Mercedes Pascual

Acting

Mercedes Pascual

Born 1930-09-25 · Madrid, Spain

She moved to Mexico at the age of nine, when her family had to leave Spain as a result of the Spanish Civil War, where she began attending ballet classes, participating in the Ballet Moderno de Bellas Artes and the Ballet de Opera de Bellas Artes. She later studied acting with maestro Seki Sano and at the Andrés Soler Theater Academy. Her debut as an actress was in the play La soga in 1952. The following year she became a Mexican citizen. She was the driving force and founder of the National Theater Company, and joined the stable cast when it was restructured in 2008; in 2012, she was distinguished as a Number One actress. She had an extensive career as an actress, participating in films such as Persíguelas y alcánzalas, El retrato de Anabella, Jóvenes delincuentes, Ángel de fuego, Novia que te vea (for which she was nominated for an Ariel) and Cilantro y perejil, among many others. In television she has participated in several telenovelas, including Mi esposa se divorcia, Maximiliano y Carlota, El manantial del milagro, Viviana, Cuna de lobos, Teresa, Muchachitas, Retrato de familia and El candidato. She also acted in plays such as Miércoles de ceniza, Las criadas and El vestidor. Mercedes married diplomat Víctor Flores Olea with whom she had her only daughter, actress Mercedes Olea. She was previously married to actor Claudio Brook, with whom she had her daughter Claudia Brook. Her last participation was in the TV Azteca soap opera Emperatriz, where she played Doña Leonor Bustamante. At the age of nine she began attending ballet classes, "I started in the art because I saw some great ballet artists on a ship going from Finland to I don't know where. I saw them doing their warm-up and they fascinated me, I put myself in a little corner to do the same steps they did and they told me: come here to the bar and do it with us. At the age of 12. Mercedes Pascual entered dance classes with a Russian teacher Zakharov, later with Nina Shestakova and Sergio Unger. The actress did not give up professional dance until she was 25 years old and even then, she continued taking dance classes because she was certain that "many things could be translated from dance to theater". She received a scholarship from the French government to study drama in Paris, France, from 1960 to 1961 with Tania Balachova and mime with Jacques Lecoq. He was a founding member of the Université du Théâtre des Nations created in Paris in 1960. After her studies in France, she was called by Benito Coquet, Ignacio Retes and José Solé to join the Social Security Company from 1960 to 1964, The actress received a scholarship from the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes for a postgraduate course in drama in London, England, at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with Peter Hall and Liziz Picks in 1970. This scholarship was possible thanks to the support of Héctor Azar and the architect Luis Ortiz Macedo, director of INBA at the time.

Acting credits

Vieja moralidad poster
6.3

The relationship between a nephew and his aunt in the begining of Mexico's 20th century.

Vieja moralidad

1988

Jóvenes delincuentes poster
6.3

A group of young people lives in a world of drugs and crime, they wanna be free.

Jóvenes delincuentes

1991

Recipes to Stay Together poster
5.9

"Cilantro y perejil" is a comedy about couples from the same family, hit by the economic crisis in Mexico. The plot turns around the eternal question of whether it is worth it to live as a couple. The conclusions are fun, unpredictable and very human. After ending a ten-year marriage, Carlos and Susana try to fall in love with other people without success. As the days go by, Carlos realizes that without Susana he is unable to do many things, including distinguishing cilantro from parsley.

Recipes to Stay Together

1996

Ángel de fuego poster
5.9

The young trapeze artist Alma is part of the show of a miserable traveling circus. In an act of desperation, Alma commits incest with her father, a sick clown obsessed with the woman who abandoned them. Determined to have his child, Alma leaves the circus and joins a group of preachers led by Refugio, a woman who performs puppet shows with biblical passages in poor neighborhoods.

Ángel de fuego

1992

El juicio de Martín Cortés poster
6.0

A politically-themed stage play provokes a murder. Police detective walks the cast through a reenactment of their performance as a way of investigating the crime.

El juicio de Martín Cortés

1974

The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales poster
8.0

A taxidermist decides to murder his wife after having to put up with her after twenty years of hellish marriage.

The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales

1960

Una adorable familia poster
6.0

Mexican feature film

Una adorable familia

1987

Like a Bride poster
5.4

Oshinica Mataraso and Rifke Groman are from two families from Europe: the Mataraso are Sephardic who came to Mexico after being expelled by the Catholic Monarchs, and the Groman are Ashkenazi and their lineage had to face the Holocaust. Oshinica and Rifke are Mexican-born Jews, although they feel treated as foreigners. Anxious to find their identity, Oshi and Rifke confront the traditions of their relatives.

Like a Bride

1994

Matrimonio y mortaja poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Matrimonio y mortaja

1992

A Good Death Beats a Dull Life poster
5.4

The women of a prosperous provincial family hide unsuspected secrets which range from the entanglements of love to murder for mercy or for greed. The story of these eccentric women combines love, potions, black humor and death.

A Good Death Beats a Dull Life

2006

La paloma de Marsella poster
6.0

Amelia is an old retired prostitute who lives at an asylum, where she decides to enter a T.V. contest.

La paloma de Marsella

1999

Tamara and the Ladybug poster
5.3

Tamara, a woman with a mental disability, tries to return a borrowed baby to his parents, but she can't remember where she found him.

Tamara and the Ladybug

2016

Las Troyanas poster
6.8

Adaptation of Euripides: lamentations of the women of Troy after their defeat in war.

Las Troyanas

1963

No artwork available
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

Los años verdes

1967

I Love You Catalina poster
6.0

An unseen person enters a taxi late at night. Suddenly the taxi driver is stabbed with a large metal knitting needle. From there we meet our female killer. Catalina is a very plain Jane looking young lady. She wears some geeky glasses and usually dresses very conservatively. She lives with her grandmother and they both seem to loathe men. Catalina’s grandmother mentions that her late daughter/Catalina’s mother was troubled by men and that cost her her life. Catalina and her mother resemble each other. At night, Catalina awakens by the vengeful spirit of her mother to advise her to go out and kill men. The kind that only want to take advantage.

I Love You Catalina

1986

El valor de vivir poster
6.7

Concert pianist unjustly convicted of espionage. On release, he hooks up with a terminally-ill ballerina.

El valor de vivir

1954

A la Misma Hora poster
6.3

Mexican feature film

A la Misma Hora

1988

Persiguelas y... alcanzalas poster
6.0

After a millionaire playboy is murdered, police enlist a look-alike of the victim to impersonate him in a sting operation.

Persiguelas y... alcanzalas

1969