Biografía

As a Paramount Pictures contract player, she made a screen test for the part of Spanish girl María in ¿Por quién doblan las campanas? (1943). Director Sam Wood was so captivated by her beauty and talent he made two more screen tests with her. Unfortunately, she lost the coveted role to the non-Hispanic actress Ingrid Bergman.

Winner of Mexico's National Best Actress Trophy for her performance in Santa (1943).

Was cast as John Garfield's leading lady in Fiesta in Manhattan, a Warner Bros. picture about Mexicans in New York City, but the movie was never made. Ida Lupino was first announced for the role.

Niece of actress Aurora Bermúdez.

In September 1940, she signed a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures and was going to play the second female role in the Dorothy Lamour picture Aloma (1941), but she turned it down and the part went to Katherine DeMille.

[on how she was cast in La nave siniestra (1946)] He telephoned me, and we made a date and he told me all about the story. I said, please, I wanted to see the script. I said I had worked at Paramount before. He sent for the script and I read it and there was a part for me, all right.

[on her arrival in Hollywood] I came here by plane, Paramount paying the fare, and the day before the picture started, I signed.

[in 1944] And I must say, that it was very nice of Paramount to do all this for me. At the end of the year I could talk English as well as I do now.

[on Buddy G. DeSylva, executive producer of La nave siniestra (1946)] He wanted to sign me to a term contract, but I already had been under a term contract and that was a horrible feeling. I did not like it. He said then would I sign for one picture this year and another next? I said I would if the terms were right. I think he is paying me more than he thought he would have to. Of course, that was not all. There was the matter of the billing. I did not much care what the billing was in the United States, but I specified that wherever the picture was shown south of the border, Esther Fernández would be billed as the star. That is in the contract.

Only once did I play a villain, in Flor de sangre (1951), in which, by the way, I supposedly did a nude scene with my back, running to the sea. But a double did it because I would never have dared to undress in front of everyone, since I had a very strict education.