A fiery, long-faced, Mexican-born actress with limpid-pool eyes and full thick lips, Katy Jurado is perhaps best recalled for a handful of roles in American films in the 1950s. After making her acting debut in 1943's "Nos Maturas" in her homeland, she continued to find occasional roles in local productions. To supplement her income, Jurado wrote a column on movies and was on assignment when she landed her first American film role. The actress offered a fine performance as the wife of an aging matador in Budd Boetticher's superior "The Bullfighter and the Lady" (1951). While Hollywood didn't know how to fully exploit her gifts, sometimes hamstringing her in stereotypical roles, Jurado did find the occasional plum. One such role was as the former mistress of Gary Cooper's laconic sheriff in "High Noon" (1952) while another was as Spencer Tracy's dignified but placating wife in "Broken Lance" (1954). The latter earned her a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination. For much of the rest of the decade the versatile Jurado was saddled with less than stellar roles (i.e., the mother of a defendant in the socially-relevant "Trial" 1955) or shone in unchallenging material (e.g., "Trapeze" 1956).
After her 1959 marriage to actor Ernest Borgnine, Jurado curtailed her film work, appearing in only two films, the Marlon Brando-directed Western "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961) and the biblical epic "Barabbas" (1962). After her divorce from Borgnine, the actress resumed her career but now undertook character roles in efforts like "A Covenant With Death" (1967) and NBC TV-movie "Any Second Now" (1969). She lent authenticity to her small role in John Huston's "Under the Volcano" (1984) and made her US TV series debut as Paul Rodriguez's mother in the short-lived ABC sitcom "a.k.a. Pablo" (also 1984). Following "The Fearmaker" (1989), Jurado all but disappeared from screens for nearly a decade emerging in a cameo as a fortune teller in "The Hi-Lo Country" and starring opposite Francisco Rabal as leaders of a cult in the Spanish-language comedy drama "El Evangelio de las Maravillas/Divine" (both 1998).
Family
COUSIN: Emilio Portes Gil. Politician.
COUSIN: Linda Christian. Actor.
Companion
HUSBAND: Victor Velazquez. Actor. First husband; father of Jurado's two children.
HUSBAND: Ernest Borgnine. Actor. Married in 1959; divorced in 1964.
Milestone
1943: Feature acting debut in the Mexican film "No Maturas"
Worked as a motion picture columnist for publications in Mexico
1951: First US film, "The Bullfighter and the Lady"
1952: Delivered fine performance as Gary Cooper's former mistress in the acclaimed Western "High Noon"
1954: Earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her turn as Spencer Tracy's wife in "Broken Lance"
1960: Early TV credit, a guest appearance on "The Westerner"
1961: Co-starred in "One-Eyed Jacks", directed by Marlon Brando
1962: Had featured role in the biblical epic "Barabbas"
1969: Made American network TV-movie debut in "Any Second Now" (NBC)
1971: Co-starred in the ABC TV-movie "A Little Game"; last American TV dramatic appearance for ten years
1973: Appeared in Sam Peckinpah's Western "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid"
1977: Returned to Mexican films in "El Elegidio" and "Los Albaniles"
1981: Had featured role in the NBC miniseries "Evita Peron" (NBC); first American network role in a decade
1984: Acted in "Under the Volcano", helmed by John Huston
1984: Portrayed Paul Rodriguez's mother on the short-lived ABC sitcom "a.k.a. Pablo"
1989: Last film for nearly a decade, "The Fearmaker"
1998: Returned to features in a cameo appearances as a fortune teller in "The Hi-Lo Country" and the Spanish-language "Divine"
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