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Olga San Juan(1927-2009)

  • Actress
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeter
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Olga San Juan
She possessed the same tiny frame and fervid temperament as Brazilian Carmen Miranda and, for most her career, Puerto Rican singer/dancer Olga San Juan, like Miranda, was a welcome distraction by American audiences. A flavorful, scene-stealing personality who delightfully mangled the English language, she decorated a number of war-era and post-war musicals and comedy escapism with her special brand of comedy.

Dubbed the "Puerto Rican Pepperpot" during her heyday, Olga was born in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Her family returned to Puerto Rico when she was three, but came back to America after a few years and, this time, settled in "Spanish Harlem". By age 3, she was taking dancing lessons and was almost immediately thrust into the limelight by her mother. By age 11, she (and five other young girls) had executed the Fandango for Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House. As a teenager, Olga performed at such hot spots as the El Morocco and the Copacabana and, subsequently, earned pay as a dancer with famed jazz and mambo musician, Tito Puente, who by then had earned the title of "The King of Latin Music".

Gaining momentum appearing on radio, Olga formed a popular night club act, Olga San Juan and Her Rumba Band, that eventually caught the eye of Paramount Studios. Putting her under contract, Olga, as an added incentive to stand out, decided to become the first dyed-blonde Latin movie spitfire. Making her film debut in the tropical musical short, Caribbean Romance (1943), her second short film, Bombalera (1945), earned itself an Academy Award nomination. In this, Olga was billed, appropriately enough, as "The Cuban Cyclone". She was front and center in her third short, The Little Witch (1945), a musical romance in which she virtually played herself as a night club singer.

Her feature film debut came in the form of Rainbow Island (1944), a typical South Seas vehicle for sarong-wearing Dorothy Lamour. Soon, Olga was seen playing "other woman" supports. Arguably, her finest hour came alongside Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in her first post-war picture, Blue Skies (1946), adding zest to such songs as "You'd Be Surprised", "Heat Wave" and "I'll See You in C-U-B-A". While the boys are vying for the romantic attentions of gorgeous Joan Caulfield, Olga is paired up, engagingly, with another comedy scene-stealer, Billy De Wolfe.

Constricted in films by her heavy accent, Olga nevertheless became an ethnic commodity for Paramount and, for the rest of the post-war decade, was enjoyably featured in light "B" material. She stood out playing Mary Hatcher's comedy sidekick and fellow wannabe movie star in Variety Girl (1947), which seemed more of an excuse to feature Paramount's huge roster of superstars in cameo bits; was borrowed by Universal to juice up the musical proceedings, opposite geeky Donald O'Connor, in the comedy, Are You with It? (1948); played a mortal second fiddle to goddess Ava Gardner in One Touch of Venus (1948); offered silly distraction in skating star Sonja Henie's final Hollywood ice extravaganza -- The Countess of Monte Cristo (1948); and lent funny, flashy vulgarity to one of Preston Sturges' lesser outings, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949), a Betty Grable vehicle for Twentieth Century-Fox.

During this period (1948), Olga had met and married actor Edmond O'Brien. The couple had three children, two girls and a boy. Her last hurrah in the industry came, by accident, when famed lyricist Alan Jay Lerner happened to hear her sing at a festive Hollywood gathering and offered her one of the leads (Jennifer Rumson) in his Broadway-bound musical, "Paint Your Wagon", in 1951. The show was a flop, running just eight months, and Olga left the cast before the run ended, after becoming pregnant with her second child. In the aftermath, Olga, a strict Roman Catholic, decided to concentrate on marriage and family. Aside from a smattering of TV shows, she completely retired. On film, she was briefly glimpsed only two times more, both of them being her husband's vehicles, The Barefoot Contessa (1954), in which he won the "supporting actor" Oscar, and The 3rd Voice (1960).

Settling in West Los Angeles, Olga suffered a stroke in the 1970s and slowly declined in health, from that point on. Divorced from O'Brien in 1976, their children all involved themselves in different facets of the business. Daughter Maria O'Brien became an actress in her own right and son Brendan O'Brien also delved into acting as well as writing and guitar-playing. Other daughter, Bridget O'Brien Adelman, became a TV producer. After decades of being out of the news, it was reported in January of 2009 that Olga had died at a Burbank hospital of kidney failure, following an extended illness. She was 81.
BornMarch 16, 1927
DiedJanuary 3, 2009(81)
BornMarch 16, 1927
DiedJanuary 3, 2009(81)
IMDbProStarmeter
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Photos14

