During Hollywood in the late 1920s and early 30s, actors from other countries were well-received by American movie audiences at a time when movies transitioned from silent to talkies. Dolores del Rio was one of these, and was known for her graceful, confident presence on screen.
Born Lolita Dolores Martinez Asúnsolo López Negrete in 1905, she was the daughter of a banker, and raised in aristocracy on a ranch in Durango, Mexico. Amid the Mexican Revolution (1910-20), her family moved to Mexico City. There she was educated at the Convent of St. Joseph. At 16 years old, she married aristocrat and writer Jaime del Rio, who was 18 years her senior. Later in 1925, an encounter with a Hollywood director changed the course of her life. During a 1975 TV interview, Dolores del Rio recalled, “In Mexico City, at a party, I met an American director by the name of Edwin Carewe. He saw me and he said, ‘You could be the female [Rudolph] Valentino.’ [. . .] So I was very much intrigued and I thought it would be fun and exciting to come over and spend a month here and work in a picture, then return to Mexico City. And I never did return. I stayed [in Hollywood for] 16 years.”
Hollywood Career
Dolores del Rio’s film debut was a supporting role in Joanna (1925), starring Dorothy Mackaill. Within a year, del Rio transitioned to leading roles alongside popular actors of the era, including Edmund Lowe with Victor McLaglen in What Price Glory (1926) and Charles Farrell in The Red Dance (1928). During this period of silent movies, she was recognized for her ability to emote, often in romantic dramas, such as Evangeline (1929). Screenland magazine in 1928, described del Rio’s personality in real life as “quick and expressive”, adding, “And yet, with all the beauty and charm and glamour, she is curiously direct and honest and outspoken. She’ll be frank with you. [. . .] Dolores has depth. It shows on the screen, making her the fine actress that she is. It’s a quality of sincerity.”
Working in Hollywood allowed her to grow personally while earning an income and creating a life outside of society obligations. In 1928, del Rio divorced her husband and later said in 1934, “The greatest mistake I ever made was when I married Jaime. Yet how could I know? I was sixteen. [. . .] I knew nothing of life, nothing of what I wanted. I had been reared for marriage, as girls still are in Mexico. Reared to be a sedate, self-effacing, efficient wife. I didn’t know then that that wasn’t what I wanted.”
Around the time of her divorce in the late 1920s, sound began to be incorporated. Actors had to adjust their enunciation and technique to the hovering microphone overhead. She recollected in 1960, “I was really in trouble [when talking films came], because my English was very poor. But I took lessons and I survived, while most of the other silent stars disappeared.”
In 1930, she married art director Cedric Gibbons. Their fashionable Art Deco home became a gathering place in the film community throughout the decade. Meanwhile, Dolores del Rio represented sophisticated women with a distant glamor, while her characters were often Latin or from other countries. For example, she portrayed a Polynesian young woman in Bird of Paradise (1932) who falls in love with a sailor played by Joel McCrea, while Madame du Barry (1934), had her in the title role for a lighthearted dramatic retelling of King Louis XV’s mistress.
Other parts allowed her to combine her gift of dancing, such as a number with Fred Astaire in Flying Down to Rio (1933). She and Gene Raymond were billed above Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the latter who soon co-starred successfully. Also, Wonder Bar (1934), a Busby Berkely musical melodrama, partnered her with Ricardo Cortez as a nightclub dance team. Aside from musicals, del Rio acted in thrillers, such as Lancer Spy (1937), which co-starred George Sanders and Peter Lorre.
By the 1940s, del Rio’s life and career began to change. She divorced Gibbons in 1941 and felt strained by the roles that presented her as an exotic stereotype. As nations entered World War II, she became involved in campaigning war relief in Mexico for other countries. This allowed her to draw from her contacts of various backgrounds to organize fundraising events. She said in 1942, “For this project you need the strength of the government, the wealth of society, and the resources of the artists, and I have friends in all three categories.”
