Helena Rojo

Helena Rojo (born María Elena Enríquez Ruiz on August 18, 1944 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican actress and model.

Biography

Born Mexico City, Mexico, she began her career as a model in the early-1960s. Toward the end of the decade, she studied drama with renowned Mexican directors Carlos Ancira and José Luis Ibáñez, making her film debut in 1968 in the film El club de los suicidas. That same year, Helena also appeared in her second film, Los amigos. She continued working as a model and appearing in small film roles in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In 1969, she signed an exclusivity contract with Productora Cinematográfica Marte. Later, she began expanding her acting career into television and theater. In 1974, her first television role was the lead in the telenovela Extraño en su pueblo. She was married to actor Juan Ferrara for many years. Currently, she is married to Benjamín Fernández, who is not in the entertainment industry. She is the mother of three children: Leo, Patricia and Elena, all from her first marriage.

Helena's cinematic career lead her to work with the most important Mexican film directors of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Felipe Cazals, Arturo Ripstein, Rafael Corkidi, Alberto Bojórquez, Marcela Fernández Violante and Jorge Fons, among others.

She has worked with international talent, such as German director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski with a role in the film Aguirre, the Wrath of God. She also appeared in the film Foxtrot (1976), directed by Arturo Ripstein and alongside actors Charlotte Rampling, Peter O'Toole and Max von Sydow.

In 2006, she appeared on the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, where she plays a mother who tries to steer her son away from the stepmother who has eyes for him on a 'faux' telenovela that is watched on TV by the main character's family.

Filmography

Theater performances

• 10 el marido perfecto (10, The Perfect Husband)
• Lecciones para casadas (Lectures for Married Women)
• Se infiel y no mires con quien (Be Unfaithful with Whomever)
• Cena de Matrimonios (Dinner with Friends)
• Me enamoré de una bruja (I Married a Witch)
• La mujer del pelo rojo (The Redheaded Woman)
• Pecado en la isla de las cabras (Sin on the Isle of Goats)
• La Ronda de las Arpías (Song of the Harpies)
• Una oferta inmoral (Indecent Proposal)
• Yo miento, tú mientes, todos mentimos (I Lie, You Lie, We All Lie)
• Bajo Cero (Frozen)

Awards

• Won - 1972 Best Supporting Actress Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film, for her role in Fin de Fiesta.
• Nominated - 1973 Best Actress Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film, for her role in Los Cachorros.
• Won - 1981 Best Actress Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film, for her role in Misterio.
• Nominated - 1992 Best Actress Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film, for her role in Muerte Ciega.

External links

• Helena Rojo on IMDb
• Alma Latina: Mexican Telenovela Database
• The Mexican Film Resource Page
• History of the Ariel (in Spanish) at the Mexican Academy of Film.
• El Ariel (in Spanish) at wikisource