Guadalupe "Lupe" Ontiveros was an American film and television actress of Mexican descendent, best known for playing Yolanda Saldívar in the film Selena. Ontiveros acted in numerous films and television shows, often playing a maid or, more recently, an all-knowing grandmoth...
ALMA Award for In Memoriam Tribute, ALMA Award for Favorite TV Actress - Comedy, Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic
Nominations
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress - Comedy Series, Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film, ALMA Award for Outstanding Latino Cast in a Made-for-Television Movie or Mini-Series, ALMA Award for Outstanding Individual P...
Movies
The Goonies, Real Women Have Curves, Selena, As Good as It Gets, Our Family Wedding, Chuck & Buck, El Norte, This Christmas, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Tortilla Heaven, Dolly Dearest, Passionada, Dark Mirror, Zoot Suit, Born in East L.A., California Suite, And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him, A Show o...
I've made chicken salad out of chicken manure. I'm proud to represent those hands that labor in this country, I've given every maid I've portrayed soul and heart.
2
[on the Hispanic population in this country] They don't know we're very much a part of this country and that we make up every part of this country. When I go in there and speak perfect English, I don't get the part.
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Fact
1
She is survived by her husband, Elias Ontiveros of Pico Rivera, California; her sons, Nicholas Ontiveros, Alejandro Ontiveros, and Elias Ontiveros; and two granddaughters.
2
She studied psychology and social work at Texas Women's University in Texas. She was social worker until she started acting in the 1970s.
3
She was an advocate for the hearing impaired. She founded the Latino Theater Company in Los Angeles, California in 1985.
4
Ontiveros was a founding board member of the Latino Theater Company in downtown Los Angeles.
5
In 2005, Ontiveros was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest star role as Juanita "Mama" Solis, the nosy mother-in-law of Eva Longoria's character on "Desperate Housewives.".
6
Her parents owned a tortilla factory and two restaurants.
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Received a Lifetime Achievement Impact Award in 2002 from the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC). The NHMC Impact Awards recognize outstanding contributions to the positive portrayal of Latinos in media.
8
Two of Lupe's three sons are hearing-impaired. Lupe, as a young woman, worked in her own mother's small factory for a few months, with women not unlike those working in the sweatshop in Real Women Have Curves (2002).
9
She is best-known in the Latino community for her portrayal of Yolanda Saldivar in the movie, Selena (1997), and to Anglo audiences as the housekeeper on The Goonies (1985).
10
She estimates she has played a maid in at least 150 films or plays. She narrated a documentary, Maid in America (2005).
$250 Thousand
