Silvia Pinal, the revered film and television actress who left an indelible mark on Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema, has died. She was 93.
Mexico’s culture secretary, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, as well as the Asociación Nacional de Intérpretes announced Pinal’s passing on social media. The Associated Press reported that Pinal had been hospitalized for a urinary infection several days ago.
During a prolific acting and producing career that spanned seven decades, Pinal gained international fame for toplining three 1960s classics written and directed by Luis Buñuel: the Palme d’Or co-winner Viridiana (1961), The Exterminating Angel (1962) and Simon of the Desert (1965).
Pinal got her start in the theater in the late 1940s working with Cuban-born director Rafael Banquells, who would become the first of her four husbands. Her breakthrough in cinema came in 1950 when at 18 she landed back-to-back leading roles opposite two of Mexico’s biggest film stars, first with Germán Valdés (aka Tin-Tan) in the comedy The King of the Neighborhood and with Mario Moreno (aka Cantinflas) in The Doorman.
She also worked alongside famed actor-singer Pedro Infante in Un Rincón Cerca del Cielo (1952).
Still, Pinal’s most celebrated roles would come more than a decade later while collaborating with the surrealist genius Buñuel, regarded by many critics as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Viridiana, her first of three collaborations with the Spanish-born helmer, was made possible by her second husband, Mexican producer Gustavo Alatriste, and her performance as a platinum-blonde novice struggling with her faith was arguably the most impressive of her career.
Viridiana was banned in Spain by the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco and condemned by the Vatican’s official newspaper for its “blasphemous” criticism of the Catholic Church. It also was prohibited in Pinal’s native Mexico, but after a visit to France, she managed to return home with a print that was often used for private screenings.
In The Exterminating Angel, Pinal portrays one of the guests who arrive at a mansion for a dinner party and then are unable to escape.
“A friend of mine made a clever point that I should repeat here: that Buñuel invented reality shows with The Exterminating Angel,” she said in a 2006 Criterion Collection interview. “What is [the film] if not a reality show about people who can’t leave that room?”
And in the 45-minute Simon of the Desert, her character tries to tempt Saint Simeon Stylites (Claudio Brook) from leaving his post atop of pillar, where he remained for six years, six months and six days to prove his devotion to God.
Of Pinal’s 100-plus acting credits, she worked mostly in Mexico, though she did appear in several pictures featuring Hollywood talent, including the MGM co-production Guns for San Sebastian (1968), an action film starring Anthony Quinn and Charles Bronson and Samuel Fuller’s Shark (1969), featuring Burt Reynolds.
On television, Pinal won over audiences as the presenter and producer of Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real, a 1986-2007 anthology melodrama based on real-life stories submitted by viewers. The hit program, which aired throughout Latin America, tackled social themes that received scant attention in Mexico in the ’80s and ’90s, including domestic violence, LGBT discrimination and women’s rights.
Pinal also was a leading figure in musical theater in Mexico. She starred in and produced local versions of Broadway musicals such as Hello, Dolly!, A Chorus Line and Cats, and she owned several theaters in Mexico City.
Later in life, she juggled show business with a career in politics; she served as a federal lawmaker in the early ’90s and headed the Mexican actors guild ANDA from 2010-14.
Born on Sept. 12, 1931, in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora, Pinal took the last name of her stepfather, the journalist and politician Luis G. Pinal, as a homage to the man who raised her. Her mother worked in a seafood restaurant and her biological father, Moises Pasquel, was an orchestra conductor.
Three of her former spouses worked in show business, and their children and grandchildren had jobs in everything from film and TV to music and modeling. With her third husband, the pop singer Enrique Guzman, she had two children, including musician Alejandra Guzman, a Latin Grammy-winning artist who has sold more than 30 million albums. Given the family’s many success stories in entertainment, it is often referred to as the “Pinal Dynasty.”
Her survivors also include children Alejandra Guzman, film and TV actress Sylvia Pasquel and musician Luis Enrique Guzman.
