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Maria Montez was the stage name of María África Gracia Antonia Vidal de Santos Silas (June 6, 1912, Barahona, Dominican Republic - September 7, 1951, Paris, France).

Image:MariaMontez.jpg
Maria MontezThe second daughter of 10 children, she was given the name María África in honor of her diplomat/businessman father's native land, the Spanish Isla de la Palma, off the coast of the African continent. At a young age, she taught herself to speak English, and in 1932 she married William McFeeters, an American banker working in her seaside home town of Barahona.

Her marriage lasted several years but in 1939 she ended up in New York City where her exotic looks landed her a job as a model. Determined to become a stage actress, she hired an agent and created a résumé that made her several years younger by listing her birth as 1917 in some instances and 1918 in others. Eventually she accepted an offer from a Hollywood film studio. Her screen image was crafted as that of a hot-blooded Latin seductress, playing characters dressed in exotic costumes and sparking jewels. Dubbed "The Queen of Technicolor," she made her film debut in 1940 opposite Johnny Mack Brown, marking a career that saw her much loved by audiences, usually in adventure films as the beautiful damsel in distress. Over her career, Maria Montez appeared in 26 films, 21 of which were made in North America and five in Europe.

While working in Hollywood, she met and married French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont (1911- 2001) who had to leave a few days after their wedding to serve in the Free French Forces fighting against Nazi Germany in the European Theatre of World War II. At the end of World War II, the couple had a daughter, Maria Christina, born in Hollywood in 1946. They then moved to a home in Suresnes, Île-de-France in the eastern suburb of Paris under the French Fourth Republic. There, Maria Montez appeared in several films and a play written by her husband. She also wrote 3 books, two of which were published, as well as penning a number of poems.

The 39-year-old Montez died after apparently suffering a heart attack and drowning in her bath. She was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris where her tombstone reads her theatrical year of birth 1918-1951.

Much loved by the people of the Dominican Republic, in her birthplace of Barahona the city changed the name of an existing street to that bearing her name. Her legacy as the only great star from that country remains, and in 1996 the Aeropuerto Internacional María Montez (Maria Montez International Airport) began service in Barahona.

  Schatten über Neapel (1951) .... Dolores
... aka Camorra
Amore e sangue (1951) .... Dolores
... aka City of Violence
... aka Napoli, tempi passati (Italy: subtitle)
Vendetta del corsaro, La (1951) .... Consuelo
... aka Revenge of the Pirates (USA)
... aka The Pirates Revenge
Ladro di Venezia, Il (1950) .... Tina
... aka The Thief of Venice

Portrait d'un assassin (1949) .... Christina de Rinck
... aka Portrait of a Murderer (France)
... aka Portrait of an Assassin
Hans le marin (1949) .... Dolores, the prostitute
... aka Hans the Sailor
... aka Wicked City (USA)
Siren of Atlantis (1949) .... Queen Antinea
Pirates of Monterey (1947) .... Marguerita
The Exile (1947) .... Countess
Tangier (1946) .... Rita
Sudan (1945) .... Naila
Bowery to Broadway (1944) .... Marina
Gypsy Wildcat (1944) .... Carla
Cobra Woman (1944) .... Tollea/Naja
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944) .... Amara
White Savage (1943) .... Princess Tahia
... aka White Captive (UK)
Arabian Nights (1942) .... Scheherazade
Pardon My Sarong (1942) (scenes deleted)
Mystery of Marie Roget (1942) .... Marie Roget
... aka Phantom of Paris
Bombay Clipper (1942) .... Sonya Dietrich Landers
South of Tahiti (1941) .... Melahi
... aka White Savage
Moonlight in Hawaii (1941) .... Ilani
Raiders of the Desert (1941) .... Zuleika
That Night in Rio (1941) .... Inez
Lucky Devils (1941) (uncredited) .... Bathing Beauty
... aka Flying News (USA)
... aka To Cover the World (USA)
The Invisible Woman (1940) .... Marie
Boss of Bullion City (1940) .... Linda Calhoun