Maria Felix
Actress
Beautiful, proud and definitely not to be messed with, Felix's harsh gaze and raised eyebrow broke the mold for Mexican screen heroines, who were normally expected to be submissive and simpering.
She starred in 47 films by directors such as Emilio Fernandez, Luis Bunuel and Jean Renoir. Her characters included the madam of a brothel, a revolutionary general, a belly dancer and a Roman empress.
A feminist before the term was coined and always fiercely independent, Felix -- the ninth of 16 children born to a middle-ranking bureaucrat -- was expelled from several schools during her childhood in Guadalajara. Her film career began in 1942 with the melodramatic "El Penon de las Animas" (The Rock of Souls) after director Fernando Palacios spotted her in the street.
From then, there was no holding her back, and the early years of her career -- which coincided with the height of Mexican cinema's "golden age" -- are generally considered to have been her best. Standout works included the 1946 comedy "Enamorada" (In Love), in which she played the prickly bourgeois object of a revolutionary general's courting; the 1948 "Rio Escondido" (Hidden River), in which she portrayed a primary schoolteacher determined to stand up for a whole village against a despotic local landowner; and her last role, 1970's "La Generala" (The Woman General), again set against the backdrop of Mexico's chaotic 1910-1917 revolution.
Although she worked in Spain and France, she refused to learn English and turned down offers from Hollywood. Married four times, including to songwriter-poet Agustin Lara and movie star Jorge Negrete, Felix was also said to have been the lover of muralist Diego Rivera. Her one son, Enrique Alvarez, by Negrete, died in 1996.
Felilx's body was laid in Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts concert hall. Among those paying their respects were actress Salma Hayek, of whom Felix had been dismissive, and President Vicente Fox, who despite being accused by Felix last year of pandering to Zapatista rebels, said the star had contributed to Mexico's democratic changes.
