Spanish author Carlos Aguilar announced this morning that
Cuban dancer, actress Chelo Alonso has passed away at the age of 85. Alonso was
born Isabel Apolonia García Hernández in Central Lugareño, Camagüey, Cuba on
April 10, 1933. She emerged as a new exotic dancing talent at the Folies
Bergère in Paris and was billed as the "new Josephine Baker", who had
also performed and become famous at the Folies. Alonso was billed as the
"Cuban H-Bomb", and mixed Afro-Cuban rhythms from her homeland with
"bump and grind". She was first noticed internationally in the 1959
film, Nel segno di Roma (Sheba and the Gladiator), which starred Anita Ekberg
and Georges Marchal. Owing to a particularly erotic dance number, her picture
and name became more prominent on the movie's publicity posters than either of
the two leads, much to Ekberg's dismay. After the death of her husband in 1986,
Alonso moved to the city of Siena in Tuscany, Italy. She retired from film and
started a cat-breeding business, as well as a four-star hotel. Alonso appeared
in three Euro-westerns: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966) as Mrs.
Mondrega/Stevens; “Run, Man Run” (1967) as Dolores and “Night of the Serpent”
(1968) also as Dolores.
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She was great too in Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi, with the late (and missed as well) Gordon Mitchell! R.I.P., gorgeous Chelo!
ReplyDeleteStephan, from Brazil