*Hispanic Actress ALMA BELTRAN Personal Photo Archive Radio, Stage, Film & TV

Description

Archive of 72 vintage original photographs
of various sizes from the personal collection of Mexican-born Hispanic singer, dancer, and actress
ALMA BELTRAN
.
This archive consists of approximately 72 vintage original photographs of varying sizes (snapshots up to 8x10s). Many of them have handwritten notations on the back as to where and when they were taken (see the last image as an example). There is one inscribed photograph that is very striking. This collection documents Miss Beltran’s career from her beginnings as a singer on the radio in the 1940s; as a dancer in the 1940’s; her stage appearances; some of her film appearances; her various television appearances; and publicity photographs of her from early in her life and near the end of her career.
What makes this archive even more important is that it also includes not only the careers of other Hispanic actors and others that she worked with, but also includes photographs of various of her family members. This archive represents an important visual documentation of Hispanic cultural studies by focusing on the career of one particular personality from the 1940's through the late 1990's. It includes the genres of radio, dance, theater, motion pictures, and television and is a testament to the many talents of Ms. Beltran and a tribute to her pursuit to break-through the barriers of racism and cultural stereotypes in the US to become a successful and well-respected actress in mainstream television shows and motion pictures.
Alma Leonor Beltran
(August 22, 1919 – June 9, 2007) was a Mexican-American film, stage and television actress who appeared in 82 films between 1945 and 2002. Born in
Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, she is best known in the US as Mrs. Fuentes, mother of Julio Fuentes, on the NBC-TV sitcom,
Sanford and Son
. Married to Orlando Alfredo Beltran from 1944 until his death on October 2, 1957, she was a singer with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra in the mid-1940's. Beltran started her film career in Hollywood in the uncredited role of Miss Guatemala in the film,
Pan-Americana
(1945). From 1945 to 2002, in addition to her film roles, Beltran played over 80 roles in film and television, often in smaller roles, always as Mexican women, and then later in her career, as family matriarch types or senoritas. These included guest roles in such popular TV series as
The F.B.I.
(1965),
Bonanza
(1959),
Lou Grant
(1977),
Knight Rider
(1982),
The A-Team
(1983), and
The Jeffersons
(1975).
On the big screen in film, she appeared in such films as
Jubilee Trail, Marathon Man
(1976),
Oh, God! Book II
(1980), the smash-hit,
Ghost
(1990), which co-starred Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze, and Whoopi Goldberg, and the 2002 comedy film,
Buying the Cow
(2002). She died in Northridge, California in 2007 and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.