Legendary Argentine Actress Honored

At 85, Argentine actress and singer Libertad Lamarque still has the beauty, grace and charm that made her an international star during Mexican cinema’s Golden Age in the 1940s.

Although she began her singing career in Argentina at the age of 17, she made most of her films in Mexico after being exiled from her mother country for--according to legend--slapping her co-star Eva Duarte during the filming of a movie in 1944. Duarte later became Evita Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron.

On Friday, Lamarque was honored by Celebrando--a nationally distributed Latino magazine--and her own North Hollywood-based fan club for her 70 years in film, theater and music, and her philanthropy.

“Libertad Lamarque makes real the dreams of many Latin Americans,” said Celebrando editor Yolanda Medina C. “With great effort, much faith, and thoroughly convinced of what she wanted out of life, she managed with great dignity to lift herself up from poverty and ignorance . . . until she attained the place she now occupies as a living legend.”

Lamarque seemed humbled by the accolades heaped on her during the ceremony at Universal Studios. “I don’t know what to say. I am very emotional,” she said while a costumed Woody Woodpecker held an umbrella over her head to shade her from the midday sun.

Lamarque, who divides her time between Miami, Mexico and Argentina, said she is far from retirement. “No, not yet,” she said. “I don’t know what else I would do. . . . I was born an actress.”