Esther Fernández - Overview

María Esther Fernández González, better known as Esther Fernández (August 23, 1917 in Mascota, Jalisco Mexico – October 21, 1999 in Mexico City, Mexico), was a Mexican film and television actress. She was one of the first female major stars of the "Golden Age of Mexican cinema" in the 1930s and 1940s.

Fernández began her career as an extra in the film La Mujer del Puerto (1934). Her beauty and charisma drew the attention of film director Fernando de Fuentes, who gave her the female lead role of Allá en el Rancho Grande (1936), opposite Tito Guizar. The film is regarded as marking the start of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.

During the rest of the 1930s, Fernández acted in hit movies including Amapola del Camino (1937), with Andrea Palma and Tito Guizar; Mi Candidato (1938), with Joaquín Pardavé and Pedro Armendàriz; and Los de Abajo, with Isabela Corona and Emilio Fernández. Her popularity caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which promoted her films in Latin America and invited her to work in Hollywood.

In 1943 she starred in the second sound version of the classic Mexican film Santa, directed by Norman Foster, opposite Ricardo Montalban. In 1946 she acted in the Hollywood film Two Years Before the Mast, with Brian Donlevy and Alan Ladd.

Her last appearance was in the film Reclusorio II (1997).