Esther Fernández: the star of the Golden Age who retired at the age of 37 and died in oblivion

Esther Fernández was the first actress of the so-called Golden Age and, despite her great success on screen, she was forced to retire at the age of 37.

Born in Jalisco in 1915, Esther Fernández, from a young age, showed a great interest in the performing arts, which is why she made her film debut at the age of 16 with the film Corazones en Defeat. From then on, he participated in other small productions by different directors.

It was until 1936 that director Fernando de Fuentes saw great talent in it and invited her to star in one of his films and filmed the first version of Alla del rancho grande, together with Tito Guizar. With this film, it is believed that the Golden Age of Mexican cinema began, as it was the first to gain international popularity and bring abroad the image of what the country was like at the time of the Revolution.

Esther was one of the first to enter the so-called Star System, where actresses were hired based on how popular they had been in the films where they participated and how much the audience liked them.

After the good acceptance she received with Alla en el rancho grande, the young histrionist became one of the most coveted, so in her short career she worked on at least 40 films.

Some of her most famous roles were in Santa, Los de abajo, Doña perfecta , La Adelita and Flor de peach, all of which she became one of the prototypes of the image that an actress should have.

During the recordings of La Adelita, a film she co-starred with Pedro Armendáriz, she would have started some kind of relationship with her colleague, so he would have asked her to marry him, Esther, thinking it was a joke, accepted. The actor then would have thought that this was a real engagement, so it was for a judge to get them married. Fernández, seeing this, ran out apologizing.

After her success in Mexico, her fame reaching the United States and the strange and short commitment she had to Armendáriz, she was hired by Paramount Pictures to act in different films, but on the condition that she had to take English, acting, singing and dancing classes first.

After months efforts and chamber tests of the histrionist for castings of different films, he did not rise to fame in Hollywood until 1946 with Two Years Before the Mast.

She had a short success on American soil, but decided to return to Mexico, where she remained one of the most coveted actresses. He made some of the most important productions of his career, such as Doña Perfecta, alongside Dolores del Río and Carlos Navarro.

However, the tragedy came to the life of the actress when she was diagnosed with hepatitis. He decided to get away from the middle for a while to fight his illness, and that retirement was extended to two years.

When he tried to return to the seventh art, at the age of 37, he received very few work proposals, as producers were supposedly looking for new talents for their films. It was then that he had to say goodbye to cinema altogether.

From then on he devoted himself to painting, which was already his hobby, but it became his work. He occasionally participated in other productions, but he no longer received the same attention as before.

It is known that in his last years of life he had circulation problems, so he asked for assistance at the Actor's House two months before his death.

It was in the Actor's House that he died on October 21, 1999 at the age of 84.

KEEP READING:

How did the feud between José Alfredo Jiménez and Vicente Fernández begin