Trivia

One of Martin Scorsese's favorite filmmakers.

He was the model for the Oscar statuette. Cedric Gibbons, MGM's art director who was an original Academy member, was tasked with creating the trophy. In need of a model for his statuette, Gibbons was introduced by his future wife, Dolores Del Río, to Fernández. Reportedly, he had to be persuaded to pose nude.

He has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: La Horde sauvage (1969). He has also directed one film that is in the registry: La perla (1947).

He had in 1930 an experience that significantly marked his career as a creator: his stay in the United States coincided with the arrival in the country of Sergei Eisenstein (Soviet film director). He went to private screenings of Eisenstein's films, which impressed him, revealing a style that was different from that used in Hollywood aesthetics. Three years later, he was influenced by seeing fragments of Que viva Mexico! (an Eisenstein film made in that country), which consolidated his desire to make films.

He worked as a second unit director on American films made in Mexico, including The Magnificent Seven (1960), when he was sent to the American crew by the Mexican film industry to guarantee that images of Mexicans were neither racist nor insulting.

In 1923, he took part in the uprising of Adolfo de la Huerta against the government of Álvaro Obregón, but this insurrection failed and he was sent to prison. He escaped and left Mexico to go into exile, first in Texas, then in Chicago, and later in Los Angeles. There he earned his living as a laundry employee, bartender, longshoreman, press assistant and finally as a stonemason for Hollywood studio construction, a circumstance that favored his foray into film as an extra and as a double for stars like Douglas Fairbanks.

Emilio Fernández was a Mexican film director, actor and screenwriter.

In 1945, based on the history of American writer John Steinbeck (who adapted the screenplay in collaboration with him), Fernández filmed La Perla (a.k.a. The Pearl), an allegory about the limits of wickedness of man in his greed and desire for power. It won the award for Best Cinematography, and a mention for Best Film contribution to progress in the Venice Film Festival (1947). It also received the Silver Ariel (1948) for Best Picture, Directing, Male Performance and Photography; the award of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (1949), and the award for Best Cinematography at the Festival of Madrid (1949). In 2002, La Perla (a.k.a. The Pearl) was added to the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress by the National Film Preservation Board as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

In early 1986, Emilio Fernández suffered a fall at his home in Acapulco, which caused a fracture of the femur. According to his daughter Adela, in the hospital he received a blood transfusion that was infected with malaria. Emilio Fernández died on 6 August 1986.

He was one of the most prolific film directors of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s.

On the 100th anniversary of El Indio's birth, Emilio Fernández and his colleague Gabriel Figueroa were recognized during the inaugural Puerto Vallarta Film Festival of the Americas, held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in November 2004.

Gladys Fernández, a 16-year-old Cuban girl, became his first wife in 1941. Their relationship was affected by Emilio's passion for Hollywood diva Dolores del Río and Gladys ended up leaving him. Emilio and Gladys had a daughter, the writer Adela Fernández y Fernández.

In the late 1970s he was imprisoned in Torreón after he was found guilty of the death of a farmer. He was released after 6 months probation. Missing weekly sign-ins, due to an accident, caused him to be imprisoned again. After finishing his prison sentence, he returned to his house in Coyoacan.

His most stable relationship was with the actress Columba Domínguez. They were together for seven years, but the relationship collapsed because Columba became pregnant, and he did not want more children. She decided to have the baby without his consent, they broke up. Their daughter, Jacaranda, died in 1978 after falling from the top of a building.

During the last years of his life, he did not direct, although he continued to act.

He is best known for his work as director of the film María Candelaria (1944), which won the Palme d'Or award at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.

Fernández was infatuated with the British-American actress Olivia de Havilland, whom he never met. Fernández asked the then-president of Mexico, Miguel Alemán, to extend a street in Coyoacán to his mansion, and to name it Dulce Olivia, 'Sweet Olivia'. Thus, he would always have her symbolically near, transformed into a street, and always at his feet.

When he was a teenager, a fatal event forced him to flee his home and enlist in the ranks of the Mexican Revolution. Later, he entered the Mexican Military Academy (where in 1954, he gained the rank of colonel).

He returned from the United States to Mexico in 1933 with the decision to continue his film career, but during the first year he made a living as a boxer, a diver in Acapulco, a baker and an aviator.

He was portrayed by Joaquín Cosio in the Mexican biographical film Cantinflas.