Lupe Velez: Her Life and Tragic End

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Lupe Velez. 1908-1944.

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Blog Created: 11-4-2025

Last Updated: 11-5-2025

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María Guadalupe "Lupe" Villalobos Vélez (July 18, 1908 – December 14, 1944) was a Mexican actress, singer, and dancer during the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

Vélez began her career as a performer in Mexican vaudeville in the early 1920s. After moving to the United States, she made her first film appearance in a short in 1927. By the end of the decade, she was acting in full-length silent films and had progressed to leading roles in The Gaucho (1927), Lady of the Pavements (1928) and Wolf Song (1929), among others. Vélez made the transition to sound films without difficulty. She was one of the first successful Mexican actresses in Hollywood. During the 1930s, her explosive screen persona was exploited in successful comedic films like Hot Pepper (1933), Strictly Dynamite (1934) and Hollywood Party (1934). In the 1940s, Vélez's popularity peaked while appearing as Carmelita Fuentes in eight Mexican Spitfire films, a series created to capitalize on her fiery personality.

Nicknamed The Mexican Spitfire by the media, Vélez had a personal life that was as colorful as her screen persona. She had several highly-publicized romances with Hollywood actors and a stormy marriage with Johnny Weissmuller. Vélez died at age 36 in December 1944 of an intentional overdose of the barbiturate drug Seconal. Her death and the circumstances surrounding it were the subject of speculation and controversy.

Life and career

Childhood and education ~

Vélez was born in the city of San Luis Potosí in Mexico, the daughter of Jacobo Villalobos Reyes, a colonel in the armed forces of the dictator Porfirio Diaz, and his wife Josefina Vélez, an opera singer according to some sources, or vaudeville singer according to others. She was one of five children; she had three sisters: Mercedes, Reina and Josefina and a brother, Emigdio. The Villalobos were considered a prominent, financially comfortable family in San Luis Potosí. According to Vélez's second cousin, they lived in a large home, and most of the male members received a college education.

At the age of 13, her parents sent her to study at Our Lady of the Lake (now Our Lady of the Lake University) in San Antonio, Texas, where Vélez learned to speak English and dance. She later admitted that she liked dance class, but was otherwise a poor student.

Beginnings in Mexico and arrival in the United States (1924–26) ~

Vélez began her career in Mexican revues in the early 1920s. She initially performed under her paternal surname of Villalobos, but after her father returned home from the war (he did not die in combat as some sources state), he was outraged that his daughter had decided to become a stage performer. She chose her maternal surname Vélez as her stage name. Their mother introduced Vélez and her sister Josefina to the popular Spanish Mexican vedette María Conesa, "La Gatita Blanca". Vélez debuted in a show led by Conesa, where she sang "Oh Charley, My Boy" and danced the shimmy. In 1924, Aurelio Campos, a young pianist and friend of the Vélez sisters, recommended Vélez to stage producers Carlos Ortega and Manuel Castro. Ortega and Castro were preparing a season revue at the Regis Theatre, and hired Vélez to join the company in March 1925. Later that year, Vélez starred in the revues Mexican Rataplan and ¡No lo tapes! (both parodies of the Bataclan's shows in Paris). Her suggestive singing and provocative dancing was a hit with audiences, and she soon established herself as one of the main stars of vaudeville in Mexico. After a year and a half, Vélez left the revue after the manager refused to give her a raise. She then joined the Teatro Principal, but was fired after three months due to her "feisty attitude". Vélez was quickly hired by the Teatro Lirico, where her salary rose to 100 pesos a day.

Vélez, whose volatile and spirited personality and feuds with other performers were often covered by the Mexican press, also honed her ability for garnering publicity. Her most bitter rivals included the Mexican vedettes Celia Padilla, Celia Montalván, and Delia Magaña. Called La Niña Lupe because of her youth, Vélez soon established herself as one of the main stars of vaudeville in Mexico. Among her admirers were notable Mexican poets and writers like José Gorostiza and Renato Leduc.

In 1926, Frank A. Woodyard, an American who had seen Vélez perform, recommended her to stage director Richard Bennett (the father of actresses Joan and Constance Bennett). Bennett was looking for an actress to portray a Mexican cantina singer in his upcoming play The Dove. He sent Vélez a telegram inviting her to Los Angeles to appear in the play. Vélez had been planning to go to Cuba to perform, but quickly changed her plans and traveled to Los Angeles. However, upon arrival, she discovered that she had been replaced by another actress.

While in Los Angeles, she met the comedian Fanny Brice. Brice was taken with Vélez and later said she had never met a more fascinating personality. She promoted Vélez's career as a dancer and recommended her to Flo Ziegfeld, who hired her to perform in New York City. While Vélez was preparing to leave Los Angeles, she received a call from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer Harry Rapf, who offered her a screen test. Producer and director Hal Roach saw Vélez's screen test and hired her for a small role in the comic Laurel and Hardy short Sailors, Beware! She advanced to the ingenue role opposite Charley Chase in Roach's two-reel comedy What Women Did for Me (1927).

Breakthrough and success (1927–38) ~

Later that year, she did a screen test for the upcoming Douglas Fairbanks full-length film The Gaucho. Fairbanks was impressed by Vélez and he quickly signed her to a contract. Upon its release in 1927, The Gaucho was a hit and critics were duly impressed with Vélez's ability to hold her own with Fairbanks, who was well-known for his spirited acting and impressive stunts.

Douglas Fairbanks c1918.

