Akademik

(Evangelina Elizondo López-Llera)

(1929 or '30? - )

   Evangelina Elizondo is nicknamed "La Cenicenta" in Mexico, because one of her first professional jobs was to dub the voice of "Cinderella" for the Mexican release of the Walt Disney cartoon feature of that name. In 1951 she made her first screen appearance, and rapidly became a popular actress and musical performer (mostly as a dancer, although she also sang after a fashion; in later years she even fronted her own band). In 1954, for example, she was in 7 films, including two made in Spain. Elizondo married José Luis Paganoni in 1959, and their daughter Ana Georgina (Elizondo's second child) was born that year. But in 1960, Elizondo had her marriage annulled; in May 1960, Paganoni shot and killed actor Ramón Gay while Gay was seated in a car talking to Elizondo (with whom he was starring in a stage play). Paganoni was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the crime. Elizondo's career managed to survive the scandal, but her screen roles declined steadily throughout the decade. Between 1968 and 1988, she made only 4 films (the 1988 feature was Nos traicionará el presidente?, for which she received an Ariel nomination). More recently, she has become a bit more visible, working for Alfonso Arau in the U.S. film A Walk in the Clouds (1995), as well as appearing on TV and in the recent features En el paraíso no existe el dolor and Alta tensión. Elizondo won a Diosa de Plata for her performance in Días de otoño (1962).