page_title: Amelia Bence
section_title: A successful film star
hierarchical_section_title: Amelia Bence / Biography / A successful film star
caption_attribution_description: English: A still from the Argentine film "La otra y yo" ("The other and me") On the left, is the signature of the actress Amelia Bence, who is also standing on the left in the image with actor Enrique Alvarez Diosdado.
context_page_description: Amelia Bence was an Argentine film actress and one of the divas of the Golden Age of Argentine Cinema.
  Born to Belarusian Jewish immigrants, Bence began her career at a young age, studying with Alfonsina Storni at the Lavardén Children's Theater and with Mecha Quintana at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música y Declamación. She made her film debut in 1933, in only the second sound film of Argentina, Dancing, by Luis Moglia Barth. Bence's acting in La guerra gaucha, one of the most important films in the history of Argentine cinema, gave her recognition and earned her leading role offers. She starred in films such as Los ojos más lindos del mundo, Todo un hombre, Camino del infierno, A sangre fría, La otra y yo and Danza del fuego, garnering the Best Actress award from the Argentine Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences for Todo un hombre, A sangre fría and Danza del fuego. Bence also won the Silver Condor Award for Best Actress for Lauracha, and her work was acknowledged with awards in Spain, Cuba, and the US throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
  Bence married Spanish actor Alberto Closas in 1950, and after their divorce was in a relationship with Osvaldo Cattone in the 1960s.
context_section_description: After the success of La guerra gaucha, Bence received only starring roles. In 1943, she agreed to work with Pedro López Lagar on Son cartas de amor, a romantic story set at the time of the Spanish Civil War, in which she received an award for Best Actress from the Cuban Federation of Film and Theater Editors. In 1982 she donated the medal to a program raising funds to help the soldiers of the Falklands War. Later in 1943, she starred in Los ojos más lindos del mundo, (The Most Beautiful Eyes in the World). The title was a reference to the purplish green hue of Bence's eyes and the title became associated with her, to the point that when she toured Chile in 1955 and 1964, the press headlines read, "The most beautiful eyes in the world came here". Her next film, Todo un hombre (1943), was directed by Frenchman Pierre Chenal. In the final scene, Bence was replaced by a double because of the impossibility of postponing a trip to Brazil. She won the award for Best Actress from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the film. The cover of the magazine Antena for December 1943 announced the upcoming release of Julio Saraceni's Nuestra Natacha, based on a play by Alejandro Casona. The film was released in September 1944, shortly after the presentation of her film 24 horas de la vida de una mujer, in which she played the role of "Cecilia", receiving good reviews in La Nación and Antena.
  In 1946, Bence starred with Mecha Ortiz in Camino del infierno, a melodramatic, psychological thriller involving a love triangle. Despite their performances, the film was poorly received by the critics. San Miguel Studios next put all three of its stars,  Mecha Ortiz, María Duval and Bence in one film, Las tres ratas (1946), under the direction of Carlos Schlieper, which fared much better with the public and critics. In the summer of 1944, Bence met the actor Alberto Closas in Chile while filming María Rosa, who would become her husband. Both María Rosa and the other film made in Chile, Lauracha (1946) ended up being delayed for release due to a dispute between Pampa Film, Lumiton and San Miguel Studios. The legal dispute between the director Ernesto Arancibia and the film companies took nearly two years to resolve. Despite the delay in release, the Association of Film Critics awarded Bence the Silver Condor Award for Best Actress, for a role which Hal Erickson  in The New York Times describes as a "fiercely independent young woman", comparing the film to a "Joan Crawfordesque drama". Her next film, El pecado de Julia, featured Alberto Closas, with whom she had begun a relationship, and received mixed reviews.
  In 1947, Bence won the Writers Association award for Best Actress and the inaugural prize for the Hispanoamericano de Cinematografía in Madrid for her role as a wealthy but weak and vulnerable lady, mistreated by an evil nephew in Daniel Tinayre's murder drama, A sangre fría. For her role in Momplet 's La otra y yo (1949), which co-starred Enrique Álvarez Diosdado and Fernando Lamas, she dyed her hair blond to play two different characters—the film star "Dora Nelson" and the clothing designer "Matilde García". It amused and surprised the public, as there is a scene where the two characters talk to each other in the same frame. La Opinión praised her acting and the magazine El Hogar reported that she "soared beyond the script and the director". Bence again starred opposite Diosdado in Danza del fuego, in which played Elena Valdez, a successful concert pianist who died on her wedding night after falling out the window of her home, tortured and believing herself guilty of a crime. Her performance earned her the award for Best Actress in 1949 from both Writers Association and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Argentina.
  After marrying Closas in 1950, they formed a theater company and dedicated themselves more frequently to theater performance. The premiere of "La estrella cayó en el mar", though marred by politics, was a success and continued playing to sold-out houses. After the first presentation, a reporter from 
caption: A still from the Argentine film "La otra y yo" ("The other and me") On the left, is the signature of the actress Amelia Bence, who is also standing on the left in the image with actor Enrique Álvarez Diosdado.
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