Vélez made her second major film, Stand and Deliver (1928), directed by Cecil B. DeMille. That same year, she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars. In 1929, Vélez appeared in Lady of the Pavements, directed by D. W. Griffith and Where East Is East, playing a young Chinese woman. In the Western film Wolf Song, directed by Victor Fleming, she appears with Gary Cooper. Because she was regularly cast as "exotic" or "ethnic" women that were volatile and hot-tempered, gossip columnists took to referring to Vélez as "The Mexican Hurricane", "The Mexican Wildcat", "The Mexican Madcap", "Whoopee Lupe" and "The Hot Tamale".

WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1925.

By 1929, the film industry was transitioning from silents to sound films. Several stars of the era saw their careers abruptly end due to heavy accents or voices that recorded poorly. Studio executives predicted that Vélez's accent would probably hamper her ability to make the transition. That idea was dispelled after she appeared in her first all-talking picture in 1929, the Rin Tin Tin vehicle Tiger Rose. The film was a hit and Vélez's sound career was established.

With the arrival of talkies, Vélez appeared in a series of Pre-Code films like Hell Harbor (directed by Henry King), The Storm (1930, directed by William Wyler), and the crime drama East Is West, with Edward G. Robinson (1930). In 1931, she appeared in her second film for Cecil B. DeMille, Squaw Man, with Warner Baxter, and in Resurrection, directed by Edwin Carewe. In 1932, Vélez filmed The Cuban Love Song (1931), with the popular singer Lawrence Tibbett. That same year, she had a supporting role in Kongo (a sound remake of West of Zanzibar), with Walter Huston. She also starred in Spanish-language versions of some of her movies produced by Universal Studios like Resurrección (1931, the Spanish version of Resurrection), and Hombres en mi vida (1932, the Spanish version of Men in Her Life). Vélez found her niche in comedy, playing beautiful, volatile characters.

In February 1932, Vélez took a break from her film career and traveled to New York City where she was signed by Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. to take over the role of "Conchita" in the musical revue Hot-Cha!. The show also starred Bert Lahr, Eleanor Powell and Buddy Rogers.

In 1933, Vélez appeared in the films The Half-Naked Truth with Lee Tracy and Hot Pepper, with Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe. Later that year, she returned to Broadway where she starred with Jimmy Durante in the musical revue Strike Me Pink. She was reunited with Durante in three 1934 movie comedies, Palooka, Strictly Dynamite and, most famously, Hollywood Party. That same year, Vélez was cast as "Slim Girl" in Laughing Boy with Ramón Novarro. The film was quietly released and largely ignored. The few reviews it received panned the film, but praised Vélez's performance. She had more success with her brief appearance in the all-comedy-cast film Hollywood Party, where she has an egg-breaking routine with Laurel and Hardy.

Although Vélez was a popular actress, MGM Studios did not renew her contract. Over the next few years, Vélez worked for various studios as a freelance actress; she also spent two years in England, where she filmed The Morals of Marcus and Gypsy Melody (both 1936). She returned to Los Angeles the following year, where she signed with RKO for the Wheeler & Woolsey comedy High Flyers (1937, featuring some of her celebrity impersonations).

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey from the film Peach O'Reno (1931).

Vélez's last Broadway performance was in the 1938 musical You Never Know, by Cole Porter. The show received poor reviews from critics, but received a large amount of publicity due to the feud between Vélez and fellow cast member Libby Holman. Holman was also irritated by the attention Vélez garnered from the show with her impressions of several actresses, including Gloria Swanson, Katharine Hepburn, and Shirley Temple. The feud came to a head during a performance in New Haven, Connecticut, after Vélez punched Holman between curtain calls and gave her a black eye. The feud effectively ended the show.

Upon her return to Mexico City in 1938 to star in her first Mexican film, Vélez was greeted by ten thousand fans. The film La Zandunga directed by Fernando de Fuentes, co-starring Mexican actor Arturo de Córdova, was a critical and financial success, and Vélez was slated to appear in four more Mexican films. She instead returned to Los Angeles and went back to work for RKO.

Continued success and final roles (1939–44) ~

In 1939, Vélez was cast with Leon Errol and Donald Woods in The Girl from Mexico. Despite being a low-budget B picture, it was a hit with audiences and RKO re-teamed her with Errol and Woods for the sequel Mexican Spitfire. That film was also a success and led to a series of Spitfire films (eight in all). In the series, Vélez portrays Carmelita Lindsay, a temperamental yet friendly Mexican singer married to Dennis "Denny" Lindsay (Woods), an elegant American advertising executive. The Spitfire films rejuvenated Vélez's career. Moreover, they were films in which a Latina headlined for eight movies straight –a true rarity.

Lupe Vélez was Hollywood's number-one Latina by this time, and producer-director Mark Sandrich asked her to headline a live stage show in Ensenada, Mexico. This was in preparation for the Hollywood Victory Caravan tour, and the March 22, 1942 show featured many of the Caravan participants: Laurel and Hardy, James Cagney, Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, and Joan Bennett, among others. Vélez emceed the show as well, addressing the audience of 2,500 Mexican servicemen in Spanish.

Eleanor Roosevelt on the White House lawn with stars and organizers of the Hollywood Victory Caravan (April 30, 1942).

In addition to the Mexican Spitfire series, she was cast in other musical and comedy features for RKO, Universal Pictures, and Columbia Pictures. Some of these films were Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga (with Leon Errol, 1941), Playmates (with John Barrymore, 1941), and Redhead from Manhattan (1943). The last film has Vélez playing the dual role of a Broadway star and her visiting twin sister, and offers the viewer a rare chance to hear Lupe Vélez's actual speaking voice. She plays the visiting sister with her customary, exaggerated Mexican accent, but plays the actress with her own, gently inflected voice, betraying only a trace of an accent.

