John Wayne and Marlon Brando loved the same extraordinary woman and one proposed – Old western – My Blog

Elvis was notorious for wanting and wooing his female co-stars but also shared the screen with legends like Angela Lansbury in Blue Hawaii. Towards the end of his film career, he shared the screen with a woman who had beguiled some of Hollywood’s greatest alpha males. In 1968’s Stay Away Jo, released 55 years ago this week, the US star and Mexican icon Katy Jurado rather dubiously played Apache Indians. The actress was making a comeback after fleeing La La Land following the collapse of her tumultuous marriage to Ernest Borgnine. She had previously also beguiled yet more Silver Screen tough guys like Burt Lancaster, Yul Brynner and Clint Eastwood and had always been a uniquely powerful female presence off-screen and on throughout her career.
Jurado blazed the trail for Hispanic actresses but, like Grace Kelly, cane from a family that looked down on acting. María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García had been born into a once immensely wealthy dynasty that had owned much of what would become the state of Texas. Her cousin Emilio Gil was the President of Mexico from 1928-1930.


Offered a part in 1952’s High Noon opposite Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, Jurado threw herself into English classes. Her hard work paid off and she won a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her role as the proud ex-lover of Cooper’s heroic Marshall Will Kane.Kelly might have been a major star in the US but Jurado was enraged when she realised the other actress had more close-ups. She angrily confronted director Fred Zinnemann, demanding more for herself and accusing him of being in love with her co-star.Her indomitable will and fiery temper certainly impressed Marlon Brando, who was juggling two other formidable Latin women at the time – West Side Story’s Rita Moreno and Movita Castaneda (who he later married).Brando said he couldn’t resist Jurado’s “enigmatic eyes, black as hell, pointing at you like fiery arrows.” He arranged a meeting while he was in Mexico filming Viva Zapata!

The actress herself was dismissive of her looks but aware of the power she had over men: “I knew that my body was provocative, but also that I was not beautiful, although… my physique was different and very sensual.”Jurado went into her affair with Brando with eyes wide open, intending it to be a swift and fun encounter but it became something far greater.She said: Marlon called me one night for a date, and I accepted. I knew all about Movita. I knew he had a thing for Rita Moreno. Hell, it was just a date. I didn’t plan to marry him.”


