Biography for Maria Montez

Universal had hit upon a formula which proved popular throughout the war years: Montez, usually clad in a sarong or other diaphanous costume, while the hero (e.g., Jon Hall, Turhan Bey) saves her from cliff-hanging peril. Montez's sullen dark beauty and good nature managed to overshadow her stunning lack of acting skills, and she proved a box-office hit in such low-budget fare as "White Savage" (1943), "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (1944), "Gypsy Wildcat" and "Sudan" (both 1945). The high--or low--point of her career was the jaw-droppingly camp "Cobra Woman" (1943), in which Montez played twin rulers of a South Seas island entirely populated by chorus girls and over-acting villains.

Montez pretty much went out with the end of WWII. She and her husband, actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, moved to Europe in 1948 and made a handful of films: "Hans le Marin" (1948), "Le Portrait d'un assassin" (1949), "Il Ladro di Venezia/The Thief of Venice" (1950) and her last, "La Vengeance du Corsaire" (1951). Montez died of a heart attack while taking a hot saline bath in 1951; according to various sources she was somewhere between the ages of 31 and 39.