Betty Grable, J. Farrell MacDonald, Olga San Juan, and Rudy Vallee in The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, El Brendel, Al Bridge, and Olga San Juan in The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
Donald O'Connor and Olga San Juan in Are You with It? (1948)
Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Al Bridge, Chris-Pin Martin, Olga San Juan, and Marie Windsor in The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
Olga San Juan
Olga San Juan
Gary Cooper, William Holden, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Ray Milland, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Joan Caulfield, Cass Daley, Billy De Wolfe, Barry Fitzgerald, Mary Hatcher, Dorothy Lamour, Gail Russell, Olga San Juan, Lizabeth Scott, and Sonny Tufts in Variety Girl (1947)
Gary Cooper, William Holden, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, William Bendix, Bing Crosby, Sterling Hayden, Bob Hope, Ray Milland, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Macdonald Carey, Joan Caulfield, Cass Daley, Billy De Wolfe, Barry Fitzgerald, Mona Freeman, Mary Hatcher, Dorothy Lamour, John Lund, Diana Lynn, Robert Preston, Gail Russell, Olga San Juan, Lizabeth Scott, and Sonny Tufts in Variety Girl (1947)
Gary Cooper, William Holden, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, William Bendix, Bing Crosby, Sterling Hayden, Bob Hope, Ray Milland, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Macdonald Carey, Joan Caulfield, Cass Daley, Billy De Wolfe, Barry Fitzgerald, Mona Freeman, Mary Hatcher, Patric Knowles, Dorothy Lamour, John Lund, Diana Lynn, Robert Preston, Gail Russell, Olga San Juan, Lizabeth Scott, and Sonny Tufts in Variety Girl (1947)
Eve Arden, Ava Gardner, Dick Haymes, Olga San Juan, and Robert Walker in One Touch of Venus (1948)
Eve Arden, Ava Gardner, Dick Haymes, Olga San Juan, and Robert Walker in One Touch of Venus (1948)
Eve Arden, Ava Gardner, Dick Haymes, Olga San Juan, and Robert Walker in One Touch of Venus (1948)

Known for

Donald O'Connor, Lew Parker, Olga San Juan, and Martha Stewart in Are You with It? (1948)
Are You with It?
6.6
  • Vivian Reilly
  • 1948
Sonja Henie, Olga San Juan, and Arthur Treacher in The Countess of Monte Cristo (1948)
The Countess of Monte Cristo
5.8
  • Jenny Johnsen
  • 1948
Ava Gardner and Robert Walker in One Touch of Venus (1948)
One Touch of Venus
6.6
  • Gloria
  • 1948
Sterling Holloway, Hugh Herbert, Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, El Brendel, Porter Hall, and Rudy Vallee in The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend
6.0
  • Conchita
  • 1949

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actress

  • Johnny Midnight (1960)
    Johnny Midnight
  • The 3rd Voice (1960)
    The 3rd Voice
  • Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
    The Barefoot Contessa
    • (uncredited)
  • Sterling Holloway, Hugh Herbert, Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, El Brendel, Porter Hall, and Rudy Vallee in The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
    The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend
  • Sonja Henie, Olga San Juan, and Arthur Treacher in The Countess of Monte Cristo (1948)
    The Countess of Monte Cristo
  • Ava Gardner and Robert Walker in One Touch of Venus (1948)
    One Touch of Venus
  • Donald O'Connor, Lew Parker, Olga San Juan, and Martha Stewart in Are You with It? (1948)
    Are You with It?
  • Gary Cooper, William Holden, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Ray Milland, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Joan Caulfield, Cass Daley, Billy De Wolfe, Barry Fitzgerald, Mary Hatcher, Dorothy Lamour, Gail Russell, Olga San Juan, Lizabeth Scott, and Sonny Tufts in Variety Girl (1947)
    Variety Girl
  • Betty Hutton and Sonny Tufts in Cross My Heart (1946)
    Cross My Heart
    • (uncredited)
  • Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Joan Caulfield, and Billy De Wolfe in Blue Skies (1946)
    Blue Skies
  • The Little Witch
  • Humphrey Bogart, Alan Ladd, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Hutton, Robert Benchley, Carmen Cavallaro, William Demarest, Dona Drake, Diana Lynn, and Olga San Juan in Hollywood Victory Caravan (1945)
    Hollywood Victory Caravan
  • Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Bing Crosby, Paulette Goddard, Betty Hutton, Arturo de Córdova, Cass Daley, Barry Fitzgerald, Ed Gardner, Dorothy Lamour, Victor Moore, and Sonny Tufts in Duffy's Tavern (1945)
    Duffy's Tavern
  • Veronica Lake, Eddie Bracken, Cass Daley, and Diana Lynn in Out of This World (1945)
    Out of This World
  • Bombalera

Soundtrack

  • Johnny Midnight (1960)
    Johnny Midnight
  • Sonja Henie, Olga San Juan, and Arthur Treacher in The Countess of Monte Cristo (1948)
    The Countess of Monte Cristo
  • Ava Gardner and Robert Walker in One Touch of Venus (1948)
    One Touch of Venus
    • ("Don't Look Now But My Heart is Showing", uncredited)
  • Donald O'Connor, Lew Parker, Olga San Juan, and Martha Stewart in Are You with It? (1948)
    Are You with It?
  • Gary Cooper, William Holden, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Ray Milland, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Joan Caulfield, Cass Daley, Billy De Wolfe, Barry Fitzgerald, Mary Hatcher, Dorothy Lamour, Gail Russell, Olga San Juan, Lizabeth Scott, and Sonny Tufts in Variety Girl (1947)
    Variety Girl
  • Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Joan Caulfield, and Billy De Wolfe in Blue Skies (1946)
    Blue Skies
  • The Little Witch
  • Humphrey Bogart, Alan Ladd, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Hutton, Robert Benchley, Carmen Cavallaro, William Demarest, Dona Drake, Diana Lynn, and Olga San Juan in Hollywood Victory Caravan (1945)
    Hollywood Victory Caravan
    • (uncredited)

Personal details

Edit
    • photos, trivia
    • March 16, 1927
    • Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
    • January 3, 2009
    • Burbank, California, USA(kidney failure)
    • Edmond O'BrienSeptember 26, 1948 - 1976 (divorced, 3 children)
    • Maria O'Brien
  • Other works
    Active on Broadway in the following production:
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Mother, with Edmond O'Brien, of actress Maria O'Brien, Bridget O'Brien Adelman and Brendan O'Brien.

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