Cecilia_Romo

Cecilia Romo

Cecilia Romo

Mexican actress (1945–2020)

Cecilia Romo, also known as Ceci Romo (5 December 1945 – 30 August 2020) was a Mexican film, theatrical, and television actress. Prior to her professional acting career, which began in the 1980s, she was a member of Mexico women's national basketball team during the 1960s.[1] Romo, who appeared in more than 30 theater productions during her career, was often cast as rebellious or comedic characters.[1] Her telenovela and television roles became popular throughout Mexico and Latin America during the 1990s.[1]

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Biography

Early life and career

Romo was born on 5 December 1945, in Mexico City.[1][2] She was raised in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.[2] Her mother, Cecilia Santillan de Romo, was a high school teacher, while her father, Luis Romo Maconde, owned and operated several pharmacies and medical laboratories.[1]

An athlete, Romo played for Mexico women's national basketball team during the 1960s.[1] She then enrolled at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and received her bachelor's degree in 1978.[1] Romo worked as an economist for the Mexican government before becoming a talent manager for advertising models.[1]

Acting career

In the early 1980s, Romo received a phone call at her agency looking for extras for the American science fiction film, Dune, which was filming in Mexico at the time.[1] Romo, who was 38-years old at the time, decided to sign up as an extra for film herself.[1] She enjoyed the experience and quickly decided to pursue acting as a career.[1] She was soon cast in the 1985 film, Los Náufragos del Liguria, which focused on a group of shipwreck survivors.[1] Romo soon found on-screen acting roles in Mexican television during the mid and late 1980s as well, launching a decades-long professional TV career.[1]

Romo was taller than most other television actresses, but became popular with audiences in Latin America and Mexico for her comedic facial expressions and gift for slapstick comedy.[1] For example, in the 1990s telenovela De pocas, pocas pulgas, Romo enters a doctor's office, scaring the patient "with a syringe the size of a hunting rifle," according to the New York Times.[1] In the TV Azteca telenovela Prófugas del destino (2010-2011), Romo utilized her trademark comedic facial expressions to play Madre Lourdes, a mother superior who discovers that several of the women in her convent are actually escaped fugitives disguised as nuns.[1]

Romo also appeared in more than 30 professional theatrical plays and musicals, including the Spanish-language, Mexican productions of Hello, Dolly!, La Cage aux Folles, and Mame.[1] In 2003, she appeared in the American film, Out of Time, starring Denzel Washington.[2]

In 2012 interview for the program "Momentos de Telenovela" on Televisa San Luis [es], Romo discussed the range of characters she had played on stage and screen, which were often rebellious, but also comedic, "I've played all the nuns in the world: mother superior, the kitchen nun, the garden nun. All of them! In comedies, dramas, theater, musicals."[1] Actress Mayra Rojas [es], who appeared opposite her in several productions, noted that "She [Romo] played a lot of villains, but the roles that she was most known for were playful and cheeky, because she was like that."[1] Romo's villainous roles included a witch and evil nurses and nuns.[1]

Romo was known for a personal and professional sense of humor.[1] On the set of her final television series, Como tú no hay 2 (2020), Romo began whistling like a stereotypical truck driver to catch the attention of the crew and her co-stars.[1] She and the show's writers ultimately incorporated her whistle into her character, Doña Remedios, a traditional healer in a local market.[1]

Death

Cecilia Romo died from complications of COVID-19 in Mexico City, on 30 August 2020, after a 169-day battle with the illness during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico.[1][2] She had been hospitalized several times during her treatment for COVID-19 and its complications, including anemia and three pulmonary hemorrhages.[2] Romo died just five months after she filmed her final episode of Como tú no hay 2.[1]

Romo was survived by her third husband, film editor Guillermo Coelho; two of her four children, diplomat Claudia Romo Edelman and Luis Roberto Ravelo Romo; and two grandchildren.[1] Her two other children, Adriana González Romo and Raúl González Romo, both died from genetic disorders as toddlers.[1] Romo's previous marriages, to civil engineer Raul Domingo González Soto and musician Alfonso Ravelo, ended in divorce.[1]

Filmography

Telenovelas

Other television series

Films

  • Los náufragos del Liguria (1985)
  • El segundo aire (2001)
  • Out of Time (2003)[2]
  • Fantasías (2003) – Michelle
  • Corazón marchito (2007) – Isela
  • Rock Marí (2010) – Edna
  • Luz azul (2010) (short film)
  • Amante de lo ajeno (2012) – Elvira

References

  1. [1]
    Averbuch, Maya (8 September 2020). "Cecilia Romo, Mexican Actress With a Broad Range, Dies at 74". New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  2. [2]
    "Muere la actriz Cecilia Romo tras 169 días de lucha contra el Covid-19". La Jornada. 31 August 2020. Archived from the original on 3 October 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  3. [3]
    "Ella es Cecilia Romo, primera actriz de la televisión mexicana". Uno TV (in Mexican Spanish). 31 August 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  4. [4]
    "Cecilia Romo actuó por última vez en la telenovela Como Tú No Hay 2, protagonizada por Adrián Uribe". TIM (in Spanish). Las Estrellas TV. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
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