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Maria Montez was the stage name for Maria Africa
Gracia Vidal (June 6, 1912, Barahona, Dominican
Republic - September 7, 1951, Paris, France).


The second daughter of 10 children, she was given
the name Maria Africa in honor of her
diplomat/businessman father's native land, the
Spain|Spanish Isla de la Palma, on the African
continent. At a young age, she taught herself to
speak English, and in 1932 she married William
McFeeters, an American banker working in her
seaside home town of Barahona.

Her marriage lasted several years but in 1939 she
ended up in New York City where her exotic looks
landed her a job as a model. Determined to become
a stage actress, she hired an agent and created a
résumé that made her several years younger by
listing her birth as 1917 in some instances and
1918 in others. Eventually she accepted an offer
from a Hollywood film studio. Her screen image was
crafted as that of a hot-blooded Latin seductress,
playing characters dressed in exotic costumes and
sparking jewels. Dubbed "The Queen of
Technicolor," she made her film debut in 1940
opposite Johnny Mack Brown, marking a career that
saw her much loved by audiences, usually in
adventure films as the beautiful damsel in
distress. Over her career, Maria Montez appeared
in 26 films, 21 of which were made in North
America and five in Europe.

While working in Hollywood, she met and married
France|French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont (1911-2001)
who had to leave a few days after their wedding to
serve in the Free French Forces fighting the Nazis
in Europe. At War's end, the couple had a
daughter, Maria Christina, born in Hollywood in
1946 following which they moved to a home in
Suresnes, ÃŽle-de-France in the eastern suburb of
Paris, France. There, Maria Montez appeared in
several films and a play written by her husband.
She also wrote 3 books, two of which were
published, as well as penning a number of poems.

The 39-year-old Montez died after apparently
suffering a heart attack and drowning in her bath.
She was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse
in Paris where her tombstone reads her theatrical
year of birth 1918-1951.

Much loved by the people of the impoverished
Dominican Republic, in her birthplace of Barahona
the city changed the name of an existing street to
that bearing her name. Her legacy as the only
great star from that country remains, and in 1996
the Maria Montez International Airport opened in
Barahona.

===Filmography===
*Boss of Bullion City (1940)  
*The Invisible Woman (1940) 
*Lucky Devils (1941)  
*That Night in Rio (1941) 
*Raiders of the Desert (1941) 
*Moonlight in Hawaii (1941) 
*South of Tahiti (1941) 
*Bombay Clipper (1942) 
*The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942) 
*Arabian Nights (1942) 
*White Savage (1943) 
*Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944) 
*Follow the Boys (1944) 
*Cobra Woman (1944) 
*Gypsy Wildcat (1944) 
*Bowery to Broadway (1944) 
*Sudan (1945) 
*Tangier (1946) 
*The Exile (1947) 
*Pirates of Monterey (1947) 
*Siren of Atlantis (1948) 
*Hans le marin (1948) 
*Portrait d'un assassin (1949) 
*Il Ladro di Venezia (1950) 
*Amore e sangue (1951)  
*La Vendetta del corsaro (1951)

Adapted from the article
http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.phtml?title=Maria_Mont
ez Maria Montez, from Wikinfo, licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License.

==External links==

* imdb name|id=0599688|name=Maria Montez