Margarita Cordova | |
---|---|
Born | |
Occupation(s) | Dancer, actress |
Years active | 1958–2006 |
Spouse | Clark Allen |
Margarita Cordova (born February 26, 1939, in Saginaw, Michigan) is a retired American dancer and actress.
Cordova was born in Saginaw, Michigan, but grew up in Mexico City. When she was 14, she moved to Los Angeles. [1]
In 1958, Cordova and her husband Clark Allen opened for a show starring Jean Arnold at the Cabaret Concert Theatre in Los Angeles. Variety described the couple as "Spanish dance exponents who take the trouble to explain what they're doing during their 30-minute stint. Education has not always been at home in a nitery, but it's a pleasure here [...] the team divides its work with the male member flicking the Spanish guitar and singing..." [2]
In 1960, Cordova and Allen had a 30-minute show in New York. Variety wrote: "Although likeable (sic) in their current New York debut at Julius Monk's Downstairs at the Upstairs, they're not particularly outstanding. It could be that Allen's folksong selection lacks a powerhouse item". [3]
In 1962, Cordova and Allen opened and operated El Cid, a flamenco nightclub on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. [4] [5]
Cordova and Allen performed traditional Spanish and Mexican song and dance at other venues in the Los Angeles area, including Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City [6] and at the Ebell of Los Angeles Theater. [7]
Cordova has made numerous guest appearances on several television series from the 1960s, including The Twilight Zone episode "A Thing About Machines" [8] and a 1960 episode of Peter Gunn entitled "Cry Love, Cry Murder". [9] Her other television credits include Playhouse 90 , The Chevy Mystery Show , Cheyenne , The Lloyd Bridges Show , The Farmer's Daughter , The Man from U.N.C.L.E. , The Flying Nun , The Big Valley , Gunsmoke , The Virginian (TV series) , Mission: Impossible , The Mod Squad , Marcus Welby, M.D. , Lou Grant , Police Story , T.J. Hooker and Dallas .
Cordova had a contract role on NBC's short-living soap opera Sunset Beach as Carmen Torres from 1997 to 1999, receiving ALMA Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Soap Opera in 1999. [10] She also played Rosa Andrade on Santa Barbara from 1984 to 1987, and from 1991 to 1993. [11] In 2000s, she made guest appearances on Strong Medicine and Criminal Minds .
Cordova appeared in One-Eyed Jacks (1961) as a flamenco dancer. [12] She also had bit parts in Pay or Die! (1960), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) and Guns of Diablo (1965).
Cordova was married to musician, actor, and artist Clark Allen. They met in Paris. [13] They studied in Granada, Spain for more than a year where they learned the culture of the Spanish Romani and flamenco music. The couple had two children: a daughter named Angela, who became a fine artist, and a son named David, who became a professional musician and photographer. Angela and David were members of the 1970s band Carmen. [14] Cordova and Allen later divorced. [15]
A margarita is a cocktail consisting of tequila, triple sec, and lime juice. Some margarita recipes include simple syrup as well and are often served with salt on the rim of the glass. Margaritas can be served either shaken with ice, without ice, or blended with ice. Most bars serve margaritas in a stepped-diameter variant of a cocktail glass or champagne coupe called a margarita glass. The margarita is one of the world's most popular cocktails and the most popular tequila-based cocktail.
Imogene Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows. Starting out in vaudeville as a child acrobat, she studied ballet and pursued a serious career in music and dance, graduating to decades of stage musical revues, cabaret, and summer stock. In her 40s, she began a celebrated career as a comedian on television, starring in six series and guest-starring on successful television programs from the 1940s to the 1990s.
Diana Dors was an English actress and singer.
El Cid is a 1961 epic historical drama film directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston. The film is loosely based on the life of the 11th-century Castilian knight and warlord Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called "El Cid". The film stars Charlton Heston in the title role and Sophia Loren as El Cid's wife Doña Jimena, spelled "Chimene" in the script and pronounced that way (shim-ain) in the film. The screenplay is credited to Fredric M. Frank, Philip Yordan and Ben Barzman, with uncredited contributions by Bernard Gordon.
Surfside 6 is an ABC television series that aired from 1960 to 1962. The show centers on a Miami Beach detective agency set on a houseboat, and features Troy Donahue as Sandy Winfield II, Van Williams as Kenny Madison, and Lee Patterson as Dave Thorne. Diane McBain co-stars as socialite Daphne Dutton, whose yacht is berthed next to their houseboat. Spanish actress Margarita Sierra also plays a supporting role as Cha Cha O'Brien, an entertainer who works at the Boom Boom Room, a popular Miami Beach hangout at the Fontainebleau Hotel, directly across the street from Surfside 6.
Barbara Ann Luna, also stylized as BarBara Luna, is an American actress from film, television and musicals. Notable roles include Makia in Five Weeks in a Balloon and Lt. Marlena Moreau in the classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror". In 2004 and 2010 she appeared in the first and sixth episodes of Star Trek: New Voyages, a fan-created show distributed over the Internet.
Leslie Gaye Griffin, better known as Lisa Gaye, was an American actress and dancer.
Carmen Pacheco Rodríguez, better known by her stage name Carmen Linares, is a Spanish flamenco singer.
The Cabaret Concert Theatre was a small cellar café/cabaret, located in the Silverlake district of Central Los Angeles, California.
Barbara Jo Allen was an American actress. She was also known as Vera Vague, the spinster character she created and portrayed on radio and in films during the 1940s and 1950s. She based the character on a woman she had seen delivering a PTA literature lecture in a confused manner. As Vague, she popularized the catchphrase "You dear boy!"
Heather MacRae is an American actress known for her role in the Woody Allen 1972 comedy Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* .
Valarie Pettiford is an American stage and television actress, dancer, and jazz singer. She received a Tony Award nomination for her role in the broadway production Fosse. She is also known for her role as Deirdre "Big Dee Dee" LaFontaine Thorne on the UPN television sitcom Half & Half.
Ruth Godfrey was an American film actress, best known for her work in several Three Stooges shorts. She also worked under the name of Ruth Godfrey White.
Betty Jane Rhodes was an American actress and singer, most active in film during the late 1930s and the World War II era. She was also known as Jane Rhodes.
Rachelle Cordova known professionally as Elle Cordova and formerly as Reina del Cid, is an American singer-songwriter and lead of the folk/rock band Reina del Cid formerly based in Minneapolis, now based in Los Angeles.
Millicent Maxine Edwards was an American actress who performed on stage, in films, and on television.
Percy Challenger was a film and theater actor in the United States. He appeared in dozens of films.
Winnie Baldwin was an American vaudevillian, film actress, and playwright.
Clark Allen was an American entertainer, artist, and businessman.
Elizabeth Bryan Allen was an American actress.