Curiosidades

Her death, just 9 days shy of her 95th birthday, was not announced publicly at the time and it wasn't until two and a half years later, when a researcher uncovered her death certificate, that it was made public. This would help explain why there are no press obituaries for her.

The producer and director of MGM's "Quo Vadis" (1951) selected her for the part of Nero's wife Poppaea after they'd seen a test she had made for a less important part in the film.

She said that had she not become an actress she would probably have been a writer. She had a number of short stories published. When she was in France in 1946 she wrote scripts for the Paris radio - she spoke French fluently.

In 1954, she listed her Poppaea-like pastimes as 'fast cars and breeding bull terriers'.

A clip showing her firing a ray gun in A Garota Diabólica de Marte (1954) is often used in commercials and documentaries, such as the TV remote episode of the History Channel series "History's Lost and Found" (early remotes used a beam of light and looked like a ray gun).