Katy Jurado - Between Hollywood and Mexico (1954–1965)

Between Hollywood and Mexico (1954–1965)

In 1955 Jurado filmed Trial, directed by Mark Robson, with Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy. It was a drama about a Mexican boy accused of raping a white girl. Jurado played the mother of the accused. For this role, she was again nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Eventually she participated in a series of westerns like Man from Del Rio, with Anthony Quinn, and Dragoon Wells Massacre with Barry Sullivan.

Early in her career in Hollywood, Jurado had an affair with John Wayne; she later claimed that he wanted to marry her. Marlon Brando was smitten with Katy Jurado after seeing her in High Noon. He was involved at the time with Movita Castaneda and was having a parallel relationship with Rita Moreno. Brando told Joseph L. Mankiewicz that he was attracted to "her enigmatic eyes, black as hell, pointing at you like fiery arrows". They struck up a close friendship when Brando filmed Viva Zapata! in Mexico. Jurado recalled years later in an interview that "Marlon called me one night for a date, and I accepted. I knew all about Movita. I knew he had a thing for Rita Moreno. Hell, it was just a date. I didn't plan to marry him". However, their first date became the beginning of an extended affair that lasted many years and peaked at the time they worked together on One-Eyed Jacks (1960), a film directed by Brando. The project was originally to be directed by Stanley Kubrick, but, due to irreconcilable differences with Brando, he was replaced by Brando himself. In One-Eyed Jacks, Jurado played the role of Karl Malden's wife, and mother of the young Mexican actress Pina Pellicer.

"Marlon asked me to marry him many times, but for me my children were first", she said. "Our friendship pact was sealed with an Indian ritual for the rest of our lives." However, her true love was the western novelist Louis L'Amour. Jurado said: "I have love letters that he wrote me until the last day of his life. For our work, we could never match, but he was the man of my life and i, the woman of his life. I should have married that man". She also maintained a close friendship with stars like Anthony Quinn, Burt Lancaster, Sam Peckinpah, Frank Sinatra, Dolores del Río, John Wayne and many others.

On the set of The Badlanders ( a western version of The Asphalt Jungle), Jurado met her costar Ernest Borgnine, who became her second husband on December 31, 1959. The couple founded the movie production company SANVIO CORP.

Jurado debuted in European films in 1954 with the film The Racers with Kirk Douglas and Cesar Romero, and filmed in France, Italy and Spain. The film was directed by Henry Hathaway. In 1955, Katy traveled to Italy for the filming of Trapeze, directed by Carol Reed, with Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida. With her husband's support, she starred in Dino de Laurentis Italian productions like Barabbas with Borgnine, Anthony Quinn, Jack Palance and the Italian actors Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman. Her next film in Italy was I braganti Italiani, directed by Mario Camerini. Vittorio de Sica directed the film Il Judizio Finale with Katy, Ernest Borgnine, Vittorio Gassman, Silvana Mangano and Melina Mercouri. In 1967 she filmed A Man Alone, a co-production between Germany, Spain and United Kingdom.

In 1956 Jurado debuted on Broadway, playing Filomena Marturano with Raf Vallone, which would later be filmed in Italy as Marriage Italian Style with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.

Jurado returned to Hollywood in 1965, with the film Smoky, directed by George Sherman, with Davy Crockett. In 1966, she played the mother of George Maharis in A Covenant with Death. As her career in the U.S. began to wind down, she was reduced to appearing in the movie Stay Away, Joe (1968), playing the half-Apache stepmother of Elvis Presley.