1937. Dolores del Rio was one of Hollywood’s most important silent-movie actresses and one of its first Latin stars. Her sultry beauty helped her make the transition to the talkies and claim a throne as one of Tinseltown’s glamour queens. During the 1930s she made $9,000 a week, was named “most beautiful woman in Hollywood” and appeared regularly on lists of best-dressed women. But in 1942, tired of being typecast in ethnic and exotic roles, she returned to her native Mexico where she was rewarded with more dramatic parts. She was married three times. Her second husband, MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, went on to marry Hazel Brooks. Her third husband, producer Lewis Riley, was with her when she died in 1983. Photo by A L “Whitey” Schafer.
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