RIP Chelo Alonso

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.