Alma Leonor Beltran (August 22, 1919 – June 9, 2007) was a Mexican-American film, stage and television actress. She appeared in 82 films between 1945 and 2002. In addition to her film roles, Beltran played over 80 roles in film and television, often in smaller roles, always as Mexican women, and then later in her career, as matriarch types. She is best known as Mrs. Fuentes, mother of Julio Fuentes, on the NBC-TV series Sanford and Son.
Career Beltran's career began in 1940 with her dancing, singing, and playing a guitar.
In 1953 Beltran had a six-days-a-week Spanish-language broadcast on radio station KALI. Programmed for housewives, the show included one drama a week that Beltran wrote. Other segments featured fashion news, household hints, poems, and news about Mexico.
The theater was Beltran's first love. She said, "I would never want to get away from the theater" adding that the interaction between audiences and performers was essential to a person's development as an artist. In July 1942 she was a new member of the company at the Padua Hills Theatre. She starred in Miracle of Tepeyac Hill at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles on November 27, 1954. More than 3,000 people attended the play, which was a fundraising effort for completion of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Her other work on stage included portraying Matilde in Cuando La Vida Florece (When Life Blooms) at the Teatro Intimo in Los Angeles in 1969. When she performed in The Subject Was Roses at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1983, a newspaper review said, "Alma Bertran, perhaps the strongest portrayal in the cast, captures the universal qualities of mothering".
Beltran portrayed the grandmother on the situation comedy Sanchez of Belair on the USA network, and she made commercials for TV.
Personal life and death Beltran was married to Orlando Bertran. She died in Northridge, California, on June 9, 2007, aged 87, due to natural causes. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.
Filmography
+Film credits Year Title Role Notes1945Pan-AmericanaMiss GuatelmalaUncredited1945MexicanaModern Girl1945Yolanda and the ThiefMaidUncredited1947HoneymoonMaidUncredited1947Carnival In Costa RicaBit partUncredited1948The Loves of CarmenTrinket SellerUncredited1948He Walked by NightMiss Montvalo(Liquor Store proprietor)Uncredited1953SomberoParty GuestUncredited1953Gun Fury2nd Mexican girlUncredited1954Jubilee TrailServant girlUncredited1955The Sea ChaseBeauticianUncredited1956The Bottom of the BottleCantina HostessUncredited1956SantiagoCuban WomanUncredited1957Dragoon Wells MassacreStation Agent's wife1968BlueCantina Proprietess1971Red Sky at MorningExcilda Montoya1971Josie's CastleTijuana Saleslady1971The Marriage of a Young StockbrokerRaquel1972 1972They Only Kill Their MastersRosa1974The Parallax ViewJoy Holder1975A Woman for All MenAnita1976Marathon ManLaundress1977Another Man, Another ChanceMexican WidowUncredited1978House CallsGina1980Herbie Goes BananasGeneral's Wife1980Oh, God! Book IIRosa, Paula's Housekeeper1981Zoot SuitLowrider's Mother1985Into the NightCleaning woman1986Nobody's FoolJennieva1987Love Among ThievesAirline ClerkTV movie1989Trust MeImelda1989Immediate FamilySpanish woman1990Angel TownNeighbor's Wife1990GhostWoman Ghost1994Night FireMaria2000LuminariasMary2002 Buying the CowHispanic woman(final film role)
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