Movita Castaneda

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Movita Castaneda (born April 12, 1916 in Nogales , Arizona , † February 12, 2015 in Los Angeles , California ; born Maria Castaneda ) was an American film actress of Mexican origin. She owes her fame above all to her marriage to Marlon Brando , but also to her appearance in the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), in which she - alongside Charles Laughton and Clark Gable - played the role of the South Seas beautiful Tehani.

Life and movies

According to various sources, Castaneda was born one of three daughters to parents of Mexican descent during a train journey from Mexico to Arizona. Castaneda, who had no training whatsoever, found her first film role in the musical Flying Down to Rio , premiered in 1933 , in which she appeared by name as the singer of a Cariocan number . Other small roles followed, including that of Tehanni in the 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty . Her roles then grew a little, and from 1937 Castaneda starred several times ( Paradise Isle , Rose of the Rio Grande , Wolf Call , The Girl from Rio ). After a seven-year break from filming, she continued her film career in 1947 with minor supporting roles, mostly in western films.

Since 1951 Castaneda has also appeared in television productions, for the last time in the soap opera Unter der Sonne California , in which she was seen in seventeen episodes between 1987 and 1989 in the role of Ana . Movita Castaneda last lived in Mexico.

Private life

Castaneda had several affairs with her leading men , such as Errol Flynn and Clark Gable . In 1938 she married Irish heavyweight boxer, tenor, and film actor Jack Doyle in California ; the church ceremony did not follow until 1942 in Dublin . While filming the film Viva Zapata! Castaneda met Marlon Brando in which she worked as an extra in the spring of 1951. Their love affair - which was often interrupted and in the course of which both had other partners - lasted a total of 15 years. In the year they met, Brando rented a house for Castaneda in Laurel Canyon , a neighborhood in Los Angeles . When Castaneda announced in the early summer of 1960 that she was pregnant, Brando, who had meanwhile been divorced from his first wife Anna Kashfi , traveled with her to Xochimilco , Mexico, to marry her on June 4th. Their marriage was not officially registered in the United States, nor was it known to the press. In October 1960 Castaneda announced the birth of a son Sergio, who was later mostly called by his nickname - Miko. Since Castaneda was already 42 years old, many of her friends were convinced that she had fabricated the pregnancy and that Brando had “foisted” a child that she had actually adopted.

Brando then bought a house for her in Coldwater Canyon , where his son from his first marriage, Christian, also lived for a time. After the public found out about the marriage in June 1961 - Brando had to testify about his private life at a hearing in the custody battle over Christian - Castaneda's first husband, Jack Doyle, spoke up and publicly stated that his marriage to Castaneda had never been divorced - a statement that initially had no consequences. In September 1966 Castaneda, who was now 48 years old, announced the birth of a daughter Rebecca, whose physical relationship with Castaneda was again denied by many acquaintances. Brando also doubted his paternity of Movita's children and later had a blood test done, the result of which was never known to the public. In June 1967, Castaneda filed for divorce. Ironically, Brando then married actress Tarita Teriipaia , who took on the role of South Sea beauty in the unsuccessful remake of Mutiny on the Bounty .

The divorce proceedings took place under exclusion of the public, the press was later only informed that the marriage to Jack Doyle for failure to divorce Castaneda canceled was.

Filmography (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Movita Castaneda  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Movita Castaneda dies at 98; film actress was Marlon Brando's second wife
personal data
SURNAME Castaneda, Movita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Castaneda, Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actress of Mexican descent
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Nogales , Arizona , United States
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 2015
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States