García, Sara

(1895-1980)

   The iconic "grandmother of Mexico," Sara García was born in Veracruz of Spanish parents. She studied to be a teacher, but instead became an actress and made her screen debut in a 1917 film (her sound debut came in 1933). Well into the 1950s, García alternated roles as feisty gray-haired grandmothers - notably in Los tres García - and parts where she played matrons of her own age (like El baisano Jalil), in both comedies and dramas. She was also a veteran stage and TV performer. García's last movie was La vida difícil de una mujer fácil (1977). She died of bronchitis in November 1980. Her daughter, María Fernanda Ibáñez, appeared opposite Jorge Negrete in 1938's La madrina del diablo but died at a young age. García won the Best Co-Starring Actress Ariel in 1957 for La tercera palabra.