María África Gracia Vidal[2] (6 June 1912 – 7 September 1951), known professionally as Maria Montez, was a Dominican actress who gained fame and popularity in the 1940s starring in a series of filmed-in-Technicolor costume adventure films.

"[2]Montez learned English and was educated at a Catholic convent school in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.

[citation needed] Her first film was Boss of Bullion City (1940), a Johnny Mack Brown western produced by Universal Pictures.

[11] She had small decorative roles in two films with the comedy team of Richard Arlen and Andy Devine, Lucky Devils and Raiders of the Desert; the Los Angeles Times said she "was attractive as the oasis charmer" in the latter.

Universal did not have a "glamour girl" like other studios, an equivalent to Hedy Lamarr (MGM), Dorothy Lamour (Paramount), Betty Grable (20th Century Fox), Rita Hayworth (Columbia), or Ann Sheridan (Warner Bros).

[18] Public response to South of Tahiti was enthusiastic enough for the studio to cast Montez in her first starring part, Arabian Nights.

[13] Arabian Nights was a prestigious production for Universal, its first shot in three-strip Technicolor, produced by Walter Wanger and starring Montez, Jon Hall, and Sabu.

In 1943 Montez was awarded two medals from the Dominican government for her efforts in promoting friendly relations between the US and her native land.

[21] Universal also announced that Montez would play Elisabeth of Austria in The Golden Fleece, based on a story by Bertita Harding, but it was never made.

In particular, Aumont negotiated rights to the book Wicked City and Jean Cocteau wanted to make a film with both.

[26] Universal put Montez in a modern-day story, Tangier, an adaptation of Flame of Stamboul; it reunited her with Sabu, although not with Jon Hall, who was by then serving in the US Army.

There was some talk Montez would star in The Golden Fleece project (as Queen of Hearts), produced independently with Aumont co-starring.

[32] She was also announced for Queen of Hearts, this time not the Elizabeth of Austria project but an adaptation of a European play by Louis Verneuil, Cousin from Warsaw.

[34] Montez endorsed Max Factor Cosmetics, Jergens Lotion, Deltah Pearls,[35][36] Lux Soap, and Woodbury Powder.

[44] Aumont had begun writing plays and Montez appeared in the one-woman production, L'lle Heureuse ("The Happy Island"); reviews were poor, however.

[45] Her next film was Portrait of an Assassin (1949), which was meant to feature Orson Welles but ended up co-starring Arletty and Erich von Stroheim.

In September 1949 it was announced Montez would make The Queen of Sheba with Michael Redgrave for director François Villiers; the film was not made, however.

At the time of her untimely death, Montez's US agent, Louis Shurr, was planning her return to Hollywood to appear in a new film, Last Year's Show, to be made for Fidelity Pictures.

Her first marriage was to William Gourley Macfeeters,[47][48][49][50] the agent for Barahona of the First National City Bank of New York,[51] and a banker who had served in the British Army.

"[55] For more than a year, Montez was reportedly engaged to Claude Strickland, a flight officer with the RAF whom she met in New York.

"[55] Aumont had to leave a few days after wedding Montez to serve in the Free French Forces which were fighting against Nazi Germany in the European Theatre of World War II.

At the end of World War II, the couple had a daughter, Maria Christina (also known as Tina Aumont), born in Hollywood on 14 February 1946.

[60] The 39-year-old Montez died in Suresnes, France, on 7 September 1951 after apparently suffering a heart attack and drowning while taking a hot bath.

In 1944, she was named Goodwill Ambassador of Latin American countries to the United States in the so-called Good Neighbor policy.

In 2009 the Santo Domingo metro in the Dominican Republic named their main terminus Station Maria Montez.

In 1976, Margarita Vicens de Morales published a series of articles in the Dominican newspaper Listín Diario's magazine Suplemento, where she presented the results of her research on Montez's life.

He wrote an aesthetic manifesto titled "The Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez", and made elaborate homages to her films in his own, including his notorious Flaming Creatures (1963).

[65] The Spanish authors Terenci Moix and Antonio Perez Arnay wrote a book entitled Maria Montez, The Queen of Technicolor that recounted her life and reviewed her films.

Dalia Davi, Puerto Rican actress from the Bronx, created the 2011 play The Queen of Technicolor Maria Montez.