brief candles: Estelita Rodriguez (1928-1966)

   On March 12, 1966, singer and film actress Estelita Rodriguez was found dead on the kitchen floor of her home in Van Nuys, California. She was 37 years old [1]. The cause of her death remains undetermined to this day. Accounts vary: tradition maintains that she died of influenza, but other sources cite the possibility of foul play.

   Estelita Rodriguez was Cuban-born, and after being discovered in Havana nightclubs in her teens, moved to New York City with her family in the early 1940s. A few years later she found herself acting in the movies, specializing in Westerns with Roy Rogers. She remained one of the busiest and most popular actresses in the late Forties and early Fifties, albeit always in B pictures. Most of the time she was billed simply as Estelita. But in the early Fifties she more or less left movies altogether: after 1953 she only made two more films [2], one a bonafide classic and one an all-time anti-classic.

   In any event, and in a professional high point of sorts, she appeared in the Howard Hawks/John Wayne epic Rio Bravo. Filmed in 1958, it was her only A-picture, but despite her relatively high billing in the credits her part is a small one [3]. Seven years later her career came to an inglorious end with her appearance in the camp classic Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter, in which she essayed the strong willed Mexican peasant girl Juanita. The film is often cited on worst movies of all time lists, but Estelita’s presence, along with that of leading lady Narda Onyx, adds some much needed energy to the absurd premise, slow pacing and otherwise indifferent cast. Alas, Estelita would not live to see her performance: her death occurred a few weeks before the film’s initial release in April 1966 [4].

   Happily there's a fairly generous sampling of Estelita’s Forties and Fifties films on YouTube, and they show her at her best: a polished performer in her peak years with lots of charisma and stage presence. The Estelita renaissance has also gotten a huge boost by the recent publication of the novel Find Me in Havana by Serena Burdick. Based on the true life of Estelita and interviews with daughter Nina, Find me in Havana tells its story through letters the two exchange.

[1] 1928 is given as her official year of birth, though some sources claim the year as early as 1915 or 1913.

[2] To be sure IMDB lists some television credits during those years.

[3] It’s our loss that Estelita doesn't sing in the film, a luxury by the way afforded Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson, who between them had two songs.

[4] Estelita was reportedly working on a cinematic biography of Lupe Velez when she died. In the film she was to portray the famed Mexican film star of the Forties.