The Tragic Life and Career of Pedro Armendariz: A Legend of Mexican Cinema

Considered one of the legends of Mexican cinema, Pedro Armendariz He left a great filmography that includes some of the best films of the Golden Age. The actor had a prolific career that included some films in Hollywood, and ended his life due to cancer that was detected just a few months before his death. death.

Pedro Gregorio Armendariz Hastings was born on May 9, 1912 in Mexico City. He is the son of a Mexican father, Pedro Armendáriz García-Conde, and an American mother, Adela Hastings. He lived his childhood in Laredo, Texas, together with his parents and his younger brother, but when they both died Pedro and his brother Fernando lived with his uncle Henry Hastings.

As a teenager, Pedro Armendáriz studied engineering at California Polytechnic State University. Although it is not documented that he began his career in the theater group at the University of California, the young Armendáriz already showed interest in acting.

At the age of 20, he settled in Mexico City, began working as a tourist guide and writing for a bilingual magazine to earn money. On one occasion while he was reciting Shakespeare for some tourists, was discovered by director Miguel Zacarías.

His first film in Mexican cinema was ‘Maria Elena’ (1935), where his presence before the camera and his acting talent were notorious and other films soon followed, such as ‘Rosario’ (1935). His first collaboration with Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernandez It was with the film ‘I am pure Mexican’ (1942), in which the legendary Mexican director found the main actor of his films with whom he would make some of the best films, and of Mexican cinema, such as ‘María Candelaria’ (1943), ‘ In love’ (1946), ‘La Perla’ (1947) and ‘Maclovia’ (1948).

Pedro Armendáriz also ventured into Hollywood cinema where participated in three films by famous director John Ford, who was known for his westerns; The Fugitive (1947), Fort Apache (1948), and 3 Godfathers (1948). It was also directed by John Houston and shared the big screen with star John Wayne.

The Armendáriz’s last film was From Russia With Love (1963) from the 007 saga when Sean Connery played the British agent.

What type of cancer did Pedro Armendáriz have?

And cancer in the lymphatic glands He evicted Pedro Armendáriz just a few months after being diagnosed with the disease, although the actor was already experiencing discomfort while filming his latest film.

Armendáriz was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, as palliative care, since the advanced state of his disease was irreversible and the doctors indicated that he had approximately one year to live.

During his last months the actor lived in constant pain and it was almost impossible for him to walk. Faced with intense pain and reduced hopes of surviving cancer, on June 18, 1963 Pedro Armendáriz took his own life with a 357 Colt Magnum pistol in his hospital room.

Cancer not only affected Pedro Armendáriz, but also 91 people out of the 220 who were part of the filming crew of the film ‘The Conqueror’ (1956) because the set where the film was filmed, in Utah near the Nevada desert, was infected with radioactivity from the nuclear tests that the United States government had carried out in the area.

At that time the production was unaware of the risk to which they had been exposed, it was not until years later that some people began to present health problems and were diagnosed with some type of canceras the actress Susan Hayward, John Hoyt, the director Glen Powell and John Wayne.

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