Lupe Ontiveros (born September 17, 1942) is an American film and television actress. Ontiveros has acted in numerous films and television shows, most often playing a maid or, more recently, an all-knowing grandmother; the actress estimates she has played a maid between 150 and 300 times on screen.^[1] Image File history File links Desp_ep05a. ... Following is a comprehensive list of every recurring character in the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. ... PrimeTime is a television newsmagazine from ABC News. ... This article is about a tone of comedy. ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... El Paso redirects here. ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Biography

Early life

Ontiveros was born Lupe Moreno in El Paso, Texas to Lucita Castanon and Juan Moreno, middle-class Mexican immigrants who overcame a lack of formal education to become owners of a tortilla factory and two restaurants in Ontiveros' native El Paso.^[2] She graduated from El Paso High School and went on to study at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas, where she received a bachelor's degree in social work. After her marriage, she and her husband moved to California to realize his dream of starting an automotive business. During a period of professional dissatisfaction with her social service career, Ontiveros was trying to decide whether to go back to school for a nursing degree when she saw an article about a need for local film "extras." With her husband's encouragement, she began with that simple job and parlayed it into a long stage and screen career. El Paso redirects here. ... Texas Womans University is a university with campuses in Denton, Dallas and Houston, Texas. ... Professional social workers are concerned with social problems, their causes, their solutions and their human impacts. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... In drama, an extra is a performer in a film, television show, or stage production who has no role or purpose other than to appear in the background (for example, in an audience or busy street scene). ...

Prior to acting, Ontiveros worked for 18 years as a social worker, and she continues as an activist with many of the same causes with which she worked in that profession, such as domestic violence prevention and AIDS awareness and prevention, among other health issues. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ...

Film career

Ontiveros has said that although she wants to see a more diverse set of roles made available to Latina actors, she is proud of the work she has done each time she has played a maid or other working-class character: "I'm proud to represent those hands that labor in this country. I've given every maid I've ever portrayed soul and heart."^[3]In part because of her history in this role, she was chosen as the narrator for the documentary Maid in America. ^[4] // The term Latino is a linguistic identity that refers to an individual that has significant ancestry from a nation-state where a Latin derived language is spoken or is the offical language of the government. ...

One of Ontiveros' most prominent early movie roles was in the 1983 Gregory Nava film El Norte, in which she played a seamstress and maid who acts as mentor to a newly arrived immigrant girl from Guatemala. In a 2004 interview with the Dominican newspaper Listín, she called El Norte "the film that always will remain in me... [it] tells the immigrants' story" when asked as to her favorite film from her long career.^[5] She played the housekeeper Rosalita, a Hispanic maid hired to assist in the packing and moving of the Walsh family in the hit adventure film The Goonies (1985). Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... Gregory Nava publicity photo Gregory Nava, a third generation Mexican-American (born April 10, 1949 in San Diego, California) is a film director, producer and screenplay writer, of Mexican and Basque heritage. ... El Norte founded by Alejandro Junco de la Vega is a major newspaper in the state of Nuevo León, Mexico. ... The quintessential adventure film. ... The Goonies was a hit movie in 1985 directed by Richard Donner, with the screenplay written by Chris Columbus from a story by Steven Spielberg. ...

The actress worked with Nava in subsequent films, including My Family/Mi Familia (1995) and Selena (1997). In the latter film, she portrayed the murderer of Tejano singer Selena, Yolanda Saldívar, the singer's fan-club president. Her performance was so believable and memorable that years later, the actress sometimes is mistaken for Saldívar and verbally accosted.^[6] My Family is a 1995 film directed by Gregory Nava and written by Gregory Nava and his wife, Anna Thomas. ... Selena is a 1997 biopic about the life and career of Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla Perez (1971-1995). ... A Tejano (Spanish for Texan; archaic spelling texano) is a person of Hispanic descent born and living in the U.S. state of Texas. ... Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), best known as Selena, was a Mexican American singer who has been called the queen of Tejano music.[2] The youngest child of a Mexican-American couple, Selena released her first album at the age of twelve. ... Yolanda Saldívar (born September 19, 1960) was convicted in 1995 for the murder of Tejano music singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez that occurred on March 31, 1995. ...

In 2000, she was featured in the film Chuck & Buck, in which she played Beverly, a tough theater director who puts on a play written by one of the main characters. She has said in multiple interviews that she accepted the role even before seeing the script, solely on the basis of being approached to play a character who was not defined by Hispanic ethnicity. For that role, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture in the 2000 Independent Spirit Awards. Chuck & Buck is a 2000 film written by and starring Mike White, and directed by Miguel Arteta. ... Founded in 1984, the Independent Spirit Awards were originally known as the FINDIE (Friends of Independents) Awards and presented winners with Plexiglas pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. ...

She co-starred with America Ferrera in the 2002 film Real Women Have Curves as the overbearing and hypercritical mother of Ferrera's character. Her performance received excellent reviews and earned her and her co-star a Special Jury Prize at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. America Georgine Ferrera (born April 18, 1984) is an American actress. ... America Ferrera as Ana Garcia in Real Women Have Curves Real Women Have Curves is a 2002 American movie starring America Ferrera. ... The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival in the United States, and ranks alongside the Cannes, France, Venice, Italy, Berlin, Germany, and Toronto, Canada festivals as one of the most prestigious in the world. ...

Television

Ontiveros had a recurring role in the 2004-05 season of American prime time soap opera series Desperate Housewives as Juanita Solis, Gabrielle's suspicious mother-in-law. She received an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actress for this role. In 2004 she also began a role as Abuela Elena, the grandmother of the title characters in the animated PBS children's series Maya and Miguel. The multicultural and bilingual series later introduced a deaf character, Marco, after a sign language-themed episode was suggested by the actress, who has two hearing impaired adult sons.^[7] Prime time is the block of programming on television during the middle of the evening. ... For Philippine soap opera, see Teleserye. ... Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series, created by Marc Cherry, who also serves as show runner, and produced by ABC Studios, The Walt Disney Companys main television studio, and Cherry Productions. ... Following is a comprehensive list of every recurring character in the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. ... An Emmy Award. ... Not to be confused with Public Broadcasting Services in Malta. ... Maya & Miguel is a half-hour childrens television cartoon produced by Scholastic Studios. ... The word deaf can have very different meanings depending on the background of the person speaking or the context in which the word is used. ... Two sign language Intepreters working as a team for a school. ... Hearing impairment is a full or partial decrease in the ability to detect or understand sounds. ...

The actress was one of the stars of the WB's Greetings from Tucson, playing the grandmother in an upwardly mobile family of mixed Irish and Mexican heritage. She previously had recurring guest roles on the series Veronica's Closet, for which she won an ALMA Award in 1998, and on the short-lived soap opera Pasadena. She also has been a guest star on Hill Street Blues, Red Shoe Diaries, Resurrection Blvd., Cory in the House, and King of the Hill, among many other series. The Warner Bros. ... Greetings from Tucson was a TV sitcom which aired on The WB on Friday nights during the 2002-2003 season. ... Veronicas Closet was a sitcom which aired on NBC from 1997 to 2000. ... The Alma Awards or American Latino Media Arts Awards are distinctions awarded to Latino performers (actors, film and television directors, and musicians) who promote positive portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment field. ... Pasadena was an American television program which was originally broadcast in the U.S. from September to November 2001 on FOX. // The series starred Alison Lohman as Lily McAllister, an initially naïve young woman who witnesses a strangers suicide and begins to investigate the secrets being hidden by... Hill Street Blues was a serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. ... The cover for one of the DVD releases. ... Resurrection Blvd. ... Cory in the House is an American childrens television series on the Disney Channel and a spin-off from the hit Disney Channel Original Series Thats So Raven. ... This article is about the television program. ...

Theater

After deciding she wanted an acting career, Ontiveros began in earnest, following up full-day sessions at her first career with evening work at Nosotros, a community theater in Los Angeles.^[8] In 1978, she was cast as Dolores in Luis Valdez’s historic play Zoot Suit in her first major theatrical role. She went on to reprise the role on Broadway — the first Mexican American theatrical production ever to play there — and in the 1982 film version. She was a founding member of the Latino Theater Company^[9] Zoot Suit is a musical play by written by Luis Valdez, featuring music from Daniel Valdez and Lalo Guerrero, the father of Chicano music. ... The Lion King at the New Amsterdam Theatre, 2003 Broadway theatre[1] is the most prestigious form of professional theatre in the U.S., as well as the most well known to the general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... Zoot Suit is a 1981 filmed version of the Broadway play Zoot Suit (play). ...

Personal life

In August, 2006, the Kaiser Permanente insurance company announced that Ontiveros would be the featured presenter in a new health-education DVD to be available in English and Spanish.^[10] She also has promoted higher education for Latinos through advertisements for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund in 2002 and participation in a 2003 campaign to increase access to the 2004 Hispanic Scholarships Directory across southern California. Kaiser Permanente is an integrated health maintenance organization (HMO), based in Oakland, California, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield. ... Size comparison: A 12 cm Sony DVD+RW and a 19 cm Dixon Ticonderoga pencil. ... The University of Cambridge is an institute of higher learning. ...

She and her husband are the parents of three grown sons and reside in Pico Rivera, California. Location of Pico Rivera in Los Angeles County, California Coordinates: , Country United States of America State California County Los Angeles Incorporated (city) 1958-01-29 [2] Government  - Mayor E.A. Pete Ramirez [1] Area  - City  8. ...

References

External links

• Lupe Ontiveros at the Internet Movie Database