Mexican Cinema
Her last Hollywood movie was the film noir Journey Into Fear (1943), starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles. Although reports circulated about her relationship with Welles, Dolores del Rio returned to live in Mexico. In the 1978 TV interview, she described her decision, “Well I think every actor gets discouraged once in a while if you don’t like the parts that you have. You fight, but it doesn’t do you much good. One of the reasons I returned to Mexico and stayed in Mexico all of these years, working either on the stage or in motion pictures, is that I have more freedom, you see. I could do more of the type of things that I wanted.” Comparatively, her characters in Mexican films depicted a greater variety of humanity, such as an unmarried mother raising her son in Las Abandonadas (1945), while in another role she played twins with different lifestyles in La Otra (1946).
As the Mexican films she worked in earned recognition internationally, Mexico’s filmmaking industry prospered and introduced new audiences to their storytelling. She later remembered the era and said, “I started [working in Mexican films] at an exciting time, when the film industry down there was just beginning. It was a thrill to help it grow and to pioneer new markets in Europe and South America.” For instance, Maria Candelaria (1943), in which del Rio portrayed the title role opposite frequent co-star Pedro Armendáriz, became the first Mexican movie to be presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946. The movie also won a Golden Palm Award.
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Likewise, The Fugitive (1947), which also co-starred her with Armendáriz, brought Hollywood and Mexico together. John Ford was the director and Henry Fonda starred, and the movie was filmed on location by a Mexican production crew.
Although she was successful in Mexico — which later included a stage career — Dolores del Rio still occasionally returned to the United States. In 1955, however, during the second Red Scare, she was reportedly unable to star with Spencer Tracy in a movie due to being suspected for “leftist leanings”. She denied rumors of being a communist, “I am a Catholic, and I love this country as I love my own. It has always been very kind to me. The delay in getting my visa was due only, I was told, to regular processing, red tape. Getting into this country is not an easy thing.” Eventually, del Rio was able to enter the United States and made her television debut in 1957 on the dramatic anthology, Schlitz Playhouse. That same year she also served on the jury for the Cannes Film Festival.
The 1960s began for del Rio with a long awaited return to Hollywood since her departure nearly twenty years prior for her role in the Elvis Presely movie, Flaming Star (1960) as his Native American mother. She also worked with John Ford again when she took a role in another Western, Cheyenne Autumn (1964), as a Cheyenne woman married to one of the chiefs played by Gilbert Roland, a Hollywood peer also from Mexico.
Philanthropy
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In 1974, Dolores del Rio formed a childcare center, which still operates today for Mexico’s actor’s union, the National Association of Actors. Related contributions supporting the arts were her friendships with painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the latter whom she posed for in 1938, and advocating for the preservation of historic buildings and art in Mexico. Later in 1978, Merv Griffin presented her with a silver plaque of the Citation of Merit from President Carter for Lifelong Achievement in the Cause of American Cultural Relations and Friendship. Other accolades of her career included winning four Ariels — Mexico’s equivalent of an Academy Award — and a Quixote, Spain’s version of an Oscar. Dolores del Rio died on April 11, 1983 at a Newport Beach apartment she shared with her husband of 24 years, director/producer Lewis Riley.
Today, Dolores del Rio is noted as one of the first Mexican actors to succeed in Hollywood and internationally. Despite being written with acclaim for beauty yet given a typecast that limited her Hollywood opportunities, del Rio believed in integrity instead of resentment. She said in 1963, “Never worry about growing old. And remember that what you are inside is reflected in your face as the years go by. Embittered, dishonest character shows up as ugliness.” In 2017, she was featured as the Google Doodle on her 112th birthday, an example of how Dolores del Rio continues to be remembered for her career and generosity that triumphed during eras when being a minority brought challenges and doubts.
Rachel Martinez is an artist and writer whose passion at an early age for classic movies further inspired her in storytelling. She studied film production throughout high school and went on to earn a B.A. in cinematography and a minor in creative writing.
Secondary Sources for Further Reading
“del Rio, Dolores, (1905-1983)”, Encyclopedia. Accessed: May 8, 2024.
“Dolores del Rio Nursery School and Kindergarten.” ANDA, National Association of Actors, Accessed: May 8, 2024.
Gunter, Howard. MGM Style: Cedric Gibbons and the Art of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Maryland: Lyons Press, 2019.
Hall, Linda. Dolores del Rio: Beauty in Light and Shade, California: Stanford University Press, 2013.