Lupe Ontiveros

Infobox actor

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caption = Lupe Ontiveros, March 2008
birthdate = Birth date and age|1942|9|17|mf=y
birthplace = El Paso, Texas

Lupe Ontiveros (born September 17, 1942) is an American film and television actress. Ontiveros has acted in numerous films and television shows, most often playing a maid or, more recently, an all-knowing grandmother; the actress estimates she has played a maid between 150 and 300 times on screen. [http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/playing-the-human-part/4090/ "Playing the Human Role,"] "LA Weekly", March 6, 2002]

Biography

Early life

Ontiveros was born Guadalupe Moreno in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Luz "Lucita" Castanon and Juan Moreno, middle-class Mexican immigrants who overcame a lack of formal education to become owners of a tortilla factory and two restaurants in Ontiveros' native El Paso. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/86/Lupe-Ontiveros.html Lupe Ontiveros Biography (1942-)] at FilmReference.com] [http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/elpaso/vitals/births/1942/elpab42e.txt] She graduated from El Paso High School and went on to study at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas, where she received a bachelor's degree in social work. After her marriage, she and her husband moved to California to realize his dream of starting an automotive business. During a period of professional dissatisfaction with her social service career, Ontiveros was trying to decide whether to go back to school for a nursing degree when she saw an article about a need for local film "extras." With her husband's encouragement, she began with that simple job and parlayed it into a long stage and screen career.

Prior to acting, Ontiveros worked for 18 years as a social worker, and she continues as an activist with many of the same causes with which she worked in that profession, such as domestic violence prevention and AIDS awareness and prevention, among other health issues.

Film career

Ontiveros has said that although she wants to see a more diverse set of roles made available to Latina actors, she is proud of the work she has done each time she has played a maid or other working-class character: "I'm proud to represent those hands that labor in this country. I've given every maid I've ever portrayed soul and heart.""Trying to Get Beyond the Role of the Maid; Hispanic Actors Are Seen as Underrepresented, With the Exception of One Part," "The New York Times", May 16, 2002] In part because of her history in this role, she was chosen as the narrator for the documentary "Maid in America". [http://www.maidinamericathedoc.com/maidinamerica.html Official site: "Maid in America"] ]

One of Ontiveros' most prominent early movie roles was in the 1983 Gregory Nava film "El Norte", in which she played a seamstress and maid who acts as mentor to a newly arrived immigrant girl from Guatemala. In a 2004 interview with the Dominican newspaper "Listín", she called "El Norte" "the film that always will remain in me... [it] tells the immigrants' story" when asked as to her favorite film from her long career. [http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:cgCw7jso7S4J:www.listindiario.com.do/antes/marzo04/010304/cuerpos/espectaculos/esp1.htm+saldivar+%22lupe+ontiveros%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=90 El dinero es la diferencia entre Hollywood y el cine,] "Listín", March 1, 2004 (in Spanish)] She played the housekeeper Rosalita, a Hispanic maid hired to assist in the packing and moving of the Walsh family in the hit adventure film "The Goonies" (1985) and a housekeeper in Dolly Dearest (1992).

The actress worked with Nava in subsequent films, including "My Family/Mi Familia" (1995) and "Selena" (1997). In the latter film, she portrayed the murderer of Tejano singer Selena, Yolanda Saldívar, the singer's fan-club president. Her performance was so believable and memorable that years later, the actress is sometimes mistaken for Saldívar and verbally accosted. She also appeared in the Academy Award winning film As Good as It Gets. [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1151781 Interview on NPR's "Fresh Air,"] October 17, 2002]

In 2000, she was featured in the film "Chuck & Buck", in which she played Beverly, a tough theater director who puts on a play written by one of the main characters. She has said in multiple interviews that she accepted the role even before seeing the script, solely on the basis of being approached to play a character who was not defined by Hispanic ethnicity. For that role, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture in the 2000 Independent Spirit Awards.

She co-starred with America Ferrera in the 2002 film "Real Women Have Curves" as the overbearing and hypercritical mother of Ferrera's character. Her performance received excellent reviews and earned her and her co-star a Special Jury Prize at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

Television

Ontiveros had a recurring role in the 2004-05 season of American prime time soap opera series "Desperate Housewives" as Juanita Solis, Gabrielle's suspicious mother-in-law. She received an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actress for this role. In 2004 she also began a role as Abuela Elena, the grandmother of the title characters in the animated PBS children's series "Maya and Miguel". The multicultural and bilingual series later introduced a deaf character, Marco, after a sign language-themed episode was suggested by the actress, who has two hearing impaired adult sons. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/arts/television/25sign.html?ex=1160452800&en=0dab4c24b9e41f60&ei=5070 Spreading the Word: A Deaf Boy Joins the Gang] , "The New York Times", September 25, 2006]

The actress was one of the stars of the WB's "Greetings from Tucson", playing the grandmother in an upwardly mobile family of mixed Irish and Mexican heritage. She previously had recurring guest roles on the series "Veronica's Closet", for which she won an ALMA Award in 1998, and on the short-lived soap opera "Pasadena". She also has been a guest star on "Hill Street Blues", "Red Shoe Diaries", "Resurrection Blvd.", "Cory in the House", and "King of the Hill", among many other series.

Theater

After deciding she wanted an acting career, Ontiveros began in earnest, following up full-day sessions at her first career with evening work at "Nosotros", a community theater in Los Angeles. [http://www.segundajuventud.org/english/entertainment/2005-FM/05FM_Lupe.html Lupe Ontiveros: Sitting Pretty] , "AARP Segunda Juventud" magazine, February/March 2005] In 1978, she was cast as Dolores in Luis Valdez’s historic play "Zoot Suit" in her first major theatrical role. She went on to reprise the role on Broadway — the first Mexican American theatrical production ever to play there — and in the 1982 film version. She was a founding member of the Latino Theater Company [http://entertainment.lycos.com/movies/celeb_bio.php?id=16898 Lupe Ontiveros on Lycos] ]

Personal life

In August, 2006, the Kaiser Permanente insurance company announced that Ontiveros would be the featured presenter in a new health-education DVD to be available in English and Spanish. [http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=45257 Kaiser Permanente Health Video Targets Latinos] ] She also has promoted higher education for Latinos through advertisements for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund in 2002 and participation in a 2003 campaign to increase access to the 2004 "Hispanic Scholarships Directory" across southern California.

She and her husband are the parents of three grown sons and reside in Pico Rivera, California.

References

External links

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