The Mexican Spitfire: Lupe Velez (Coming Soon!)

María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez, known as Lupe Vélez, is a Mexican-born silent screen star. Vélez begins her career as a performer in Mexican vaudeville in the early 1920s. She is one of the first successful Latin American actresses in Hollywood. By the end of the decade, in the last years of American silent films, she is the lead in a number of films including "The Gaucho" (1927) and "Wolf Song" (1929). In the 40s, Vélez's popularity peaks after appearing in the Mexican Spitfire films, a series created to capitalize on Vélez's well-documented fiery personality. Nicknamed The Mexican Spitfire by the media, Vélez's personal life is as colorful as her onscreen persona. In the early morning hours of December 14, 1944, Vélez retires to her bedroom, where she consumes 70 - yes, 70! - Seconal pills and a glass of brandy. Her death becomes the stuff of urban legends. Coming soon!