Biografia

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: Meu Ódio Será Sua Herança (1969). He has also directed one film that is in the registry: A Pérola (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.