23 Facts About Lupita Tovar

Guadalupe Natalia Tovar Sullivan, known professionally as Lupita Tovar, was a Mexican-American actress best known for her starring role in the 1931 Spanish-language version of Dracula.

Lupita Tovar starred in the film Santa, one of the first Mexican sound films, and one of the first commercial Spanish-language sound films.

Lupita Tovar was the oldest of nine children, and many of her siblings did not survive early childhood.

Lupita Tovar grew up during the time of the Mexican Revolution and her family was very poor.

Lupita Tovar was raised in a very religious Catholic environment, and went to a Catholic school where she was taught by nuns.

In 1918, Lupita Tovar's family moved north to Mexico City, where her father worked for the National Railroad of Mexico in an administrative position.

Lupita Tovar was discovered in Mexico City by documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty.

Lupita Tovar had performed in a dance class and was invited, along with other girls, to do a screen test as part of a competition.

At the age of 18, Lupita Tovar moved to Hollywood in November 1928 with her maternal grandmother, Lucy Sullivan.

Under contract, Lupita Tovar was required to study intensively to enhance her skills for films.

Lupita Tovar's accent was considered an asset in talking motion pictures.

Lupita Tovar's English improved significantly in seven months from the time she arrived in Hollywood in January 1929.

Lupita Tovar attended talkies to improve her English; she read voraciously to learn new words.

In 1929, Lupita Tovar appeared in the films The Veiled Woman with Bela Lugosi and The Cock-Eyed World.

Lupita Tovar went to the office but did not get to speak to anyone about work.

Lupita Tovar left early because a man staring at her made her feel uncomfortable.

Lupita Tovar offered her a job making $15 a day to dub films in Spanish, her first being The King of Jazz.

In 1930, Lupita Tovar starred opposite Antonio Moreno in La Voluntad del Muerto, the Spanish-language version of The Cat Creeps.

Lupita Tovar shot Dracula, in 1930, when she was 20 years old.

In 1932, Lupita Tovar starred in the film Santa, the first to have synchronized sound and image on the same celluloid strip.

Tovar went by the nickname Lupita from the time she was a child.

Lupita Tovar owned a bassinette that she loaned to friends in New York who had children after her: including Julie Baumgold, a writer and her husband Edward Kosner, publisher of New York; Elizabeth Sobieski, a novelist; Judy Licht, a TV newswoman, and her husband Jerry Della Femina, an advertising executive.

Lupita Tovar died at the age of 106 on 12 November 2016 in Los Angeles of heart disease, just one day after her daughter Susan Kohner's 80th birthday.