Silvia Pinal is dead. Per Variety, the star of Luis Buñuel's Viridana and The Exterminating Angel, known as the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema's "last diva," died on November 28. She was 93.
"Your absence will hurt me forever, but every memory of you will give me the strength to move forward, and as long as you live in my heart, I will always be able to feel that you are still with me," Pinal's official Instagram posted. "I will love you forever, mom."
Pinal is perhaps best known to American audiences through her collaborations with director Luis Buñuel. She starred in 1961's Viridiana, 1962's The Exterminating Angel, and the 1965 short Simon Of The Desert. The controversial Palm D'or winner, Viridiana sees Pinal plays an aspiring nun who is raped before her final vows and excommunicated from the convent. The film was banned in Spain and denounced by the Catholic Church, but it is now considered one of the best Spanish films ever made. Buñuel and Pinal reteamed for the class satire The Exterminating Angel, one of the director's most enduring and influential films, with its presence felt in horror and reality TV.
"A friend of mine made a clever point: Buñuel invented reality shows with The Exterminating Angel," Pinal told Criterion. "What is The Exterminating Angel if not a reality show about people who can't leave the room?"
Born on September 12, 1931, in Guaymas, Sonora, Silvia Pinal Hidalgo began studying acting at the Nacional de las Bellas Artes at 14. After making her debut as an extra in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, she began acting in soaps on the Mexican radio station XEQ. In 1949, Pinal made her screen acting debut in El Pecado De Laura and appeared in three more movies that year, including Bamba and La Mujer Que Yo Perdí. By 1952, she had won an Ariel Award, the Mexican film industry's Oscars, for Best Supporting Actress in A Place Closer To Heaven. Before the decade ended, she would win three more Ariels for Best Actress for Un Extraño En El Escalera, Locura Pasional, and La Dulce Enemiga. The Ariel Awards presented her with a Special Golden Ariel in 2008. Despite having over 100 screen credits, Pinal only appeared in Hollywood once, opposite Burt Reynolds in Samuel Fuller's Shark.
Aside from being considered a pioneer of musical theater in Mexico, she became a political figure as the wife of Governor Tulio Gómez, her fourth and final husband, serving as First Lady for much of the '80s. In 1991, as a member of the Industrial Revolutionary Party, she was elected to the Chamber of Duties in Mexico City. Between 1997 and 2000, she served as a senator.
Pinal is survived by her two daughters and her son. Her third daughter, Viridiana, died in a car accident in 1982.