In 1943, the final film in the Spitfire series, Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event, was released. By that time, the mistaken-identity scripts and situations had been repeating themselves, and the novelty of the series had begun to wane, but Vélez's energy and Errol's clowning never flagged.

Vélez co-starred with Eddie Albert in a 1943 romantic comedy, Ladies' Day, about an actress and a baseball player. In 1944, Vélez returned to Mexico to star in an adaptation of Émile Zola's novel Nana, which was well received. It would be her final film. After filming wrapped, Vélez returned to Los Angeles and began preparing for another stage role in New York.

Personal life

Public image and personality ~

Throughout her career, Vélez's onscreen persona of a hot-tempered, lusty "wild" woman was closely tied to her off-screen personality. The press often referred to her by such names as "The Mexican Spitfire", "The Mexican It girl" and "The Mexican Kitten". Publicly promoted with the "Whoopee Lupe" persona that tried to define her, she dismissed the idea that she was uncontrollably wild. In an interview, she said:

"What I attribute my success?, I think, simply, because I'm different. I'm not beautiful, but I have beautiful eyes and know exactly what to do with them. Although the public thinks that I'm a very wild girl. Actually I'm not. I'm just me, Lupe Vélez, simple and natural Lupe. If I'm happy, I dance and sing and acted like a child. And if something irritates me, I cry and sob. Someone called that 'personality'. The Personality is nothing more than behave with others as you really are. If I tried to look and act like Norma Talmadge, the great dramatic actress, or like Corinne Griffith, the aristocrat of the movies, or like Mary Pickford, the sweet and gentle Mary, I would be nothing more than an imitation. I just want to be myself: Lupe Vélez."

Vélez's off-screen behavior blurred the line between her onscreen persona and her real personality. After her death, journalist Bob Thomas recalled that Vélez was a "lively part of the Hollywood scene" who wore loud clothing and made as much noise as possible. She attended boxing matches every Friday night at the Hollywood Legion Stadium and would stand on her ringside seat and scream at the fighters.

Bob Thomas in 1963.

Vélez's temper and jealousy in her often tempestuous romantic relationships were well documented and became tabloid fodder, often overshadowing her career. Vélez was straightforward with the press and was regularly contacted by gossip columnists for stories about her romantic exploits. One such incident included Vélez chasing her lover Gary Cooper around with a knife during an argument and cutting him severely enough to require stitches. After their breakup, Vélez attempted to shoot Cooper while he boarded a train. During her marriage to actor Johnny Weissmuller, stories of their frequent physical fights were regularly reported in the press. Vélez reportedly inflicted scratches, bruises, and love-bites on Weissmuller during their fights and "passionate love-making".

Vélez often targeted fellow actresses whom she deemed rivals, professionally or otherwise, a habit which began back in her vaudeville days and continued in films. Vélez's image was that of a wild, highly sexualized woman who spoke her mind and was not considered a "lady", while fellow Mexican actress Dolores del Río projected herself as sensual, but elegant and restrained, often hailing from aristocratic roots. Vélez hated del Río and called her a "bird of bad omen". Del Río was terrified to meet her in public places. When this happened, Vélez was scathing and aggressive. Vélez openly mimicked del Río, ironically making fun of her elegance. Vélez also disliked Marlene Dietrich, whom she suspected of having an affair with Gary Cooper while filming Morocco in 1930. Her rivalries with Jetta Goudal, Lilyan Tashman and Libby Holman were well documented. In retaliation, Vélez would perform wicked impersonations of the women she disliked at Hollywood parties. She made these imitations part of her comic repertoire, exaggerating the facial and vocal mannerisms of Marlene Dietrich, Fanny Brice, Gloria Swanson, Katharine Hepburn, Simone Simon, and Shirley Temple.

Relationships and marriage ~

Lupe Vélez was involved in several highly publicized and often stormy relationships. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, she was linked to actors Tom Mix, Charlie Chaplin, and Clark Gable. Her first long-term, high-profile relationship was with Gary Cooper. Vélez and Cooper met while filming 1929's Wolf Song and began a two-year relationship that was passionate and often stormy. When angered, Vélez was reported to have physically assaulted Cooper. Cooper eventually ended the relationship in mid-1931, at the behest of his mother Alice, who, after meeting her, strongly disapproved of Vélez. With plans to marry him gone, she spoke to the press in 1931: "I turned Cooper down because his parents didn't want me to marry him and because the studio thought it would injure his career. Now it's over, I'm glad I feel so free ... I must be free. I know men too well they are all the same, no? If you love them they want to be boss. I will never have a boss." The rocky relationship had taken its toll on Cooper, who had lost 45 pounds and was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Paramount Pictures ordered him to take a vacation to recuperate and while he was boarding the train, Vélez showed up at the station and fired a pistol at him.

After her breakup with Cooper, Vélez began a short-lived relationship with actor John Gilbert. They began dating in late 1931 while Gilbert was separated from his third wife Ina Claire. Rumors of an engagement were fueled by the couple, but Gilbert ended the relationship in early 1932, and attempted to reconcile with Claire.

Shortly thereafter, Vélez met Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller while the two were in New York. They dated on and off when they returned to Los Angeles, while Vélez also dated actor Errol Flynn. On October 8, 1933, Vélez and Weissmuller were married in Las Vegas. There were reports of domestic violence and public fights. In July 1934, after ten months of marriage, Vélez filed for divorce citing "cruelty". She withdrew the petition a week later after reconciling with Weissmuller. On January 3, 1935, she filed for divorce a second time and was granted an interlocutory decree. That decree was dismissed when the couple reconciled a month later. In August 1938, Vélez filed for divorce for a third time, again charging Weissmuller with cruelty. Their divorce was finalized in August 1939.

After the divorce became final, Vélez began dating actor/polo player Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in late 1940. They got engaged, but never married. In late 1941, she became involved with author Erich Maria Remarque. Actress Luise Rainer recalled that Remarque told her "with the greatest of glee" that he found Vélez's volatility wonderful when he recounted to her an occasion where Vélez became so angry with him that she took her shoe off and hit him with it. After dating Remarque, Vélez was linked to boxers Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey.

In 1943, Vélez began an affair with her La Zandunga co-star Arturo de Córdova. de Córdova had recently moved to Los Angeles after signing with Paramount. Despite the fact that De Córdova was married to Mexican actress Enna Arana with whom he had four children, Vélez granted an interview to gossip columnist Louella Parsons in September 1943 and announced that the two were engaged. She told Parsons that she planned to retire after marrying de Córdova to "cook ... and keep house". Vélez ended the engagement in early 1944, after de Córdova's wife refused to give him a divorce.

Louella Parsons in 1937.

Vélez then met and began dating a struggling young Austrian actor named Harald Maresch, whose stage name was Harald Ramond. In September 1944, she discovered she was pregnant with Ramond's child. She announced their engagement in late November 1944. On December 10, four days before her death, Vélez announced she had ended the engagement and kicked Ramond out of her home.

Lupe Valez with Harald Ramond.

Death ~

On the evening of December 13, 1944, Vélez dined with two friends, the silent-film star Estelle Taylor and Venita Oakie. In the early morning hours of December 14, Vélez retired to her bedroom, where she consumed 75 Seconal pills and a glass of brandy. Her secretary, Beulah Kinder, said that she found the actress's body on her bed later that morning. A suicide note addressed to Harald Ramond was found nearby. It read:

"To Harald, May God forgive you and forgive me too, but I prefer to take my life away and our baby's before I bring him with shame or killing him. – Lupe."

On the back of the note, Vélez wrote:

"How could you, Harald, fake such a great love for me and our baby when all the time, you didn't want us? I see no other way out for me, so goodbye, and good luck to you, Love Lupe."

The day after Vélez's death, Harald Ramond told the press that he was "so confused" by Vélez's suicide, and claimed that even though the two had broken up, he had agreed to marry Vélez. He admitted that he once asked Vélez to sign an agreement stating that he was only marrying her to "give the baby a name", but claimed he only did so because he and Vélez had had a fight, and he was in a "terrible temper". Actress Estelle Taylor, who was with Vélez from 9:00 the previous night until 3:30 the morning Vélez died, told the press that Vélez had told her of her pregnancy, but said she would rather kill herself than have an abortion. Beulah Kinder, Vélez's secretary, later told investigators that after Vélez broke off the relationship with Ramond, she planned to go to Mexico to have her baby. Kinder said Vélez soon changed her mind after concluding that Ramond "faked" the relationship and considered having an abortion.

Estelle Taylor in 1930.

The day after Vélez's death, the Los Angeles County coroner requested that an inquest be opened to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death. On December 16, the coroner dropped the request, after determining that Vélez had written the notes, and that she had intended to kill herself. On December 22, a funeral for Vélez was held at the mortuary at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Among the pallbearers were Vélez's ex-husband, Johnny Weissmuller, and actor Gilbert Roland. After the service, Vélez's body was sent by train to Mexico City, where a second service was held on December 27. Her body was then interred at Panteón Civil de Dolores Cemetery.

Gilbert Roland in 1952.

Harold Ramond, Austrian born actor pauses before the body of Lupe Velez on Dec. 22, 1944 to pay final homage to the Mexican actress who in a farewell note named him as the father.

Alternative theories and urban legend ~

Despite the coroner's ruling that Vélez died by suicide to avoid the shame of bearing an illegitimate child, some authors have speculated that this was not entirely true.

In the book From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture, Rosa-Linda Fregoso wrote that Vélez was known for her defiance of contemporary moral convention, and that it seems unlikely that she could not have reconciled having a child out of wedlock. Fregoso believes that in the final year of her life, Vélez exhibited signs of extreme mania and depression. Fregoso goes on to speculate that Vélez's death may have been the result of an untreated mental illness such as bipolar disorder.

Robert Slatzer (who later claimed to have been secretly married to Marilyn Monroe) claimed that a few weeks before Vélez's death, he interviewed her at her home, and she confided in him that she was pregnant with Gary Cooper's child (by that time, Cooper was married to socialite Veronica "Rocky" Balfe). According to Slatzer, Vélez said that Cooper refused to acknowledge the child, believing that Harald Ramond was the father. After Vélez died, Slatzer said he asked Cooper about the situation, and Cooper confirmed that it was possible he might have been the father. Slatzer further claimed that he also interviewed Clara Bow (who had also dated Cooper in the 1920s), who revealed that shortly before Vélez's death, Cooper called her and screamed that he was going to kill Harald Ramond for impregnating Vélez. Slatzer claimed that Bow told him that she never believed Vélez's baby was fathered by Ramond, and that she was convinced that Vélez had attempted to get Ramond to marry her to protect Cooper's reputation. Biographer Michelle Vogel speculated that if Cooper was the father, his rejection of Vélez and their child, coupled with the idea of having to raise a child alone, may have sent Vélez "over the edge".

In the 2002 book Tarzan, My Father, Johnny Weissmuller, Jr., recounted the events surrounding Vélez's death as a mystery caused by an attempt to "put a lid" on what happened. It states her housekeeper discovered her body and called Bo Roos, Vélez's business manager, who called his friend and Beverly Hills Police Chief Anderson to the scene. The book states after Vélez arranged to meet Ramond, decorated her room, and dressed in a negligee, her ingestion of the barbiturate Seconal was either to calm her nerves before meeting him, or a failed dramatic gesture to scare him. The book also suggested the baby was fathered possibly by Cooper, not Ramond.

The recounting of Vélez's death by Kenneth Anger in his book Hollywood Babylon has become urban legend. In Anger's telling, Vélez planned to stage an elaborate suicide scene atop her satin bed, but the Seconal did not mix well with the "Mexi-Spice Last Supper" she had eaten earlier that evening. As a result, she became violently ill, stumbled to the bathroom to vomit, slipped on the bathroom floor tile, and fell headfirst into the toilet, where she subsequently drowned. Anger claimed that Vélez's "chambermaid" Juanita found her the next morning. Despite the fact that his version of events contradicts published reports and the official ruling, his story is often repeated as fact or for comedic effect – it was recounted in the pilot episode of the television comedy series Frasier, "The Good Son"; referred to in an episode of the cartoon The Simpsons; and mentioned in the song "I Wanna O.D." by the Demolition Doll Rods. Vélez's biographer, Michelle Vogel, points out that it would have been "virtually impossible" for Vélez to have "stumbled to the bathroom" or even get off her bed after having consumed such a large amount of Seconal. This barbiturate is noted for being fast-acting even in small doses, and Vélez's death was probably instantaneous. Her death certificate lists "Seconal poisoning" due to "ingestion of Seconal" as the cause of death, not drowning. Further, there was also no evidence to suggest Vélez had vomited. In 2013, the first publication of a police photo of Vèlez's body on the floor of her bedroom was published.

Legacy ~

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Vélez has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard.

In 2017, artist Emilio Borjas's sculpture in honor of Vélez was placed in the Garden of San Sebastian, the neighborhood where the actress was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

In popular culture

Films and television ~

- In 1949, the Los Angeles Daily News reported that the Puerto Rican dancer Marquita Rivera was chosen to star in a biographical film based on the life of the actress. However, due to the controversy over Vélez's suicide at that time, the film was never produced. The Cuban rumbera Amalia Aguilar was also in talks to star in a film about Vélez, but later decided not to work in Hollywood, and returned to Mexico. In 1965 Latina actress Estelita Rodriguez, who had once played Spitfire-like ingenues for Republic Pictures, announced that she would star in a screen biography of Vélez, but the project died with Rodriguez in March 1966.

- Andy Warhol's underground film, Lupe (1965), starring Edie Sedgwick as Vélez, is loosely based on the night of her suicide. The film features Sedgwick (in her last film role for Warhol) preparing a "beautiful suicide" only to end up drowning in the toilet bowl.

- In August 2009, the short film Forever Lupe premiered at the Seattle Latino Film Festival. Directed by Martín Caballero, the film is based on the life of Vélez and features Mexican actress Marieli Romo as Vélez.

- In 2012, it was reported that Mexican director Carlos Carrera was preparing to film the life of Lupe Vélez in a Mexican-American production. Mexican actress Ana de la Reguera was chosen to play Vélez.

- Vélez is played by the Cuban-Venezuelan actress María Conchita Alonso in the 2014 film Return to Babylon.

- In the pilot episode of the sitcom Frasier, "The Good Son", Frasier Crane's producer, Roz Doyle, tries to improve Frasier's outlook on his life by telling him the story of Lupe Vélez, who she says "decided to take one final stab at immortality". Roz re-tells the urban legend version of Vélez's suicide, reminding Frasier that "even though things might not happen like we planned, they can work out anyway". When Frasier asks "how it worked out for Lupe", Roz tells him that "all she wanted was to be remembered. Will you ever forget that story?" Later in the episode, Frasier asks a caller to his radio show: "Have you ever heard of the story of Lupe Vélez?"

- In the 1997 The Simpsons episode "Homer's Phobia", guest star John Waters takes the Simpson family, sans Homer, on a driving tour of Springfield's shopping district. During the tour, he points out a store where he claims Vélez bought the toilet she drowned in.

Other media ~

Lupe Vélez was featured on the initial issue (no. 1) of the Italian puzzle weekly La Settimana Enigmistica, issued on January 23, 1932. This initiated the tradition, still continued presently by the publisher of the magazine, of featuring the picture of a star on the front page puzzle: a woman and a man on alternate weeks.

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Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) in a promotional portrait for 'Where East Is East', directed by Tod Browning, 1929. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images.

Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) wearing an evening dress and gold jewellery, circa 1930. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images.

Publicity portrait of Mexican actor Lupe Velez (1908-1944) from the mid 1930's, United States. (Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/De Carvalho Collection/Getty Images).

Promotional portrait of Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944), nicknamed the 'Mexican Spitfire,' as she poses with her arms crossed over her shoulders, early 1940s. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images).

Mexican actress, Lupe Velez, wearing a black sleeveless dress, with a white beret, standing amid the tall grasses of the pampas, smiling, with one arm extended in front of her, looking to the side (Photo by Edward Steichen/Condé Nast via Getty Images).

UNITED STATES - JUNE 01: Mexican actress, Lupe Velez, with black hair parted in the center, and stylized eyebrows, wearing an ornate dress, with a white, elaborate lace headdress, smiling coyly, with her hand placed over her mouth (Photo by Edward Steichen/Conde Nast via Getty Images).

Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) posing in a lace camisole, circa 1930. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images).

Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) wearing an evening dress and gold jewelry, circa 1930. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images).

Informal full-length portrait of actress Lupe Velez waving and standing on the railing of an automobile parked along a curb in Chicago, Illinois, holding on to an open door of the automobile, 1929. Text on a sign on the front of the automobile reads, in part: Lupe Velez. Three people are standing in the background, and people are visible sitting and watching through windows of an automobile driving by. A streetcar is driving in the background. (Photo by Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images).

Mexican film actress Lupe Velez leaving Sante Fe Station for a trip to New York, ca. 1929. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images).

circa 1930: Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944), voluptuous star of several Hal Roach two-reelers. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images).

10th July 1933: Mexican born leading lady of the 1930's, Lupe Velez (1908-1944), born Mar a Guadalupe Villalobos V+lez, at MGM film studios. (Photo via John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images).

A publicity photo of Mexican actress Lupe Vélez from 1941.

Actress Lupe Velez (Photo by John Springer Collection-CORBIS-Corbis via Getty Images).

Actress Lupe Velez puckering her lips and closing her eyes, Chicago, Illinois, 1929. (Photo by Chicago History Museum-Getty Images).

Lupe Valez in 1929.

Mexican-born actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944), circa 1930. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection-Getty Images).

Portrait by William A. Fraker for The New Movie Magazine, 1930.

Publicity image for an Argentinean magazine, 1933.

(Original Caption) 6/23/1933-Beverly Hills, CA- Lupe Velez, torrid star of stage and screen, Lupe's sister, and Johnny Weismuller, former Olympic swimming champion who interpreted the role of "Tarzan" in a recent movie, pictured during a canter on a Beverly Hills bridle paths. Lupe but recently returned here after a long engagement in a New York revue.

(Original Caption) Lupe And Her Baby. Lupe Velez, the movie actress, became a mother on Oct. 12, by adopting the four-year-old daughter of her sister, Joan Delvelle, through legal proceedings in Mexico City. This photo shows Lupe and her adopted daughter at her home at Beverly Hills.

(Original Caption) 6/14/1933-Burbank, CA- Lupe Velez, tempestuous Mexican film star, embraces her adopted daughter Conchita, upon arriving at United Airport in Burbank, California, after flying from New York on the new 20-hour coast-to-coast schedule of the line.

Johnny Weissmuller. (Tarzan).

Mexican actress Lupe Vélez and the actor Johnny Weissmüller. 1935. Photograph. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

(Original Caption) Johnny Weismuller and his wife, the fiery Lupe Velez, pictured as they attended a movie party held by the Mayfair Club at the Ambassador Hotel, putting to rest all rumors of an impending divorce.

(Original Caption) Tarzan and his mate, otherwise, Johnny Weissmuller and Lupe Velez, were snapped as they absorbed some atmosphere, and took food, at the new nocturnal playground of the local elite in the Ambassador Hotel.

(Original Caption) 6/23/1933-Los Angeles, CA- Johnny Weismuller and Lupe Velez are shown at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood to attend the premier performance of Gregory Ratoff in "Twentieth Century."

Vélez and Johnny Weissmuller photographed shortly after their wedding in October 1933.

Lupe and Johnny at Paddington Station in London. October 5, 1934.

Lupe and Johnny pictured at Palm Springs, the desert movie oasis. Johnny seems to be preparing Lupe for her first spill on a bicycle.

Actor Johnny Weissmuller teaching actress Lupe Velez how to ride a bicycle, December 22nd 1932. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

(Original Caption) 12/26/1932-Palm Springs, CA: Johnny (Tarzan) Weismuller and Lupe Velez, fiery mexican Tamale, shown at the popular El Mirador Hotel, Palm Springs, CA, for the Christmas holidays. Since his divorce from Bobbe Arnst, Weismuller has been in the company of Lupe.

Johnny and Lupe 1938.

HOLLYWOOD, CA - CIRCA 1930: Engagement between the swimmer actor Johnny Weissmuller, star of 'Tarzan', and Mexican actress Lupe Velez in Hollywood, California in the United States, circa 1930. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystine via Getty Images).

circa 1934: Lupe Velez, formerly Guadeloupe Velez de Villalobos (1908 - 1944) the leading lady who was married to actor Johnny Weissmuller from 1933 - 1938 and committed suicide when pregnant after a love affair turned sour. Pictured in happier times with her husband at a party. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

Vintage souvenir postcard published 1936 or 1937 from the Movie Star Homes series, depicting mansions and grand beach estates of Hollywood celebrities in Los Angeles, California, here a view of the grand Beverly Hills estate of famed Mexican actress Lupe Velez (Photo by Nextrecord Archives / Getty Images).

Mexican actress Lupe Velez, wearing a long gingham dress with a white collar, in the den of her home in Beverly Hills, California, circa 1940. Velez calls the room her 'Mexican room', as it is decorated with Mexican pottery, dolls and rugs. (Photo by Clarence Sinclair Bull/Archive Photos/Getty Images).

circa 1937: Lupe Velez, formerly Guadeloupe Velez de Villalobos (1908 - 1944) the leading lady who was married to actor Johnny Weissmuller from 1933 - 1938 and committed suicide when pregnant after a love affair turned sour. She is reclining on a couch in her den at home which she calls her 'Mexican room'. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images).

Lupe poses on the bed that she would later die on.

Lupe in her shoe closet.

Portrait of Lupe Velez, a Mexican film actress at her home, Beverly Hills, California, early to mid 20th century. (Photo by Clarence Sinclair Bull/Visual Studies Workshop/Getty Images).

11th October 1933: Hollywood actor Johnny Weissmuller (1904 - 1984) larking about with his wife Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) on a diving board. (Photo via John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images).

