Silvia Pinal, a legendary Mexican actress who starred in Luis Buñuel’s iconic “Viridiana,” died on Thursday, according to the Televisa-Univision network and government officials. She was 93.
Born in 1931 in the city of Guaymas in northwestern Mexico, Pinal was one of the leading actresses in Mexico’s ‘Golden Age’ of cinema in the mid-20th century, alongside stars such as Pedro Infante, Germán Valdés “Tin Tan,” Cantinflas, and Arturo de Córdova.
Mexico’s Culture Secretary, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, mourned the actress on social media, calling her “a pioneer in theatre, paving the way for future generations.”
“Her legacy as an artist and her contribution to our culture are unforgettable,” Curiel de Icaza wrote. “May she rest in peace.”
One of her daughters, Sylvia Pasquel, said early this week that Pinal was under intensive care facing complications from an urinary infection.
Pinal was a larger-than-life figure, with voluptuous blonde hair and bright red lipstick. She got her start in film when she was just 18, playing a small role in the 1949 film “Bamba.”
Over her six-decade career, Pinal starred in dozens of films produced in Mexico, the US and Europe. She gained international fame for her roles in three films by legendary filmmaker Luis Buñuel, first on “Viridiana” (1962), the first Spanish-Mexican production to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and later on “Simon of the Desert” (1965) and “The Exterminating Angel” (1967).
Pinal also starred in the 1969 Mexican-American action film “Shark!” alongside Burt Reynolds.
In addition to film, Pinal had successful careers in musical theatre and television, as both an actress and producer. She produced the popular telenovela “Mujer, casos de la vida real,” which aired for more than 20 years, until 2007.
Emilion Azcarraga, chairman of the board of leading Mexican television company Grupo Televisa, where Pinal worked for decades and which made a series based on her life, paid tribute to the actress on social media.
“It saddens us to say goodbye to the diva of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, theater and television, and at the same time it fills us with pride to have shared so many years of learning with her in what always was and will always be her Televisa home,” Azcarraga said.
Pinal also dabbled in Mexican politics as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, with which she won seats in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and Mexico City local assembly.
Pinal was married four times, and had four children, including rock singer Alejandra Guzmán.
Pinal’s beauty was captured in every frame and is immortalized in a portrait painted of her by Diego Rivera, one of the greatest representatives of muralism in Mexico.