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Lupe Velez co-starring with a young smitten
Gary Cooper in “Wolf Song” (1929).
Lupe Velez, the “Mexican Spitfire,” was a voluptuous 5-foot femme fatale born in the Mexico City suburb of San Luis de Potosi in 1908. The daughter of a prostitute, Velez worked as a sales girl in a department where she was discovered by three theater managers who were taken by her beauty and grace.
Her 1924 debut at Teatro Principal was a great publicity coup, when hours before her first show she was forbidden to act on stage by Mexico’s actors’ guild, who considered her less than "first-class." Vélez took a seat in the theater and, after the curtain rose, jumped up and told her story to the audience. She became a populist heroine throughout Mexico City.
She came north to Hollywood in 1927 where her physical talents (she proclaimed her measurements to be 37-26-35) led director Hal Roach to cast her in a Laurel and Hardy comedy.
 Many roles followed; Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. cast her in “The Gaucho” with Mary Pickford. In 1933, she played the title role in “Hot Pepper.” The film showed the world her intense personality and reset her career in a comedic vain. In 1934, Lupe appeared in three comedies, “Strickly Dynamite,” “Palooka,” and “Laughing Boy.”
She had become so popular she was cast as “The Mexican Spitfire” and between 1939 and 1943 four feature films were written for her. She was also known for her stormy love affairs, both on and off screen. She married “Tarzan,” Johnny Weissmuller, but that only lasted five years. She had a romance with Gary Cooper, who never wanted to wed her. Lupe wanted to be remembered, and she cast her final curtain call—her suicide—to be a showstopper.
On December 13, 1944, tired of yet another failed romance with Harald Maresch and pregnant with his child, she put on her finest silk nightgown, put on her make-up, and prepared for her final close-up in expectation of the front pages of the newspapers the next day. But her overdose of Seconal didn't settle well with her last meal, and she was found with her head in the commode. She was 36.
Personal quote "The first time you buy a house you think how pretty it is and sign the check. The second time you look to see if the basement has termites. It's the same with men."
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