Let's Talk Westerns

Maria Cristina Estrella Marcela Jurado de Garcia was born on January sixteenth, 1924 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Known to western fans by the much shorter name of Katy Jurado. She began her career as a Mexican film, stage, and television actress in Mexico in 1943 in the film No Maturas. Her family was against her chosen profession. She married Victor Velazquez in 1943 at sixteen to escape her family’s control. They had two children together, Victor Hugo and Sandra. They divorced in 1946. In 1951, Budd Boettcher and John Wayne saw her at a bullfight in Mexico, and Boettcher brought her to Hollywood for a small part in his film. The Bullfighter and the Lady, with Robert Stack, Gilbert Roland, Joy Page and Virginia Page. During the filming, Katy spoke her lines phonetically, since she didn’t speak or understand English.

In 1952, director Stanley Cramer cast her as saloon owner Helen Ramirez in the classic western High Noon. The movie starred Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, and Lon Chaney, Jr. Katy learned to speak English for the role. She took lessons for two hours a day for two months, before filming began. This film earned her a Golden Globe for best-supporting actress. The first Latin American actress to win this award.

Joseph Kane directed Katy in San Antone in 1953, she played Mistania Figueroa. The film starred Rod Cameron, Arleen Whelan, Forrest Tucker, Bob Steele, and Harry Carey, Jr. Carl Miller (Cameron), a Texas cowboy led a cattle drive into French-held Mexico to exchange the herd for fifty prisoners being held by former Confederate officer Brian Culver (Tucker), who once double-crossed him. She also made Arrowhead that same year, directed by Charles Marquis Warren. The film starred Charlton Heston as Indian Scout Ed Bannon. It featured Jack Palance as Toriano the son of an Apache chief who was educated in the east and returned to lead his people. Brian Keith, Milburn Stone, Frank DeKova, and Robert J. Wilke also appeared in the film. Katy portrayed Nita, an evil Comanche woman and the love interest of Heston’s character Bannon.

In 1954 she appeared in director Edward Dmytryk’s Broken Lance. The film starred Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, Hugh O’Brian, Earl Holliman, and E. G. Marshall. Katy played the Senora, an Indian woman married to Spencer Tracy and the mother of Robert Wagner. She was called the Senora to hide her Indian heritage. Katy was nominated for an Academy Award for her role, setting the bar again as she was the first Latin American actress to be nominated for an Oscar.

After a two year break, she returned to the western genre in 1956 with the movie, Man from Del Rio directed by Harry Horner and starring Anthony Q u i n n , P e t e r Whitney, and Whit Bissell. Katy played Estella, Quinn’s love interest. Dave Robles (Quinn) a Mexican gunman came to t h e town of Mesa, he killed a few notorious gunmen, including the outlaw-turned-lawman of the town, who was working for a man that actually controlled the town. Robles was convinced to take the job by the local townspeople. The local saloon keeper (Whitney) doesn’t care if Robles was the sheriff as long as he was on his payroll.

Katy played Mara Fay in Dragoon Wells Massacre 1957, directed by Harold D. Schuster. The movie starred Barry Sullivan, Dennis O’Keefe, Mona Freeman, Sebastian Cabot, and Jack Elam. Captain Matt Riordan (Dennis O’Keefe) was the sole survivor of an Apache attack. A local trader found him. Soon after they were joined by Marshall transporting a wagon load of criminals to court for trial. Later a stagecoach carrying three entertainers j o i n e d t h e strange group. They banded together to get across the desert safely.

Delmer Davis directed her in The Badlands in 1958. A western caper film, two ex-inmates discharge their prison sentence and arrived in the town of Prescott. The movie starred Alan Ladd, Ernest Borgnine, Claire Kelly, Kent Smith, and Nehemiah Piersoff. Katy’s character was named Anita. She married her co-star Ernest Borgnine on December 31, 1959. Their relationship was very stormy and the couple separated in 1961 amid rumors of spousal abuse and divorced in 1963.

