Italian born Mexican actress Martha Roth passes away at 84

The Mexican National Association of Actors has reported the passing of actress Martha Roth Pizzo at age 84.

Roth became a star during the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. She was born in Padua, Italy, on May 29, 1932, but moved to Mexico with her parents when she was 7 years old.

Her father was a renowned Hungarian cellist “who fell in love with Mexico and decided to stay.” The young Martha Roth developed an interest in acting and studied dramatic art with Seki Sano, a Japanese actor, director and choreographer who's considered to be the “father of Mexican theatre.”

Roth entered several beauty contests and won one in her attempt to get noticed by the movie industry, and after appearing in local newspapers, the director Alejandro Galindo sought her out to offer her a role in the movie he was developing at the time, Una familia de tantas (1948), in which she went on to lead alongside Fernando Soler and David Silva.

Una familia de tantas won her an Ariel Award, the most prestigious award in the Mexican movie industry, at the young age of 15.

Throughout her life, Roth appeared in over 40 films both in Mexico and in Hollywood in films such as The Black Pirates (1954) and Massacre (1956).