Ana Adamuz

Biography

Spanish stage actress who made a few films. She was born Ana Adamuz Viva in 1900, in the tiny village of El Cañuelo, about 30 miles northeast of Màlaga, the town she would grow up in. (Some sources suggest Màlaga itself, or Escañuela in Jaen, as her birthplace, and 1886 or 1901 as her birth year, but the most reliable sources appear to favor the information stated above.) She attended the Academia de Declamación in Màlaga and came under the patronage of the Marquesa de Villapadierna, who helped her gain entry to some of the most prominent theatrical companies in Spain. Adamuz (she dropped her last name for the stage) made her dramatic debut in the Carmen Cobeña company, in Angel Guimerá's play Tierra Baja. She toured the United States with several companies, including one of her own, and appeared in the Spanish premiere productions of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband and An Unimportant Woman. She starred in Spanish translations of Bayard Veiller's The Trial of Mary Dugan and Emlyn Williams's The Corn is Green, as well as scores of plays of Spanish origin. She managed her own theatre company in Madrid and was an activist for dramatists' rights. She appeared in a mere handful of films. She retired shortly after her final film and stage appearances in 1948, though she lived another 23 years. She died in Madrid in 1971 and was buried at Cementerio de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena in Madrid. A street was named in her honor in her home city of Màlaga.