Mary Begoña, vedette and actress, dies at 95
Madridiario
By Antonio Castro
April 12, 2020
This morning the actress and vedette Mary Begoña passed away at the residence where she spent the last years of her life. In these circumstances, the causes of death cannot be specified. She was 95 years old.
With her real name –Begoña Bragas- this Bilbao actress could have done little in show business. So she adopted Mary Begoña's. According to all the information, she had been born in 1929, which was quite improbable because in 1938, according to Álvaro Retana in his Historia del Arte Frívolo, she was already working on the premises of the CNT entertainment union, and was about fourteen years old. Today we have learned that she was born in 1925.
As early as 1944, Mary took part in the show that consecrated a legendary couple: Lola Flores and Manolo Caracol. With them –and supposedly at the age of 15- Zambra starred, who toured various stages of the Spanish capital after the premiere in La Zarzuela. Later she already managed to occupy a prominent position in the posters as a dancer next to Pepe Marchena. In the year 1946 the businessman Colsada set up a magazine company presenting himself with the show De la tierra a Venus. As female stars he carried Mary Begoña and Dorita del Alba.
At the beginning of the 1950s, she was the young first star of the disappeared Martín theater and, later, of another remembered temple of the Magazine: the Fuencarral. At the age of twenty-three, in 1948, she was signed by one of the magazine's most remembered businessmen, Antonio Paso, in whose company he traveled to America in 1950.
Also at the beginning of that decade, one of the
most profitable artistic couples was forged. The then young actor from Zaragoza
Antonio Garisa and Mary Begoña formed an infallible poster header. The two
would be inextricably linked until the actor's death in 1989.
The stage of La Latina, then in the hands of Luis Fernández Díez, was its definitive launch pad. Together they starred in Más mujeres (1957); Las 7 mujeres de Adán (1957), Timoteo ¿qué las das? (1959) or Las alegres chicas de Portofino (1960). The scripts for almost all of them were signed by one of the genre's best-known couples: Prada and Iquino. Mary Begoña popularized some fun post-war songs, among them, Pastora Imperio, from A vivir del cuento, “La sandunga”, from Róbame tonight and, above all, ¡Que coconut is coming! ! The scenes from Madrid shone in those years with some of the most spectacular women: Queta Claver, Virginia de Matos, Esperanza Roy, Maruja Tomás ... Her colleagues, Lepe, Casal, De Andrés, Garisa or Gometes put the humorous counterpoint.
The stage of La Latina, then in the hands of Luis Fernández Díez, was its definitive launch pad. Together they starred in Más mujeres (1957); Las 7 mujeres de Adán (1957), Timoteo ¿qué las das? (1959) or Las alegres chicas de Portofino (1960). The scripts for almost all of them were signed by one of the genre's best-known couples: Prada and Iquino. Mary Begoña popularized some fun post-war songs, among them, Pastora Imperio, from A vivir del cuento, “La sandunga”, from Róbame tonight and, above all, ¡Que coconut is coming! ! The scenes from Madrid shone in those years with some of the most spectacular women: Queta Claver, Virginia de Matos, Esperanza Roy, Maruja Tomás ... Her colleagues, Lepe, Casal, De Andrés, Garisa or Gometes put the humorous counterpoint.
Mary
was one of the stars who knew how to make an intelligent step from the catwalks
to the "verse" theater. Like some of her companions, she opted for
the genre of humor, of comedy, taking advantage of the resources acquired in
the Magazine. In it she became acquainted with the Paso, Manuel and Antonio
and, when changing gender, she participated in some of the great successes of
her descendant Alfonso: ¡Cómo está el servicio! (1968),
Rodríguez y a mucha honra
(1969) and Las que viven de la Base
(1970). Mary Begoña also participated in the transfer to the big screen of
these titles, many times as shameless woman, former prostitute or slum woman.
Especially remembered is her creation of Engracia “la cajetilla” in ¡Cómo
está el servicio! (1968).
Her
filmography, started in 1960, is not very extensive and it does not contain
great titles of Spanish cinema. At the end of the nineties she again enjoyed a
certain popularity for her appearance in the popular Lina Morgan series Hostal
Royal Manzanares.
With the beginning of the XXI century she disappeared from the scene. In 2000 she appeared in La novia del príncipe and a year later in Aprobado en chastidad, the last stage appearance also by Chicho Ibáñez Ser Spencer. She then made a brief collaboration on television series and quietly retired.
With the beginning of the XXI century she disappeared from the scene. In 2000 she appeared in La novia del príncipe and a year later in Aprobado en chastidad, the last stage appearance also by Chicho Ibáñez Ser Spencer. She then made a brief collaboration on television series and quietly retired.
BEGONA, Mary (María
Begoña Bragas)
Born: 4/4/1925, Bilbao, Vizcaya, Spain
Died: 4/12/2020, Madrid,
Madrid, Spain
Mary Begoña’s
western:
Torrejón City – 1962 (prostitute)
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