23 Facts About Mecha Ortiz

Mecha Ortiz was an Argentine actress who appeared in films between 1937 and 1981, during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema.

At the 1944 Argentine Film Critics Association Awards, Ortiz won the Silver Condor Award for Best Actress for her performance in Safo, historia de una pasion, and won it again in 1946 for her performance in El canto del cisne.

Mecha Ortiz was known as the Argentine Greta Garbo and for playing mysterious characters, who suffered by past misfortunes in love, mental disorders, or forbidden love.

Mecha Ortiz played in the first film in which a woman struck a man and the first film with a lesbian romance.

Maria Mercedes Varela Nimo Dominguez Castro, known as Mecha Ortiz was born 24 September 1900.

Until she was 29, Mecha Ortiz, was married to a farmer and was busy being a wife and mother.

Mecha Ortiz had enrolled for acting classes in the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica y Declamacion in the inaugural class under the direction of Carlos Lopez Buchardo and Enrique Garcia Velloso.

Mecha Ortiz's sister, Amanda Varela, was an established actress and got her a screen test with Paramount Studios of France.

Mecha Ortiz was selected but no films were made, so her sister introduced her to a friend, influential film critic Chas de Cruz, who helped her find work.

Mecha Ortiz began her entertainment career as a supporting actress in the Rivera-De Rosas Theatre Company of Enrique de Rosas.

Mecha Ortiz debuted on stage with El Proceso de Mary Duggan, by Bayard Veiller on 20 June 1929, at the Ateneo Theater.

Mecha Ortiz had a theatrical season on the Smart Theater, in 1938 with "Mujeres", written by US actress and writer Clare Boothe Luce, and co-starring Amelia Bence.

Mecha Ortiz was often cast as mysterious characters, plagued by past misfortunes in love, mental disorders, or forbidden love and was frequently compared with Greta Garbo.

Mecha Ortiz was seen as a symbol of sophistication and was referred to in other works to denote the line between what was chic or provincial.

Mecha Ortiz won her first Silver Condor Award for Best Actress for Safo at the 1944 ceremony.

The "forbidden" romance of an older woman and a younger man, was repeated in the 1945 sequel El canto del cisne for which Mecha Ortiz won acting awards in Cuba and Brazil, as well as the Argentine Silver Condor Award for Best Actress.

One of the exceptions was La Compania Argentina de Comedias Mecha Ortiz which included a cast of Ortiz, Lola Membrives, Rosa Rosen and Narciso Ibanez Menta.

Mecha Ortiz returned to the theatre and did a revival of El proceso de Mary Duggan, Asi es la vida, Cancion para un crepusculo and several television roles.

In 1976 along with other stars, like Arturo Garcia Buhr, Mario Soffici, Barbara Mujica and Narciso Ibanez Menta, Mecha Ortiz plays in Los muchachos de antes no usaban arsenico.

Mecha Ortiz's husband, Julian Ortiz, was a farmer in Argentina.

Mecha Ortiz was dedicated to him and their privacy, which in many instances escalated the mystery and speculation about her.

Mecha Ortiz's brother, Jose, was a theatre director, and a sister, Amanda Varela, was an actress.

Mecha Ortiz died on 20 October 1987 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.