Mexico City
CNN
—

Silvia Pinal, a legendary Mexican actress who starred in Luis Buñuel’s iconic film “Viridiana,” died Thursday, according to broadcaster Televisa-Univision and government officials. She was 93.

Pinal was born in 1931 in the city of Guaymas in northwestern Mexico and starred alongside stars such as Pedro Infante, Germán Valdés “Tin Tan”, Cantinflas, and Arturo de Córdova.

Mexico’s Culture Minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza mourned the actress on social media, calling her “a pioneer of theater who is paving the way for future generations.”

“Her legacy as an artist and her contribution to our culture are unforgettable,” wrote Curiel de Icaza. “May she rest in peace.”

One of her daughters, Sylvia Pasquel, said earlier this week that Pinal was in the intensive care unit, dealing with complications from a urinary tract infection.

Pinal was a larger-than-life figure with luscious blonde hair and bright red lipstick. She began filmmaking when she was just 18 years old, playing a small role in the 1949 film Bamba.

Over the course of her six-decade career, Pinal appeared in dozens of films produced in Mexico, the United States and Europe. She gained international fame through her roles in three films by legendary filmmaker Luis Buñuel, first in “Viridiana” (1962), the first Spanish-Mexican production to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and later in “Simon of”. . the Desert” (1965) and “The Exterminating Angel” (1967).

Pinal also starred in the 1969 Mexican-American action film “Shark!” alongside Burt Reynolds.

In addition to film, Pinal has had successful careers in musical theater and television, both as an actress and producer. She produced the popular telenovela “Mujer, casos de la vida real,” which aired for more than 20 years until 2007.

Emilion Azcarraga, CEO of leading Mexican television company Grupo Televisa, where Pinal worked for decades and which made a series about her life, paid tribute to the actress on social media.

“It saddens us to say goodbye to the diva of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, theater and television, and at the same time it fills us with pride to have shared so many years of learning with her about what always was and always will be “will be your Televisa home,” said Azcarraga.

Pinal also became involved in Mexican politics as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, with which she won seats in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, and the Mexico City local assembly.

Pinal was married four times and had four children, including rock singer Alejandra Guzmán.

Pinal’s beauty was captured in every image and is immortalized in a portrait she painted of Diego Rivera, one of the greatest exponents of mural painting in Mexico.