He was 86 years old. His image will go down in posterity after his death as a reference in fighter and science fiction cinema, which is why his work was recognized at film festivals in Mexico and abroad. But his acting range was wide.
Lorena Velázquez and Lilia Guízar debuted in the film “New Faces” in 1956, produced by Angélica Ortiz and Antonio Matouk, written by Alfonso Arau, who also acts in the plot, along with Sergio Corona, Luz María Aguilar and Elvira Quintana.
“Not only did Lorena and I debut, but also Luz María; Sergio Corona was already in the entertainment industry, although that was his first film, like Elvira. We were several talents who started with ‘New Faces’, by Mauricio de la Serna who directed us,” recalls Lilia Guízar in an interview with The Sun of Mexico.
The singer, also a singer, says about Lorena Velázquez, who died that Thursday, that she was “a lady on the film sets.” Neighbors in Lomas de Chapultepec, they went to the same beauty salon, “but above all we were friends,” she admits.
Guízar regrets not being in Mexico City – he lives in Palos Verdes, California – to give a heartfelt hug to Eduardo Novoa, the artist’s son, and highlights that Lorena Velázquez, “was a high-grossing actress who attracted a lot of audiences with her films. of vampires where she looked divine. However, she was evolving as an actress, because her characters were not only about showing her physical beauty, but with attitude and dialogue, she gave identity to her roles, she was not simply the young lady.
FROM CINEMA TO TELEVISION
Television critic Roberto Rondero points out that, although she was emblematic in cinema, “she had many followers and opened many doors in foreign cinema”, Lorena Velázquez did not stop at just that.
In a separate interview, he argues that the actress “was in a time of transition, from this youth cinema, to television. A very strong diffusion of soap operas began. She still has a somewhat rosy stage, but also productions that have international scope, she begins to move on television, with a certain emblem of Mexican cinema, but she was placed in productions that had nothing to do with fighter cinema. .
For Rondero, the actress had a personality and a way of projecting the experience she had had in film, which she displayed on television. “She wasn’t very sought after in the genre either, there was a lot of envy and rivalry from the people who came from the movies to join the ranks of the television casts. More than a leading actress in soap operas, unlike in cinema, she was a highly respected supporting actress,” she points out.
“She was not one of those actresses who, due to her age, had to do certain things or simply no longer appear, she on the contrary, went out to do any type of work, she did many very different projects, that speaks well of her. On television, ‘Rubí’ (2004) marked her a lot and the soap opera ‘Dos Hogares’ (2011) captured Lorena’s image and differentiated her from being an actress only in vampire films or wrestling,” she concludes.
QUEEN OF FANTASTIC CINEMA
Pepe Návar, film critic, specialist in fighter films, remembers the late actress for her outstanding beauty. “It wasn’t difficult for her to make films, apart from comedies, genre films, such as fighter and science fiction films, paradoxically, that was where she stood out the most, especially in ‘Santo contra las mujeres vampires’ (1962). , that was his great contribution to fantasy and fighter cinema.
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“But she is still a very curious actress, because no one thought she was going to dedicate herself to that type of cinema and it ended up launching her into success, especially that film, ‘Santo contra las mujeres vampires’,” recalls one of the authors. from the anthology “I want to see blood! Illustrated history of fighter cinema”, published by UNAM.
“She is part of that era of Mexican cinema where she was very popular, she was a very beautiful and obviously talented actress and she did not hesitate to make genre films. Once she told me that her father did not want her to make that type of film, and it was those projects that made her the most money and brought her to fame,” she concludes.