Pedro Armendáriz

Biography

Born in Mexico City, 1912 - Los Angeles, 1963. Mexican film and theater actor. Son of a Mexican father and American mother, did his first studies in San Antonio, Texas, and San Luis Obispo, California. It started in the acting world participating in the works that sat on the theater group at the University of California, where he continued a career in law.
Back in Mexico, meeting with the director Emilio Fernandez, nicknamed El Indio, was providential. Actor and director began collaborating in numerous films: I'm pure Mexican (1942), Wildflower (1942) and, especially, Maria Candelaria (1943) were the first films of intense common path. Under the guidance of Emilio Fernandez, Pedro Armendariz developed a distinctive personality traits of strong nationalistic film, often portrayed tough and manly men, indigenous people, peasants and revolutionaries. Played repeatedly alternated with Pancho Villa and actresses such as Maria Felix and Dolores del Rio.
With Dolores del Rio formed a legendary couples of Mexican cinema in that Maria Candelaria , an international film that provided not only the director and his actors, but at the same Mexican cinema. The story of an Indian couple facing the target, told in key romantic and formal beauty rare, culminating with the tragic stoning of the protagonist, an innocent victim of her mother's fault. The film shows the influence of Eisenstein and Que Viva Mexico! (1931) to develop a poetic realism rooted in indigenous culture. His images of landscapes and local types are comparable in expressive intensity to those of the great Mexican muralists: Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros. The film was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival 1946.
Pedro Armendariz shot other prominent titles with Dolores del Rio, among which are The Abandoned (1944), Bougainvillea (1944) and the unloved (1949). Maria Felix was his other partner in movies like In Love (1946) or Maclovia (1948 .) At the end of the 40 made the leap to Hollywood from the hand of John Ford himself, requiring the services of Armendariz for The Fugitive (1947) and Fort Apache (1948), one of his iconic Westerns. Among the many international awards he received include the Ariel, awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Mexico (1948 and 1953), the Palme d'Or at Cannes (1946) and the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale (1947) . The actor committed suicide in hospital in Los Angeles where he had been admitted for treatment of cancer.