Biography

Mecha Ortiz is a legendary Argentinean actress whose real name was María Mercedes Varela Nimo Domínguez Castro de Ortiz. She was considered the Greta Garbo of the Argentine films and theatre world; born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on September 24, 1900. Her parents were Vicente Varela Nimo and Josefa Domínguez Castro. She married Julián Ortiz, a small farmer with whom she had a son, Julián, diplomatic, translator and playwright who was married to Violeta Bertina. She had a brother called José, who was a theatre director and a sister, Amanda who also was an actress. She had two more sisters called Josefa and Aurora. She was Argentine President Roberto M. Ortiz' relative. She attended courses at the National Drama School. Her debut was in 1929 and she made audiences familiar with plays written by several famous authors, among them: Terence Rattigan, Frank Voksper, Agatha Christie, James Barrie, W. Somerset Maugham, and Noël Coward. Amongst her films were: Women Who Work (1938), Safo: A Passion Story (1943), Camino del infierno (1946), Madame Bovary (1947), Bendita seas (1956) and Piedra libre (1976).
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

She was a star from the very beginning. But her capacity as an actress had a wide range, not always well used. There are movies where she did not star such as Outrage or Deshonra (Daniel Tinayre-1952), The Grandfather or El Abuelo (Roman Viñoly Barreto-1955, and it was possible to discover in her the rare talent of a serious actress. Today she is best remembered as a old woman -- more than 40 or 50 years old -- in love with younger, too much younger actors on the screen. But she was a complex personality and it can be seen even in very small roles or cameos. Pity she did not or could not work before the cameras using her full capacity. Her image was exploited by Jose Martinez Suarez in The Old Boys Did Not Use Arsenic -- Los Muchachos De Antes No Usaban Arsenico (1976). In this film, her last one released and at 75, she showed she had not lost the spark that made her one of the legends of Argentine cinema.
- IMDb mini biography by: abel posadas