María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García (16 January 1924 – 5 July 2002), known professionally as Katy Jurado, was a Mexican actress. Jurado began her acting career in Mexico during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. In 1951, she was recruited by American filmmakers in Mexico and began her Hollywood career during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She acted in popular Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. Her talent for playing a variety of characters helped pave the way for Mexican actresses in American cinema. She was the first Latin American actress nominated for an Oscar, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in Broken Lance (1954), and was the first to win a Golden Globe Award, for her performance in High Noon (1952). Life and career 1924–1951: Childhood and Mexican films María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, known from early childhood as "Katy", was born on 16 January 1924, in Guadalajara Mexico, the daughter of Luis Jurado Ochoa, a lawyer, and Vicenta García, a singer. Jurado's younger brothers were Luis Raúl and Óscar Sergio. Her mother was a singer who worked for the Mexican radio station XEW (the oldest radio station in Latin America). Her mother was sister of Mexican musician Belisario de Jesús García, author of popular Mexican songs such as "Las Cuatro Milpas". Jurado's cousin Emilio Portes Gil was President of Mexico (1928–1930). Jurado studied at a school run by nuns in the Guadalupe Inn neighborhood of Mexico City, and later studied to be a bilingual secretary. As a teenager, she was invited to work as an actress by producers and filmmakers, among them Emilio Fernández, who offered her a role in his first movie The Isle of Passion (1941). Although her godfather was Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz, her parents never gave their consent. Another filmmaker interested in her was Mauricio de la Serna, who offered her a role in the film No matarás (1943). She signed the contract without authorization from her parents, and when they found out, they threatened to send her to a boarding school in Monterrey. Around this time, she met the aspiring actor Víctor Velázquez and married him soon afterward. Her marriage was largely motivated by the desire to continue a career as an actress and to escape the yoke of her parents. Velazquez was the father of her children, Victor Hugo and Sandra. The marriage ended in 1943, shortly after