Oscar Profile: Katy Jurado

Born January 16, 1924 in Mexico City, Mexico, María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, known professionally as Katy Jurado, was the daughter of a lawyer and a singer. Actor Pedro Armendariz was her godfather.

Jurado’s family was wealthy, its fortune controlled by her aristocratic grandmother. When offered a film role at the age of 15, her grandmother said no. She got around her by marrying actor Victor Valezquez with whom she would have two children prior to their 1943 divorce, the year she made her film debut.

Several years later, Jurado was discovered by Hollywood director Budd Boettticher in one of her numerous Spanish films. He cast her in 1951’s The Bullfighter and the Lady in support of Robert Stack, Gilbert Roland, and Joy Page. Her second Hollywood film was 1952’s High Noon in support of Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. When a highly anticipated Oscar nomination failed to materialize, she went back to work in Mexico, returning to the U.S. to make San Antoine, Arrowhead, and Broken Lance, receiving an Oscar nomination for playing Spencer Tracy’s American Indian wife just two years after her humiliating snub.

Jurado became a fixture in Hollywood over the next several years playing women of great dignity in such films as The Racers in support of Kirk Douglas and Bella Darvi; Trial in support of Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, and Oscar nominated Arthur Kennedy; Trapeze in support of Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, and Gina Lollobrigida; and Man from Del Rio opposite Anthony Quinn.

In 1958, Jurado was third-billed behind Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine in Badlanders which led to her marriage with Borgnine in 1959. They would divorce in 1963.

Jurado and Borgnine, a Best Actor Oscar winner for 1955’s Marty, would appear in several films together during their short marriage, most notably 1961’s Barabbas in which Jurado was fourth billed behind Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, and Arthur Kennedy. Borgnine was tenth billed with Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Wooland, Valentina Cortese, and Jack Palance billed between them.

Jurado’s other high-profile film of 1961 was One-Eyed Jacks in which she was third billed behind Marlon Brando and Karl Malden, the latter playing her husband.

The actress’ next important role was as the mother of George Maharis playing a young judge in 1977’s A Covenant with Death. After that, her appearances became sporadic with the highlights being 1973’s Pat Garrett vs, Billy the Kid, 1984’s Under the Volcano and 1998’s The Hi-Lo Country.

Katy Jurado died July 5, 2002 at 78.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

HIGH NOON (1952), directed by Fred Zinnemann

Considered by many to be the greatest western ever made, Gary Cooper won his second Oscar as the town’s sheriff who is deserted, one by one, by the people of the town he has worked for as he awaits the return of a gang of outlaws who have sworn to kill him on his wedding day to quaker Grace Kelly. Chief among the townspeople who desert him are the town’s mayor (Thomas Mitchell), his own deputy (Lloyd Bridges) and the owner of the saloon (Jurado) with whom he and the leader of the gang of outlaws have had past relationships. Jurado won a Golden Globe for her performance but was surprisingly passed over for an Oscar nomination.

BROKEN LANCE (1954), directed by Edward Dymtyrk

Jurado received what was considered a makeup Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the American Indian second wife of rancher Spencer Tracy in this reworking of King Lear set in the new west. Tracy’s three sons are played by Robert Wagner as Jurado’s son and Richard Widmark and Hugh O’Brian whose mother was Tracy’s late first wife. Jean Peters is the girl who comes between the brothers. Tracy, borrowed from MGM for the role, is great as usual. Jurado, a last-minute replacement for Dolores Del Rio, is fine but spends most of time saying “yes, my husband” to Tracy.

TRIAL (1955), directed by Mark Robson

Jurado is heartbreaking as the mother of an innocent 17-year-old Mexican boy on trial (Rafael Campos) for the murder of a Caucasian girl in 1947 post-war Arizona. Glenn Ford, as a law professor with no trial experience, working to prove his innocence, gets local attorney Arthur Kennedy in a bravura Oscar nominated performance to take on his defense, not knowing he is a Communist with a hidden agenda to destroy the kid by stoking racial hatred between the races. Dorothy McGuire co-stars as Kennedy’s assistant, a card-carrying Communist who is wise to Kennedy’s machinations and works with Ford to thwart them.

A COVENANT WITH DEATH (1967), directed by Lamont Johnson

Jurado plays the mother of George Maharis as a young judge who must decide the case of a young man (Earl Holliman) who murdered the hangman who was about to hang him for what turns out to a crime he didn’t commit. Based on a bestselling novel, the film was supposed to make a movie star of TV heartthrob Maharis but didn’t. What he did, however, was prove to be a showcase for a strong supporting cast that also included Arthur O’Connell, Sidney Blackmer, and Gene Hackman in addition to Holliman and Jurado.

UNDER THE VOLCANO (1984), directed by John Huston

Huston, rebounding from his sappy film version of Annie, had a career resurgence like no other director with his last three films starting with this one. Finney, embarrassingly ho-hum as Daddy Warbucks in Annie, delivers the best performance of his storied career as a retired British consul in Mexico on the eve of World War II. Terminally alcoholic, he will not survive the day. Finney, who was nominated for an Oscar for the role, delivers the screen’s most unforgettable portrayal of a drunk ever. Jacqueline Bissett co-stars as his young wife. Jurado has a minor role in what is basically Finney’s showcase.