Actress Lupe Ontiveros dies
Posted July 29, 2012 8:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Veteran character actress Lupe Ontiveros, who earned an Emmy nomination for her work in Desperate Housewives and most notably played an obsessed-fan-turned-killer in Selena, died on Thursday.
She was 69.
Ontiverso, a native of El Paso, Texas, died of liver cancer at a Los Angeles-area hospital.
She is believed to have played maids or domestic servants hundreds of times in film, television and theater productions. She appeared in films such as The Goonies, As Good as it Gets and Real Women Have Curves.
Ontiveros was a social worker in Los Angeles for nearly two decades before she responded to a newspaper ad looking for movie extras — a move that changed her career path dramatically. She made her first television appearance as a maid in an episode of Charlie’s Angels.
Her biggest claim to fame, however, was playing the role of Yolanda Saldivar, the leader of Selena Quintanilla-Perez’s fan club who wound up killing the famed singer — who was portrayed in the film Selena by Jennifer Lopez.
Ontiveros was a founder of the Latino Theater Company in downtown Los Angeles and was a mentor for countless Latin performers.