In 1961, she appeared in One Eyed Jacks, starring and directed by Marlon Brando. The movie also starred Karl Malden, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook Jr., and Pina Pellicer. Brando, the Kid, and Malden, Dad Longworth, are bandits surrounded by the Juarlies, Dad took the only horse with the promise to get fresh horses and return for Brando. He lied and left the Kid to be caught. After serving five years in prison, Brando discharged and searched for Dad to kill him for leaving him behind. Katy played Maria Longworth, Dad’s wife.

George Sherman directed Smoky in 1966. The film starred Fess Parker, Diana Hyland, Hoyt Axton, and Katy as Maria. In the film Parker chased a wild horse named Smoky, he eventually caught and broke the animal. After he went away, the animal is passed around to various owners. When he returned, he discovered the horse pulling a wagon, bought him from the owner and returned him to the wild.

Stay Away Joe, released in 1968, is a western comedy directed by Peter Tewksbury. Elvis Presley stared as Native American rodeo rider Joe Lightcloud and Katy played his mother, Annie. The movie also starred Burgess Meredith, Joan Blondell, and L. Q. Jones. Katy broke her foot prior to filming the movie and removed the cast before the break healed, which explained her limp during the movie.

In 1973, she appeared in the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, directed by Sam Peckinpah. The film starred Kris Kristofferson, James Coburn, Bob Dylan, and Emilio Fernandez. A long list of character actors appeared in the film, among them, Richard Jaeckel, Chill Wills, Barry Sullivan, Jason Robards, Jack Elam, Slim Pickens, Gene Evans, Paul Fix, Dub Taylor, and R. G. Armstrong. The film chronicles Director Peckinpah’s version of the relationship between Pat Garrett (Coburn) and Billy the Kid (Kristofferson). Slim Pickens played Sheriff Colin Baker and Katy played his wife billed as Mrs. Baker. Baker was mortally wounded during a shootout with members of Billy’s gang. His wife stayed with him and comforted him as he died. Katy had previously worked with Sam Peckinpah on an episode of The Rifleman.

Her final western film was The High-Lo Country in 1998. The film starred Billy Crudup, Woody Harrelson, James Gammon, Sam Elliott, Patricia Arquette, and Penelope Cruz. A post World War Two tale about the rivalry between two ranches, Corporate rancher Jim Ed Love and three men, Crudup, Harrelson, and Gammon who employed old school ranching techniques. Katy had a small role as Meesa the witch.

Katy also appeared in several TV shows, during her time in Hollywood. She appeared in the Boardinghouse episode of The Rifleman in 1959 with Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. In 1960 she appeared with Brian Keith in "Ghost of a Chance," an episode of The Westerner, produced and directed by Sam Peckinpah. In 1962 she appeared in the episode "La Tulas" on Death Valley Days. She appeared in an episode of The Virginian in 1970 titled "The Best Man." Her final appearance on a TV western was in 1972 on Alias Smith and Jones, "The McCreede Feud."

In a television interview, Katy stated she met Ernest Borgnine in a restaurant in Mexico when he was in the country filming Vera Cruz in 1954 with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, they married soon after they co-starred in The Badlands. She won three Silver Ariel Awards, the Mexican version of the Academy Award for best supporting actress. In 1954 for El Bruto, 1974 for Fe Esperanza y Caridad, and 1999 for El Evangelio de cas Maravilles. Katy was awarded a Golden Boot award in 1992 for her work in western cinema, and a special Golden Ariel in 1997 for Lifetime achievement in film. Her life had several low points. In 1968, Katy attempted to commit suicide, leaving a note behind that said she was too lonely to live. When she recuperated, she left Hollywood and moved back to Mexico. After the death of her son Victor Hugo in 1981, she withdrew from the motion picture community for several years. She died on July 5th, 2002 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

—Terry Alexander is a western, science fiction and horror writer with many publishing credits to his name. He and his wife, Phyllis, live on a small farm near Porum, Oklahoma.