Estelita Rodriguez (July 2, 1925 – March 12, 1966) was a Cuban actress best known for her roles in many Westerns with Roy Rogers for Republic Pictures, as well as her role in Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo. Her birth date was in dispute; studio biographies claimed 1928, but her wedding announcement of May 1945 cited her age as 19 as certified before a superior court judge, which would place her year of birth at 1925.
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Career
In 1940, Rodriguez was a 15-year-old nightclub star, singing and dancing with Cuban pianist and bandleader Anselmo Sacasas and his Royal Havana Orchestra. They became so popular that Chicago's Colony Club redecorated its entire premises with a Cuban motif. Reporter Will Davidson raved about Rodriguez: "This raven-haired vocalist sings as much with her eyes and hands and her entire body as she does with her voice. She speaks no English, but the language of her saucy looks and gestures is universal."
Rodriguez returned to her native Havana and became a radio star. Her singing partner at the microphone was singer Rene Cabell, over station CMQ. Cabell and she were hired by Havana's Saica Films to appear in a two-reel movie short, Cuban Rhythms. She was featured at New York's famous Copacabana when she won a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) at the age of 17. She took MGM's regimented talent course, in preparation to appear in pictures. As she recalled in 1949, "I always complained of headaches and asked to go to the studio hospital. Instead, I wandered around the lot looking for movie stars." She never did make a picture at MGM.
