CARREÑO, MECHE (MERCEDES)

(1947 or 49? - )

slim, dark dancer/actress who made her screen debut in 1964 and was soon promoted to leading roles in films such as Damiana y los hombres (1966) and No hay cruces en el mar (1967), where she invariably played innocent young women whose sexual attractiveness caused men (often older men) to go wild. In the early 1970s she began to receive more serious roles, winning the Best Supporting Actress Ariel for La choca (1973); she was also nominated for Los perros de Dios (1973). Carreño married director Juan Manuel Torres (she had previously been married to producer José Lorenzo Zakany Aldama), who directed her in La otra virginidad (1974), La vida cambia (1975), El mar (1976) and La mujer perfecta (1977). Torres died in an automobile accident in 1980 and Carreño made few screen appearances afterward (El día de las sirvientas, 1988, is her last to date), and moved to Paris for a number of years.