Biography of Jorge Negrete | Actor and singer.

(Jorge Alberto Negrete Moreno;) Guanajuato, 1911 - Los Angeles, 1953) Mexican actor and singer whose personal appeal and unmistakable voice elevated him to the category of myth of the music of his country. This certainly contributed her film appearances and their tumultuous sentimental relationship with known stars of the moment. In a Mexico that still suffers from the after-effects of civil clashes of the revolution, the patriotic style of the songs of Jorge Negrete, in which values such as virility, the value or the family, is extolled gelled in a society's myths about those who reconstruct a national identity.

Jorge Negrete

At age 16, he entered the military college; Interestingly, Negrete seemed a promising career start: soon he graduated as Lieutenant of administration and, in 1930, was already named second captain and did military studies in Paris and Rome. But in addition to their military duties, Negrete took singing lessons with the prestigious Master José Pierson, which allowed him to start singing to the radio. When in 1930 he played for the first time in the chain of broadcasting XETR known opera arias and songs by Mexican composers, starting for that young, barely twenty years, a fast-paced and frantic race to fame and stardom.

After singing opera (became record some operas in 1932 under the pseudonym of Alberto Moreno) and act on the radio and in music magazines of his country, as the popular streets and more streets in the teatro Lirico (1935), with songs by maestro Juan S. Garrido, Negrete worked also on the most prestigious stages of United States, which jumped to major world theatres. The high quality of his voice and virile and distinguished appearance allowed him to win a quick celebrity in the Mexican and foreign stages. Figure so versatile, he devoted himself also to bullfighting, and in 1940 he wanted to participate in the second world war as a U.S. soldier, but was not allowed to enlist.

Jorge Negrete debuted in cinema with the godmother of the devil (1937) and since then took part in a total of thirty-eight films. Thus popularized the so-called comedy station-wagon, which embodied the character of the "charro cantor", the brave male, good guy, wealthy, womanizer, vital and arrogant. In his live and, of course the big screen performances, the charismatic actor never stopped interpreting this role. In a way arguably Jorge Negrete sang himself, since it popularized the role of charro both in fiction and in real life, stage in which his romances had nothing to envy of their film characters. Their marriages with Elisa Christy and Gloria Marín shipwrecked in the conflicts arising from the amorous dalliances sometimes and gossip others, and there was until his late third marriage with the bright Felix María, famous for his licentious and frivolous life, that Negrete would achieve a stable relationship.

Gloria Marín and Jorge Negrete in love letter (1943)

In all films, folk character, the art of charrería had a key role. And it is that the same title of some of their films, as If Adelita is out with another, which makes direct reference to a popular song of the Mexican Revolution, or not enough to be a charro, constituted a clear prelude to the argument that would develop on the screen. All the films script was perfectly planned and structured for personal display of Negrete as galan and also as an interpreter of Mexican songs endearing to the public, so all his films had a selection of musical themes. He played also, however, some melodramas and tapes of different nature, such as the Rapture, by Emilio Fernández.

His early films include La Valentina, Perjura, Juan without fear and Juntos pero no revueltos (1938). He received a resounding success with Ay Jalisco no te rajes!, film made in 1941 and directed by Joselito Rodríguez, whose interpretation received a year after filming the best male performance award, awarded by the Association of Mexican cinema journalists. It was followed by new successes as a great love story, so you want to on Jalisco (1942), directed by Fernando de Fuentes, El Peñón de las ánimas and land of passions (1942), When you want to a Mexican and also I eat that prickly pear (1944), one of the mythical titles of Negrete filmography.

His frantic activity continued in the following years with Canaima, until it lost Jalisco, is not enough to be a charro, Camino de Sacramento and Gran Casino (1947), film directed by Luis Buñuel. He subsequently carried out the second version of beyond at the Rancho Grande, If Adelita is out with another (1948), film of director Chano Urueta, possession (1949), two types of care, such for which (1952) and report and the Rapture (1953), their last two.

Negrete and María Felix in the Rapture (1953)

In his films and performances, Negrete used to spruce as an authentic charro, wearing embroidered jacket, tight pants, white shirt with tie and a brimmed hat broadband and high glass cone. On the stage and in the dish wandering with the arrogance that characterizes a hard Heartthrob of tender and sweet smile, always ready for the loving lance. And it is that probably the charm of the faithful female audience was in Negrete was knew combine their characters opposite traits, such as rough Heartthrob equipped at the same time from a languid, enigmatic look. Instantaneity that characterizes the art of photography was able to capture to perfection this charismatic duality of Negrete. In the photographs that immortalize you usually appears with the head looked, as if he challenged the world and singing, self-confident, with extreme gallantry. But Negrete can also be a lover jilted with deep wounds of love; his gaze then combines the boldness with a soft touch of insolence, that invites to the game of love, while his lips barely manage to hold a cigarette.

Despite the fact that during the more than twenty years of his career he showed a stereotypical image of caring and attentive, gallant with women, and also of hard Punisher if the occasion or the script demanded it, after this commercial and advertising, image designed to not let down an ever-growing audience, an unknown Jorge Negrete was hiding mature and aware of the dimension of his career. Been much of what the Mexican film industry due to Jorge Negrete. Indeed, he played the first Mexican film that incorporated the color on the screen (so you want to on Jalisco) and was directed by famous directors such as Luis Buñuel y Chano Urueta, as well as Fernando de Fuentes, one of the most important film directors of cine mexicano in the 1930s and 1940s.

Fernando de Fuentes, who had started the industrial age of the Mexican cinema with the first version of beyond at the Rancho Grande (1936), starring Tito Guízar, had put in addition to fashion with the film production of comedies rancheras, a genre that seemed made to the measure of the creative and artistic ability to Jorge Negrete. It is not surprising that Fernando de Fuentes and Negrete work together in unforgettable films so you want to on Jalisco (1942), until it lost Jalisco (1945) and the second version of beyond at the Rancho Grande (1948), maintaining the vitality of a genre which Negrete became an Ambassador of Mexican culture and folklore. Negrete also helped to found the Union of workers of the production film of the Mexican Republic, and the National Association of actors.

In his role as singer popular songs like the fair of the flowers, Jalisco, there in the Rancho Grande and Las Mañanitas, which already form part of the identifying culture of the country, opening up a school whose highest representatives include Aceves Mejía and Pedro Infante. In 1953, when it seemed to have come to the fullness and maturity both professional and personal and sentimental, died, shortly after being married (1952) with the Mexican actress María Felix, famous both for his performances in cinema as their amorous dalliances. Both had worked together for the first time in the film El Peñón de las ánimas, which was also the first film intervention from the then-young María Felix. One of the actors and singers more endearing and international Mexican film disappeared with his death. However, Jorge Negrete will always remain in the memory of moviegoers and his name is deservedly one of the most prominent positions of honor of Mexican cinematography and song.

Throughout his career, Negrete spread and popularized the music, songs and Mexican culture all over the world; to do so, it was worth inkjet its powerful and extraordinary voice, a genuine instrument that modular knew perfectly, shaping with deep and torn feeling both love and heartbreak, the tenderest affection or more sad and deeply-rooted resentment. Endearing character, possibly was his early death, which occurred when he was little more than forty years and was in the fullness of his personal and professional life, which granted him the grace of immortality, always remaining his name as a vivid memory in people's memories and the new generations.

Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas