Actress Helena Rojo dies at 79

Actress Helena Rojo died this Saturday at the age of 79 after a battle with cancer.

The soap opera, film and theater performer was distinguished by a long career that began in modeling in the 1960s, and which later developed in film and soap operas in the 1980s and 1990s.

Among her most memorable participations are the film

from 1975 and the telenovela

, from 1998. The actress won the Ariel Award twice for her roles in the films

(1972) and

(1981). ).

Rojo began modeling for advertisements for products such as soap, secretly from her family.

María Helena Lamadrid Ruiz was born in Mexico City in 1944. At a very young age she began studying theater acting alongside the historic directors Carlos Ancira and José Luis Ibañez.

Her first roles only involved a few lines, but in the early 1970s she launched a fruitful film career that included appearances in films such as

,

, and

.

The actress acknowledged in various interviews that she was harshly criticized for her transition from film to television.

“I had been very supported in the cinema, they took care of me, they took care of my texts, they took care of my lighting, they took care of my wardrobe,” she told journalist Oscar Uriel in 2021. Rojo was enthusiastic about the rise of soap operas and took the opportunity to enrich her range of interpretation. .

“As soon as I knew what I was going to do on television, I dedicated myself to listening to television and repeating everything I heard. When I managed to repeat it, my next challenge was to change what I was listening to and repeat it in a different tone,” he said in the same interview.

When Televisa produced most of the soap operas made in Mexico, Rojo was part of the television station's star productions.

Among her most notable works are

,

,

,

, and

.

She played roles of both protagonist and villain that added to her popularity in Mexico.

“I don't think many people can successfully endure being protagonists.

Being a protagonist is not easy at all,” she commented in an interview in 2021.

In parallel to his successes on television, Rojo appeared on weekends in various theater productions in Mexico City.

The actress acknowledged on multiple occasions that her successful career had an impact on her personal life.

She had three children and married three times, one of them with fellow actor Juan Ferrara.

Critical and demanding of the roles she played, the actress claimed that she avoided seeing the final result of the productions in which she worked.

“I don't like to sit and watch what I do.

“I don't like movie premieres, I don't watch my soap operas,” she told journalist Mara Patricia Castañeda in 2022.

Her last work was in the 2023 telenovela

, in which she played Ángeles, the grandmother of a family.

“Halfway through the soap opera she found out that she had this cancer and that it was already very advanced.

She told me that she needed to be absent and we saw how the character could disappear in a justified way, but she insisted on finishing this work.

It was a very brave decision,” recalls producer Rosy Ocampo in

.

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