page_title: Katy Jurado
section_title: Success in Hollywood (1951–1968)
hierarchical_section_title: Katy Jurado / Life and career / Success in Hollywood (1951–1968)
caption_attribution_description: English: Charlton Heston and Katy Jurado in Arrowhead (1953)Español: Charlton Heston y Katy Jurado en Arrowhead (1953)
context_page_description: María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, better known as Katy Jurado, was a Mexican actress of film, television, and theater. Jurado began her acting career in Mexico. She achieved some renown in her country's cinema during the period known as the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. In 1951, she was discovered by American filmmakers in Mexico and began her Hollywood career. She acted in notable Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. An exotic beauty, Jurado specialized in interpretations of complex, stereotyped and sexualized women. Her talent for playing a variety of characters helped pave the way for Mexican actresses in American cinema. She was the first Latin American actress nominated for an Oscar, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in Broken Lance, and was the first to win a Golden Globe Award, for her performance in High Noon.
context_section_description: In addition to acting, Jurado worked as a movie columnist, radio reporter and bullfight critic to support her family. She was on assignment when filmmaker Budd Boetticher and actor John Wayne spotted her at a bullfight. Neither knew she was an actress. However, Boetticher, who was also a professional bullfighter, cast Jurado in his 1951 film Bullfighter and the Lady, opposite Gilbert Roland, as the wife of an aging matador. She had rudimentary English language skills, and memorized and delivered her lines phonetically. Despite this handicap, her strong performance brought her to the attention of Hollywood producer Stanley Kramer, who cast her in the classic Western High Noon (1952), starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. Jurado learned to speak English for the role, studying and taking classes two hours a day for two months. She played saloon owner Helen Ramírez, former love of reluctant hero Cooper's Will Kane. She earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and gained notice in the American movie industry. In 1953 she had a role in Arrowhead with Charlton Heston and Jack Palance, playing an evil Comanche woman, the love interest of Heston's character.
  In 1954, Jurado was chosen to play Spencer Tracy's Comanche wife in the film Broken Lance, directed by Edward Dmytryk. The role had originally been intended for Dolores del Río, but the U.S. government, accusing del Rio of being a communist sympathizer at the height of the McCarthy era, refused permission for her to work in the United States. Jurado was then selected for the role, despite the resistance of the studio because of her youth. But after viewing footage of her scenes, studio executives were impressed and their objections vanished. Her performance garnered an Academy Award nomination. Jurado was the first Latin American actress to compete for the Oscar statuette.
  In the same year, Jurado appeared with Kirk Douglas in the Henry Hathaway film The Racers. In 1955, Jurado filmed Trial, directed by Mark Robson, with Glenn Ford. It was a drama about a Mexican boy accused of raping a white girl, with Jurado playing the mother of the accused. For this role she was again nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
  In the same year, she traveled to Italy for the filming of Trapeze, directed by Carol Reed, with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.
  Though the theater did not interest her, Jurado agree to star in The Best House in Naples (1956), a play by Eduardo de Filippo, opposite Raf Vallone on Broadway.
  As Jurado's Hollywood career continued, she specialized more in Western films. She participated in Man from Del Rio (1956), opposite Anthony Quinn, and Dragoon Wells Massacre (1957) with Barry Sullivan. In 1957 she debuted on television with a guest appearance in an episode of Playhouse 90. In 1959 she acted in an episode of The Rifleman, written and directed by Sam Peckinpah. In 1958, she acted in The Badlanders, with Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine, with whom Jurado was already in a relationship. In 1959, Marlon Brando, with whom Jurado maintained a close friendship, invited her to participate in One-Eyed Jacks, his first film as director. After marrying Borgnine, they founded their own production company called Sanvio Corp. The couple traveled to Italy, where they partnered with the producer Dino de Laurentiis in Barabbas (where both acted together with Anthony Quinn), and I braganti Italiani, directed by Mario Camerini.
  In 1961, Jurado returned to Mexico and filmed Y dios la llamó Tierra (1961) and La Bandida (1963).
  In 1962 she appeared as the historical character La Tules in an episode of the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days.
  Her stormy marriage with Borgnine ended in 1963. Depressed, Jurado returned to Mexico and established her residence in the city of Cuernavaca.
  In 1965, Jurado returned to Hollywood for the film Smoky, directed by George Sherman, starring Fess Parker. In 1966, she played the mother of George Maharis's character in A Covenant with Death. In 1968 she appeared in the film Stay Away, Joe in the role of the hal
caption: Jurado with Charlton Heston in Arrowhead (1953).
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