara Montiel?
Sara Montiel, also known as Sarita Montiel, was an actress and singer, one of the great divas of Spanish film and copla in the 20th century. Her huge cinematic hit, “El último cuplé,” made her one of the biggest box-office draws in the Spanish-speaking world of her era and opened the door to a multi-million contract to shoot European co-productions across Spain, France and Italy, which made her the highest-paid Spanish-speaking actress of the time.
Before that breakthrough, she had already built a notable career in Mexico, where she won the Mexican Golden Cinema award and quickly became one of the biggest stars of the day, alongside figures such as María Félix, Miroslava and Katy Jurado, appearing in more than a dozen films.
Hollywood career
Her beauty and talent soon caught the attention of the American film industry, which was then looking for Hispanic stars in the mold of Rita Hayworth. In 1954 she made her Hollywood debut opposite Gary Cooper in “Vera Cruz,” directed by Robert Aldrich, with a cast that included Burt Lancaster and a young Charles Bronson, reaching a level of popularity previously unheard of for a Spanish artist. She followed this with “Serenade,” alongside Joan Fontaine, tenor Mario Lanza and Vincent Price — the shoot during which she met her first husband, director Anthony Mann, whom she married in 1957 and divorced in 1963 — and “Run of the Arrow” (also known as “Yuma”), with Rod Steiger.
After her Hollywood period, she returned to Spain to shoot, almost as a favor to a friend, a low-budget film directed by Juan de Orduña: “El último cuplé,” which became a huge box-office hit and catapulted her back to the top. It was followed by titles such as “La Violetera,” “Carmen, la de Ronda,” “Mi último tango,” “Pecado de amor,” “La bella Lola,” “La dama de Beirut,” “Noches de Casablanca” and “Cinco almohadas para una noche.” As a singer, Sara Montiel brought the cuplé genre back into fashion with a suggestive, highly personal singing style; her most iconic song, “Fumar es un placer,” permanently linked her image to the cigarette, then seen as a mark of elegance. As this style of cinema declined, she turned to musical theatre, with shows such as “Doña Sara de la Mancha” and “La Saritísima,” through which she kept filling venues live.
Personal life
Her love life was followed by the press as closely as her artistic career. After her first marriage to Anthony Mann, she briefly married industrialist Vicente Ramírez Olalla, a union that lasted barely two months. The great love of her life was Majorcan businessman and journalist Pepe Tous, whom she married after a ten-year relationship and with whom she adopted her two children, Thaïs and Zeus; after his death, she raised them on her own. She also maintained notable friendships within international cinema, including Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando and Ernest Hemingway, and was romantically linked to James Dean, one of his last known photographs before his death having been taken with her. On May 31, 2008, she received the Gold Medal of Castilla-La Mancha in recognition of her career.