Edith González(1964-2019)

Edith Gonzalez was born in Mexico in 1964, as part of a well-off middle-class family. From an early age, Edith showed a passion for acting. She was discovered at the age of 5 when her mother took her to see a popular Sunday show. The producer of a show was looking for a blond girl with blue eyes and saw her sitting in the crowd. Her first role was playing Cossette in "Los Miserables" at age 5. She was offered the role of the quintessential spoiled daughter in the Mexican telenovela Los ricos también lloran at the age of 15 which made her a known figure in Mexico and made people start to recognize her in the streets.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she kept busy taking part in numerous telenovelas, most notably Bianca Vidal and Rosa Salvaje, and a few movies filmed in Mexico City. In 1993, when she got the offer to play Monica in the seminal Corazon salvaje, a role she meant to decline, but accepted after much convincing from her brother. The series was seen across the world to much acclaim and became an instant classic.

After she finished filming Corazon salvaje, she became a bit selective of the roles she was offered, having appeared in a small number of TV series and films. Unfortunately, none of the follow up soaps or telenovelas she did after Corazon Salvaje were as successful. Her 1995 drama La Sombra Del Otro was one of the most undervalued telenovelas. Although the story and her performance are acclaimed by those who watched the novela, it did not receive the acceptance that was expected because it wasn't the traditional soft storyline. In 1997, Edith acted in La Jaula de Oro with Saul Lisazo, which again didn't have the rating it much deserved. The same year she became the lead in the successful musical "Aventurera", a live production lead by Carmen Salinas, where she interpreted a woman forced to prostitute herself after her mother abandons her at a young age. The musical is now in it's 13th year and has had many actresses in the lead role of Elena Tejero following Edith's exit, but Edith is considered by the public and the producer of the show as the best "Aventurera", and the one who sells the most. In 1999 she co-starred with Fernando Colunga in Nunca te Olvidare which was successful.

Afterwards, Edith took a break from acting, first by traveling to Paris, France to practice ballet and learn French, then from there to Los Angeles, California, USA to shoot a cosmetic ad campaign as well as learn English.

In 2001, Edith returned to Mexico to resume her acting career by taking part in the series Salomé in which she interpreted a cabaret dancer who falls in love with a wealthy married man and ends up pregnant with his child.

She attempted to get into American cinema, but had little success. Her only English-language film role was in 2003 where she played a Miami police detective alongside Eva Longoria Parker in the direct-to-video action thriller Señorita Justice which was filmed in Miami, Florida.

In 2004, Edith temporarily quit acting because of her pregnancy and choice to raise her infant daughter. From 2005 to 2007 she served as a judge in the successful dancing competition Bailando por un Sueno 1 and 2, Reyes de la pista, and Bailando por la boda de mi suenos. She also starred in two telenovelas. The first being Mundo de Fieras in which she interpreted the main villain, Jocelyn, who suffered from schizophrenia and was bipolar. Along with Mundo de Fieras she also starred once again in Aventurera, gaining the same popularity she had the first time (she starred in it from 2005-2008). The second soap opera was Palabra de Mujer (alongside Yadihra Carrillo, Ludwika Paleta, and Lydia Avila), in this she played TV producer Vanessa Noriega.

In 2008, Edith moved to Colombia where she starred in the production of Dona Barbara for Telemundo. The telenovela was based on the famous book, Dona Barbara, written by Venezuelan author Romulo Gallegos. It talks about the fight against barbarism, represented by Dona Barbara (Gonzalez), and civilization, represented by Santos Luzardo (character interpreted by Christian Meier). The soap opera broke records becoming Telemundo's most internationally sold soap opera ever.

In 2010, she returned to Mexico and co-starred in the juvenile telenovela Camaleones, starring Belinda and Alfonso Herrera. She later starred in the play Buenas Noches, Mama (Mexican version of Night Mother, written by Marsha Norman) alongside Rosa Maria Bianchi. The play was originally programmed to run for 10 weeks, but due to its success was extended and ended on June 4. In July she announced that she was engaged to economist Lorenzo Lazo, and that they were expecting a child. Unfortunately, with five months of gestation and a week before their wedding she lost the baby (later revealed that it was to be a girl). A month later they happily got married.

In October that same year, she surprised the public and the media when she announced that she had moved to the TV Azteca network (competitor of the largest television network in Mexico, Televisa, for which she worked more than 30 years). She signed a three year contract for 5 million dollars. She is also the new Hispanic figure for the Got Milk campaign, she posed with the famous milk mustache along with her 6 year old daughter, Constanza.