Lupe Velez was born on July 18, 1908, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, as
Maria Guadalupe Villalobos Velez. She was sent to Texas at the age of
13 to live in a convent. She later admitted that she wasn't much of a
student because she was so rambunctious. She had planned to become a
champion roller skater, but that would change. Life was hard for her
family, and Lupe returned to Mexico to help them out financially. She
worked as a salesgirl for a department store for the princely sum of
$4 a week. Every week she would turn most of her salary over to her
mother, but she kept a little for herself so she could take dancing
lessons. With her mature shape and grand
personality, she thought she could make a try at show business, which
she figured was a lot more glamorous than dancing or working as a salesclerk. In 1924
Lupe started her show business career on the Mexican stage and wowed audiences with
her natural beauty and talent. By 1927 she had emigrated to Hollywood,
where she was discovered by Hal Roach,
who cast her in a comedy with Stan Laurel
and Oliver Hardy.
Douglas Fairbanks then cast her in his
feature film The Gaucho (1927) with
himself and wife Mary Pickford. Lupe
played dramatic roles for five years before she switched to comedy. In
1933 she played the lead role of Pepper in
Hot Pepper (1933). This film showcased
her comedic talents and helped her to show the world her vital
personality. She was delightful. In 1934 Lupe appeared in three fine
comedies:
Strictly Dynamite (1934),
Palooka (1934) and
Laughing Boy (1934). By now her
popularity was such that a series of "Mexican Spitfire" films were
written around her. She portrayed Carmelita Lindsay in
Mexican Spitfire (1940),
Mexican Spitfire Out West (1940),
The Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941)
and
Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event (1943),
among others. Audiences loved her in these madcap adventures, but it
seemed at times that she was better known for her stormy love affairs. She
married one of her lovers,
Johnny Weissmuller, but the marriage only
lasted five years and was filled with battles. Lupe certainly did live
up to her nickname. She had a failed romance with
Gary Cooper, who never wanted to wed
her. By 1943 her career was waning. She went to Mexico in the hopes of
jump-starting her career. She gained her best reviews yet in the
Mexican version of Naná (1944). Bolstered by
the success of that movie, Lupe returned to the US, where she starred in her final film
as Pepita Zorita, Ladies' Day (1943). There were to be
no others. On December 13, 1944, tired of yet another failed
romance, with a part-time actor named
Harald Maresch, and pregnant with his
child, Lupe committed suicide with an overdose of Seconal. She was only
36 years old.
