Linda Cristal, Who Starred in ‘High Chaparral,’ Dies at 89
To win the role of the fiery Victoria
Cannon, she said, she threw away the script and “made up stories showing love,
hate, passion, envy, jealousy, etc.”
New York Times
By William Grimes
June 28, 2020
Linda Cristal, an Argentine-born actress who played
Victoria, the regal, fiery wife of the rancher Big John Cannon on the 1960s
television series “The High Chaparral,” died on Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif.
She was 89.
Her death was confirmed by her son Jordan Wexler, who said
she died in her sleep.
Ms. Cristal had made nearly a dozen films in Mexico before
arriving in Hollywood to take her first English-speaking role, in the Dana
Andrews film “Comanche” (1956), playing the kidnapped daughter of a Spanish
aristocrat in Mexico. She went on to make several westerns before appearing in
Blake Edwards’s knockabout comedy “The Perfect Furlough” (1958).
For her performance in that movie as Sandra Roca, “the
Argentine Bombshell ” — the dream date chosen by the serviceman Tony Curtis in
an Army publicity stunt — Ms. Cristal won the “New Star of the Year” award at
the Golden Globes, an honor she shared with Tina Louise and Susan Kohner.
After a modest film career, followed by guest roles on
television, Ms. Cristal auditioned for “The High Chaparral,” a western
developed by David Dortort, the creator and producer of “Bonanza.” In her
telling, it was a memorable occasion.
“The scene they handed me to read was all tenderness and
sweetness, and I knew they were looking for a heroine with fire and spunk,” Ms.
Cristal told The Boston Globe in 1968. “So I asked them if I could throw away
the script and just improvise.”
She went full-throttle. “I made up stories showing love,
hate, passion, envy, jealousy, etc.,” she said. “I tried a scene as a street
walker. I was a mother who had lost a son in the war. Before I was through, I
had taken off my hat, my shoes and even my jacket. In my intensity I was all
over these people, roughing them up. But I walked out with the contract.”
The series ran from 1967 to 1971, with Ms. Cristal playing
the daughter of Don Sebastián Montoya, a powerful rancher on the Mexican side
of the Arizona
border.
In a fusion of dynasties, she marries Big John Cannon,
played by Leif Erickson, whose wife was killed by an Apache arrow in the show’s
first episode. With Big John’s son and brother, the couple turn the High
Chaparral ranch into the headquarters of a cattle empire, surviving conflicts
with Apaches, rustlers and Mexicans.
Ms. Cristal won a Golden Globe in 1970 as best actress in a
drama series for her work on the show.
She was born Marta Victoria Moya on Feb. 23, 1931, in Buenos Aires. Her father,
Antonio Moya Bourges, was a French immigrant who published magazines. Her
mother, the former Rosario Pego, was Italian. In several interviews, Ms.
Cristal said that her father came into conflict with a criminal gang and fled
with his family to Montevideo,
Uruguay. When
she was 13, both of her parents died of carbon monoxide poisoning while in
their car.
Victoria
studied voice and piano at the conservatory and at 16 married the Argentine
actor Tito Gómez. The marriage was annulled after only a few weeks. She thought
of following the example of her five aunts and entering a convent, but fate
intervened.
During a trip to Mexico
with her older brother, she was spotted by the producer Miguelito Alemán, son
of Miguel Alemán, Mexico’s
president, who gave her a small role in one of his films. She later made eight
films with the actor and producer Raúl de Anda, using the name Linda Cristal.
“I never became a big star, but then I wouldn’t have been a
big nun either,” she told Look magazine in 1960.
Her American film career never gained traction. After
appearing in “The Last of the Fast Guns” (1958), “The Fiend Who Walked the West”
(1958) and “Cry Tough” (1959), a drama about Puerto Ricans in New York, Ms.
Cristal tried to break out of Latino parts by taking the title role in “Cleopatra’s
Legions.”
“I was sure that picture would do it for me,” she told
Parade magazine in 1960. “We shot it in Spain
and Italy.
It took three months of hard work, and it made absolutely no sense — I mean the
script — but the picture is full of spectacular scenes with a lot of emphasis
on Cleopatra’s love life.” She added, “I figured the picture, awful as it is,
would do very well in America.”
Unfortunately, just as the film was ready for release,
20th-Century Fox announced that it had signed Elizabeth Taylor to film
“Cleopatra.” The studio bought Ms. Cristal’s film, renamed it “Legions of the Nile” and gave it a very limited release in late 1960. It
sank without a trace.
Ms. Cristal returned to Hollywood and appeared in the John
Wayne film “The Alamo,” playing the Mexican beauty Flaca, and in John Ford’s
“Two Rode Together” (1961),” as a kidnapped Mexican noblewoman, with James
Stewart.
On television she appeared on “Rawhide,” “The Tab Hunter
Show” (as a matador), “Barnaby Jones” and “The Love Boat.” In her final film,
she played Charles Bronson’s love interest in “Mr. Majestyk” (1974), based on
the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name about an embattled melon farmer in
California.
In 1988 she came out of retirement to join the cast of “General Hospital,” playing Dimitra, the mistress
of the crime boss Victor Jerome (Jack Axelrod).
Her two marriages in the United States ended in divorce.
Besides her son Jordan, she is survived by another son, Gregory Wexler, and two
grandchildren.
CRISTAL, Linda
(Marta Victoria Moya Burges)
Born: 2/23/1931, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died: 6/27/2020, Beverly
Hills, California, U.S.A.
Linda Cristal’s
westerns – actress:
El 7 leguas – 1955 (Blanca)
La venganza del Diablo – 1955
Comanche – 1956 (Margarita)
Enemigos – 1956 (Chabela)
El Diablo desparece – 1957
The Fiend Who Walked the West – 1958 (Ellen Hardy)
The Last of the Fast Guns – 1958 (Maria O’Reilly)
Rawhide (TV) – 1959 (Louise)
The Alamo – 1960 (Flaca)
Spirit of the Alamo – 1960 [herself]
Two Rode Together – 1961 (Elena de la Madriaga)
Iron Horse (TV) – 1967 (Angela Teran)
The High Chaparral (TV) – 1967-1971 (Victoria Cannon)
Bonanza (TV) – 1971 (Teresa)
Cade’s County (TV) – 1971 (Celsa Dobbs)
When the West Was Fun (TV) (1979)
Enjoyed watching her through the years.
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