Actress and producer Carmen Zapata, one of the most respected Hispanic-Americans in the performing arts, died Sunday night in Van Nuys, Calif., from complications of heart failure. She was 86.
Zapata was perhaps best known to wider audiences for her roles in the film “Sister Act” and its sequel, both starring Whoopi Goldberg, and for her recurring role as Mrs. Castillo on the soap “Santa Barbara,” but she was also a champion of bilingualism, co-founding in 1973 the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, a theater company dedicated to bringing the Hispanic experience and culture to the Southern California community through bilingual stage productions. And on PBS, she played the town mayor in “Villa Alegre,” a bilingual series that ran for nine seasons beginning in 1973.
The actress started on the stage, making her 1946 Broadway debut in the chorus of “Oklahoma.” She also appeared on the Rialto in 1956 in drama “The Innkeepers,” starring Geraldine Page,
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Zapata was perhaps best known to wider audiences for her roles in the film “Sister Act” and its sequel, both starring Whoopi Goldberg, and for her recurring role as Mrs. Castillo on the soap “Santa Barbara,” but she was also a champion of bilingualism, co-founding in 1973 the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, a theater company dedicated to bringing the Hispanic experience and culture to the Southern California community through bilingual stage productions. And on PBS, she played the town mayor in “Villa Alegre,” a bilingual series that ran for nine seasons beginning in 1973.
The actress started on the stage, making her 1946 Broadway debut in the chorus of “Oklahoma.” She also appeared on the Rialto in 1956 in drama “The Innkeepers,” starring Geraldine Page,
