- Born
- Died
- Birth nameYolanda Ivonne Móntez Farrington
- Yolanda Montes, artistically known as "Tongolele", became a professional dancer when she was only 15 years old. Tongolele was an exotic dancer and actress of Mexican films from the late 1940's into the 1980's. She was and still is well known in Latin America and Spain. Her father was Spanish/Swedish and her mother English/French, but her maternal grandmother had Tahitian blood. Yolanda Montes "Tongolele is still active as dancer and actress on theatre, television and night clubs.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous
- SpouseJoaquín González(1956 - December 22, 1996) (his death, 2 children)
- Made her professional debut as a dancer in 1947 at the Tivoli Theater in Mexico.
- In 1971, Tongolele played in the Mexican-American co-production Isle of the Snake People. In the film, she appeared alongside the American actor Boris Karloff. The plot of the film was located on a small island in the middle of the ocean where some beautiful young women are transformed into blue-faced man-eating zombies. Tongolele played the role of Kalea, the dancer with the snake.
- She began to show symptoms of senile dementia since 2010. Some time later, it was specified that her illness was actually Alzheimer's , and in 2021, it was reported that her condition had already advanced rapidly, to the point of not recognizing anyone, except for her children and her caregivers. As a therapy to slow down the effects of Alzheimer's, she began practicing her old Tahitian dance routines in her own dance studio, located inside a mansion she owned, in the state of Puebla.
- Her career was sheltered by theatrical success in the main theaters and cabarets of Mexico City.
- With the rise of Mexico City's nightlife in the 1970s and the rise of the vedettes, Tongolele resumed her career in nightclubs and movies, as well as appearing on television shows.
- In real life I'm kind of like Dorian Gray; the older I get, the younger I look.
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