Mexican actress Lupe Vélez with her pet poodle. 1929. Photograph. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images).

Portrait of Lupe Velez, a Mexican film actress at her home, Beverly Hills, California, early to mid 20th century. (Photo by Clarence Sinclair Bull/Visual Studies Workshop/Getty Images).

Collectible Carreras tobacco card, Famous Film Stars series, published in 1935, depicting glamorous Hollywood cinema stars, here actress Lupe Velez in character as an belly dancer or Middle Eastern dancer (Photo by Nextrecord Archives / Getty Images).

Lupe Velez plays the role of a native woman, Tula in the 1932 film Kongo. (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images).

Fairbanks, Douglas, Sr. - Actor, director, screenwriter, producer, USA - Scene from the movie 'The Gaucho'' with Lupe Velez Directed by: F. Richard Jones USA 1927 Produced by: Elton Corporation .

circa 1931: Charles Bickford (1889 - 1967) and Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) in a scene from the film 'White Man', directed by Cecil B DeMille. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

circa 1931: Warner Baxter (1891 -1951) and Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) in a scene from the film 'White Man', directed by Cecil B DeMille. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

Film still of actors Lon Chaney and Lupe Velez, in a scene from the movie 'Where East is East', 1929. (Photo by Archive Photos/Moviepix/Getty Images).

1939: Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944), formerly Guadeloupe Velez de Villalobos, as she appears in the RKO film 'Mexican Spitfire'. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

Velez, Lupe with the picture monkey "Josephine" between scenes in "The Cuban Love Song" - Photographer: Gregor Kutschuk- Published by: 'Tempo' .

Lupe Velez as Anita Morgan and Jean Hersholt as Joseph Horngold in the 1930 film Hell Harbor. (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images).

(Original Caption) Lupe Velez falls for Melvyn Douglas, in a big way, cinematically, in Paramount's "The Broken Wing." Douglas is an American aviator who crashed in a town ruled by Lupe's bandit sweetheart. Paramount photo by Eugene Robert Richee. (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images).

Lupe Velez and Lee Tracy stand on a carnival stage in a scene from the 1932 film The Half Naked Truth. Velez plays dancer Teresita, aka La Belle Sultana and Princess Exotica, and Tracy plays carnival barker Jimmy Bates. (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images).

HOLLYWOOD, CA - SEPTEMBER 22: American actor Mitchell Lewis showing his campaign poster for Congress election to Mexican actress Lupe Velez on set of movie 'Kongo' directed by William J. Cowen on September 22, 1932 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images).

1929: Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) as she appears in 'Where East Is East' with Lloyd Hughes (1896 - 1958) the leading man. The film was directed by Tod Browning for MGM. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

circa 1932: Conrad Nagel (1896 - 1970) and Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) the screen name of Guadeloupe Velez De Villalobos, enjoy a laugh between scenes of the Metro Goldwyn Mayer production of 'Kongo'. She later committed suicide after a failed love affair. (Photo by Margaret Chute/Getty Images).

circa 1928: Lupe Velez talks to some caged birds in a scene from 'The Lady Of The Pavements' directed by D W Griffith, his first talking picture. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

1934: Ramon Novarro (1899 - 1968) and Lupe Velez star in the film 'Laughing Boy', directed by W S Van Dyke II for MGM. It was based on the prize-winning novel by Oliver La Farge. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

12th March 1931: Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1904 - 1944) plays the Native American wife of an English aristocrat in 'The Squaw Man (aka 'The White Man'), directed by Cecil B DeMille. (Photo via John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images).

28th February 1931: Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1904 - 1944) waits for her next scene on the set of 'The Squaw Man (aka 'The White Man'), directed by Cecil B DeMille. (Photo via John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images).

12th March 1931: Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1904 - 1944) plays the Native American wife of English aristocrat Warner Baxter (1889 - 1951) in 'The Squaw Man (aka 'The White Man'), directed by Cecil B DeMille. (Photo via John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images).

Lupe Valez and Estelle Taylor engaging in conversation while Lon Chaney stands with an angry look on his face and Lloyd Hughes stands back in a scene from the film 'Where East Is East', 1929. (Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images).

Lupe Valez pointing at Robert Woolsey in a scene from the film 'High Flyers', 1937. (Photo by RKO Radio Pictures/Getty Images).

Lupe Valez, Robert Woolsey, Bert Wheeler, and Ann Sheridan hugging each other in a scene from the film 'High Flyers', 1937. (Photo by RKO Radio Pictures/Getty Images).

Mexican actress, dancer and singer Lupe Vélez ( 1908 – 1944) tries to drag a goat by the horns on the set of silent Western romance drama film 'Wolf Song', US, 1929. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images).

Lupe Velez holds manuscript standing next to male actor in a scene from the film 'Mexican Spitfire At Sea', 1942. (Photo by RKO Radio Pictures/Getty Images.

1929; Monte Blue and Lupe Velez star in the film 'Tiger Rose', directed by George Fitzmaurice. (Photo by Hulton Archive-Getty Images).

A poster for John G. Blystone's 1933 comedy 'Hot Pepper' starring Lupe Vélez. (Photo by Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images).

Actress Lupe Velez and Jimmy Durante in a scene from the movie ''Hollywood Party'' (Photo by Donaldson Collection-Getty Images).

Actress Lupe Velez Wearing Costume (Photo by �� John Springer Collection-CORBIS-Corbis via Getty Images).

Lupe in a movie still with Edward G. Robinson.

Lupe Velez Much More Than The Mexican Spitfire Latinheat Entertainment - Lupe Velez photographed in 1939 during the filming of Mexican Spitfire.

