María Montez Returns To The Big Screen

Celines Toribio as Maria Montez

"The Queen of Technicolor" and the first Hollywood star of Dominican heritage, María Montez, will make her return to the big screen, in María Montez: The Movie, a film by the Spanish director, Vicente Peñarroch.

The roles of Maria Montez will be played by Dominican actresses Celines Toribio (adult), and Paula Sanchez Ferry in the role of a young María Montez.

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The film is a production of Orange Dominicana, a wireless provider, under their Orange Cinema devision, with support from the Dominican Ministry of Culture.

Read: 20 Dominican Actresses You Should Know

Visit www.mariamontezthemovie.com, for a full list of actors and production details.

About María Montez 

She was born María África Gracia Vidal on June 6, 1912, in Barahona, Dominican Republic. Years later, she would take the name Maria Monetz and become "The Queen of Technicolor" of Hollywood.

When friends and neighbors were asked about Maria Africa the actress, they would respond by saying that, that is what had been born to be.

According to the book Maria Montez: Su Vida, by Margarita Vicens de Morales, Maria was intent on becoming a Hollywood star, going as far as staging a meeting with George J. Schaefer, then president of RKO Pictures.

Between 1940 and 1951, Maria Monetz appeared in more than 25 films, including Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943) and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944).

María Montez was 39 years-old when she died in Suresnes, France (Sept. 7, 1951). According to The New York Times, doctors attributed her death to a heart attack, but were not 100% sure of the true cause of death. She was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris..