Mirtha Legrand

Biography

Legrand and her sister Silvia were born on 23 February 1927 in Villa Cañás to José Martínez, a librarian, and Rosa Suárez, a school teacher. They have a sibling named José Antonio. Their parents were Spanish. They broke apart in 1934 and Rosa moved to Rosario with her three children, where the Legrand sisters took classes of singing and dancing. In 1936 they moved to the La Paternal neighborhood in Buenos Aires.

Legrand began her career in the carnival of 1939 when she participated in a contest organised by the Diario de Cine programme (English: Cinema Diary) at Belgrano Radio. She rose to fame in the late 1930s and early 1940s, during the golden era of the Argentine filming that resembled the Hollywood one. Her film debut was in Educating Niní, which also had the participation of Niní Marshall and Legrand's sister Silvia.

While filming Cinco besos (English: Five kisses) —directed by Luis Saslavsky, who also directed the famous film Los martes, orquídeas— in 1945, Legrand met her future husband Daniel Tinayre, a director of French origins. Mirtha Legrand married Tinayre on 18 May 1946. Daniel Andrés, the first son of the couple, was born in 1947; Marcela, the couple's daughter, was born in 1950. Mirtha Legrand and Daniel Tinayre were married until Tinayre's death in 1994. Tinayre had been diagnosed with hepatitis B in September 1994 and died a month later. Her son Daniel died from pancreatic cancer in 1999.

Her cinematographic career spanned more than 25 years from 1939 to 1965. She participated in 36 films of Argentina and Spain, including:

Nominations