Ramon Novarro and Lupe Velez for the film Laughing Boy. 1934.

Lupe with Eddie Albert.

Vélez in Mexican Spitfire (1940).

Vélez in the trailer for Laughing Boy (1934).

Vélez with Gary Cooper in Wolf Song (1929).

Vélez with Laurel and Hardy in Hollywood Party (1934).

Vélez with Leon Errol in Mexican Spitfire (1940).

Charlie Chaplin in 1921.

Delia Magaña in 1929.

John Barrymore in 1918.

Lee Tracy in 1928.

María Conesa, 1912.

Shirley Temple in 1933.

Veronica ''Rocky'' Cooper and Gary Cooper in 1933.

(Original Caption) 7/28/1931-New York, NY: Gary Cooper, the tall, strong, silent Westerner of the silver screen, is shown aboard the Majestic as he arrived in New York on July 28th. Returning from abroad where he was convalescing from an attack of influenza. On his arrival he denied that he was engaged to the dynamic Lupe Velez, and that he had asked her to marry him but he was refused.

(Original Caption) Lupe Velez, United Artists' fiery little Mexican madcap star, tries to check up on her reported fiance, Gary Cooper, but the elongated star has joined Hollywood's famous "Alibi Club," and he's standing on his constitutional rights. All of the great and near great male members of the film colony are enrolled in the unique organization founded by Roland West, United Artists' producer-director, as a result of an idea growing out of his sensational all-talking picture success "Alibi."

(Original Caption) 2/22/1929- Lupe Velez, the fiery little Mexican tamale of the film world has a new admirer in the person of Gary Cooper. Rumors of the engagement of the pair bring forth denials from both, though they admit that they are in love. Motion picture careers are interesting them at this time, they claim. Photo shows Lupe Velez and Gary Cooper as the latter told his little sweetheart goodbye, before she left for New York to make a personal appearance in connection with her latest picture, "Lady of the Pavement."

Movie stars Gary Cooper and Lupe Velez, dating at the time, hold a large bouquet of roses together at a train car in Hollywood. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images).

English comic actor Charlie Chaplin (1889 1977) accompanies Mexican actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) to a movie premiere, circa 1928. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images).

LOS ANGELES,CA - CIRCA 1940: (L-R) Actress Lupe Velez, actor Henry Wilcoxon, actress Jean Parker (C), actress Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins and Mary Pickford attend a party in Los Angeles, California.(Photo by William Grimes/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images).

Johnny Weissmuller and Mexican actress wife Lupe Velez dressed for Hollywood event circa 1933 . (Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images)

(Original Caption) 6/17/1933-Los Angeles, CA: Johnny Weismuller, Lupe Velez and Abe Lyman at the Cocoanut Grove.

Informal full-length portrait of actress Lupe Velez wearing a train conductor's hat and holding a metal object, standing next to William H. Rudolph of United Artists Theatre and a woman, sitting in a passenger train car near Chicago, Illinois, 1929. Rudolph is holding a long, narrow piece of paper and pointing at it. A woman is standing behind Velez, and an African American railroad employee is visible standing in a doorway in the background. This photograph was taken by Alden Brown. (Photo by Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

Informal portrait of actress Lupe Velez looking toward the camera, sitting with William H. Rudolph of United Artists Theatre, at a dining table in a passenger train car near Chicago, Illinois, 1929. An unidentified woman is sitting to Rudolph and smiling. This photograph was taken by Alden Brown. (Photo by Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

(Original Caption) 3/24/1934-Hollywood, CA- Some of Hollywood's most prominent motion picture stars attended the meeting of the Little Club held at the Ambassador Hotel. Among them were three of moviedom's most prominent newly wedded couples. Pictured (L-R) are: Johnny Weismuller; Mrs. Bruce Cabot (Adrienne Ames); Mrs. Johnny Weismuller (Lupe Velez); Mrs. Gary Cooper (Sandra Shaw); Gary Cooper and Bruce Cabot.

1928: American film director Sam Taylor (1895 - 1958) with actresses Camilla Horn and Lupe Velez on the snow-covered set of 'Tempest' in Hollywood's United Artists studios. (Photo by Margaret Chute/Getty Images)

Velez has her hair done by Sally Wacker for the film, Laughing Boy in 1934.

Actresses Ruth Etting (right) and Lupe Velez, stars of the play 'Transatlantic Rhythm', walking arm in arm through the streets, England, September 19th 1936. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A collage of actor Ramon Novarro and actresses he has worked with (clockwise from top left): Joan Crawford, Alice Terry, Barbara La Marr, Madge Evans, Lupe Velez, Jeanette MacDonald, Myrna Loy, and Greta Garbo. (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

circa 1931: Director Edwin Carewe (1883 - 1940), centre, consults with actors Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) and John Boles (1895 - 1969) prior to a take for the Universal film 'Resurrection'. Carewe had already directed an earlier version of the same film in 1927. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Mexican film actress Lupe Velez (1908 - 1944) is dancing with Johnny Weissmuller and actor, dancer and politician George Murphy (1902 - 1992) . (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Lupe Velez ( 1908 - 1944), the Mexican film actress posing for a bust that is being sculpted of her. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mary Pickford (front center) is surrounded by fellow Warner Brothers' actresses during her tea party. Left to right: back row, Alice Day, June Collyer, Dorothy Gulliver, Gwen Lee, Molly O'Day, and Sally Eilers. Front row, Sue Carol, Lina Basquette, Mary Pickford, Lupe Velez, Flora Bramley, and Ann Christy. (Photo by © John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)