Katy Jurado (January 16, 1924 – July 5, 2002) was an Academy Award-nominated Mexican actress.
Born María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García in Guadalajara, Jalisco, she started her career in Hollywood and moved back to continue filming in Mexico.
Katy Jurado with Spencer Tracy in the 1954 film Broken Lance
Her role in the Mexican movie Nosotros Los Pobres, opposite the well-known Mexican actor Pedro Infante, brought her fame. She subsequently appeared in many Hollywood movies including The Bullfighter and the Lady, High Noon (earning a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress), Arrowhead, Broken Lance (for which she received an Academy Award nomination), The Racers, Trial, Trapeze, The Badlanders, One Eyed Jacks, Barabbas, Stay Away, Joe (opposite Elvis Presley), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Children of Sanchez, and Under the Volcano. Her last film performance was in the Mexican film Un Secreto de Esperanza. She also co-starred in the short-lived television series a.k.a. Pablo.
She was the first Latina/Hispanic and Mexican nominated for an Academy Award. She is also one of only three Mexican actresses to have been nominated for an Oscar. The other two are Salma Hayek as Best Actress in 2002 for Frida and Adriana Barraza as Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for Babel.
Jurado was married twice, first to Mexican actor Víctor Velázquez, with whom she had two children, and later to actor Ernest Borgnine.
She died of kidney failure and pulmonary disease in 2002, at the age of 78 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
