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Maria Montez
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Maria Africa Garcia Antonia Vidal de Santos Silva, better known as Maria Montez, is the most famous actress the Dominican Republic has ever produced. Montez was born in the Barahona province on June 6, 1912 . She was the second of 10 children. In 1932 she married an American banker and soon thereafter found herself in the United States embarking on a succesfull film and modeling career. In her career she appeared in 26 films and would be dubbed the "Queen of Technicolor." Montez, who many mistaken to be French partly because of her marriage to French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, had one child Maria Christina, who was born in 1946. Her most famous role was in the 1944 movie, "Cobra Woman." Montez died in 1951 of an aparent heart attack. She is buried at the Cimetiere Montparnasse in Paris France.
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Maria Montez was the stage name of María África Gracia Antonia Vidal de Santos Silas (June 6, 1912 – September 7, 1951). Born in Barahona, Dominican Republic, Maria was the second daughter of 10 children, she was given the name María África in honor of her diplomat/businessman father's native land, the Spanish Isla de la Palma, off the coast of 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 movie studio.
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In those days, Jean-Pierre Aumont, her husband said about her: "Maria Montez has a double personality, the one she made for Hollywood, and the mother and wife. . . that woman full of simplicity, culture and romance of an overflowing humanity."
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Just another attractive contract ingenue at Universal studios in the early '40s, Maria Montez seemed destined for obscurity until she reinvented herself. Carefully recultivating the Spanish accent she'd lost after moving to America (she was the daughter of a Dominican Republic diplomat) and decking herself out in jewels, exotic costumes and a loyal retinue, Montez became the exotic, tempestuous Latino leading lady of many a Technicolor escapist epic. Though her acting was not precisely Oscar calibre, Maria convincing portrayed haughty Arabian princesses, jungle goddesses and highborn gypsies in such delightful nonsense as Arabian Nights (1942), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1942), Cobra Woman (1944) and Gypsy Wildcat (1945). Her most frequent costar was Jon Hall, who some critics claimed was prettier and better built than she was. A 24-hour-a-day star, Ms. Montez was famous for her spectacular entrances at nightclubs and social functions; once, when her arrival at the Universal commissary failed to attract notice, she turned her heel and left the room, returning moments later with a huge entourage and accompanying loud noises. Her career faded out when the sort of lavishly silly movies in which she specialized were reduced to B-pictures in the late '40s, though she continued to work in European films. The victim of an erratic heart, Maria Montez suffered a coronary and drowned in the bathtub of her Paris mansion in 1951.
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Amara (Maria Montez) rushes to the side of Cassim (Frank Puclia) as he is stabbed and fall at the feet of the Khan (Kurt Katch). Amara pauses a moment in despair, then glowers at the Khan as he turns upon Ali. This is the signal for the start of a general fight, in which Ali's men storm into the castle and battle the Khan's Mongols.
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On the eve of her wedding to Ramu (Jon Hall), the beautiful Tollea (Maria Montez) is spirited away from her tranquil South Sea island to the mysterious, forbidden place of her birth, Cobra Island. Ramu follows and, with help from his young-but-not-too-bright friend Kado (Sabu) and their chimp Coco, manages to land on the island and avoid capture, which would mean death. It turns out that Tollea is the rightful high priestess of Cobra Island, the first born of two twin daughters of the earlier priestess. Tollea was not immune to the venom of the king cobra... so she was spirited away from the island as an infant to avoid her unnecessary death. Now her grandmother, the Queen (Mary Nash), has secured her return. Tollea's twin sister, Naja (also played by Montez), has turned cruel, greedy, and ambitious, and is killing, torturing, and tormenting her people and perverting their religion; Naja must be deposed, hopefully before the volcano on the far side of the island registers too loud an objection to her blasphemies.
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