JURADO, Katy

(1924–2002)

   Born Maria Cristina Estella Marcella Jurado de Garcia in Guadalajara, Mexico (her birth date is in dispute), Katy Jurado had a long career in Spanish-language cinema as well as in American and other national cinema. Budd Boetticherdiscovered her and cast her in one of his bullfighting movies. She also was closely associated with John Wayne. Very much a Hollywood insider throughout her long career, Jurado is probably most famous for her role as Helen Ramirez in High Noon (1952). Ramirez owns the saloon and once had a relationship with the newly married Sheriff Will Kane (Gary Cooper). She is dark, sultry, glamorous in an earthy way, and a woman who knows how the world really works, in contrast to Kane’s new wife, a Quaker named Amy (Grace Kelly). At one point, confronting the passive new wife, Helen contemptuously asks, “What kind of woman are you? How can you leave him like this? Does the sound of guns frighten you that much?” Jurado’s English was still in a primitive state when she filmed High Noon, so she had to learn all her lines phonetically. Jurado went on to win an Academy Award for best supporting actress in Broken Lance (1954). Later Western roles included Marlon Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks (1961) and Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett \& Billy the Kid (1973). She was married to Ernest Borgnine for a while.