Biography for
Raquel Torres (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

11 November 1908, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

Date of Death

10 August 1987, Los Angeles, California, USA (complications following a stroke)

Birth Name

Paula Osterman

Height

5' 2" (1.57 m)

Mini Biography

Raquel Torres had a very brief sexy reign in Hollywood come the advent of sound, but late at night viewers can still get a sampling of this spitfire's charms in one zany Marx Brothers piece of slapstick. Born Paula Osterman in Hermosillo, Mexico on November 11, 1908, she arrived in films at the age of 19 and garnered instant attention and a flurry of wolf whistles in W.S. Van Dyke's White Shadows in the South Seas (1928), which remains best known as MGM's first film to synchronize music, dialogue, and sound effects. This exquisite beauty appeared in the predominantly silent film as the lead femme opposite stoic Monte Blue. A bi-racial love story and morality play set in the South Pacific islands, this was supposedly the first film in which the MGM lion roared before the opening credits of the picture. The beautifully shot film went on to win the "Best Cinematography" Oscar.

The next year Raquel was third billed behind Lili Damita and Ernest Torrence in the first film version of the classic The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929), which was a partially talking film. This Oscar winner for "Art Direction" was an early disaster movie that bonded a group of strangers who see their lives flash before their eyes while entrapped on a collapsing bridge. Her other 1929 film was The Desert Rider (1929) a standard oater wherein she provided spicy set decoration opposite cowboy star Tim McCoy. She continued the tropical island pace with The Sea Bat (1930) and Aloha (1931) as various island girls and half-caste beauty types. In the last year of filming, she played a sexy foil to the raucous comedy teams of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey in So This Is Africa (1933) and Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo in Duck Soup (1933). It was Raquel who inspired Groucho's classic line: "I could dance with you until the cows came home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows until you came home." Raquel abruptly retired following her marriage to businessman Stephen Ames in 1935, who once was married to actress Adrienne Ames. Her husband later produced post-war "B" films including The Spanish Main (1945), Tycoon (1947) and Ride, Vaquero! (1953), but Raquel never returned to filming even with this "in." Ames died on the 20th anniversary of their wedding day in 1955. Raquel later married actor Jon Hall but this marriage ended in divorce. She died of complications from an earlier stroke in 1987 in Los Angeles at the age of 78.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Jon Hall	(1959 - ?) (divorced)
Stephen Ames	(22 April 1935 - 22 April 1955) (his death)
Jon Hall	(? - ?) (remarried)

Trivia

Former daughter-in-law of actor Felix Locher.