Trivia

While waiting for the return of her husband from war, she wrote a novel, "Forever Is a Long Time". Beforehand, she had written a few poems in Spanish.

Despite being born in the Dominican Republic, she was actually Spanish, the daughter of the Honorary Spanish vice-consul in Santo Domingo.

For her stage name, she chose the last name of Montez in honor of dancer Lola Montes, a favorite of Maria's father. However, she was overruled by the studio when she insisted on spelling it with an S, not a Z.

Was a major iconic figure of gay camp in the 1950s and '60s. In addition to being a character who appears in various Andy Warhol's films of the 1960s (played by Mario Montez, she appeared as a major character in Gore Vidal's 1974 novel "Myron," his sequel to "Myra Breckinridge".

The international airport at Barahona, Dominican Republic, is named the Maria Montez International Airport in her honor. (1997)

At 15 she went to Ireland and played a few minor roles in plays there before marrying a wealthy Irishman, William G. McFeeters. However, little prepared for the austere life on a big estate, Maria hit the road again in 1939 and landed in New Yor,k where she became a much sought-after model, notably for McClelland-Barclay.

Mother, with Jean-Pierre Aumont of Tina Aumont b. 1946, Los Angeles, CA).

Accepted Jean-Pierre Aumont's marriage proposal despite the fact that his "duties as a French officer" would call him overseas a few days after the wedding. She jokingly cracked that he had left her "to cold showers.".

Universal's best-paid star during the mid-1940s.

She was educated in a convent in the Canary Islands.

In the early '40s she sat for a photo the Hays Office judged licentious.

Humorously portrayed in "Myron" by Gore Vidal (1973)

Aauditioned for Orpheus (1950). and Samson and Delilah (1949) but got neither the part of Death nor of Delilah.

Her mother was the daughter of political refugees.

The second daughter of ten children, her father was a textile exporter and the Honorary Vice Consul of Spain in the Dominican Republic.

Sister of Julia Andre and Teresita Montez.

In 1951 she won a lawsuit against producer Seymour Nebenzal for $50,000 over money she was owed from Siren of Atlantis (1949). Unfortunately for her,m since the picture was a huge flop and made no money, she never collected.

Female impersonator/"drag queen" Mario Montez (born Rene Rivera) modeled his drag person (and name) on her.

Her sisters Ada and Teresita Montez found her drowned in the bathtub of her Parisian home in Suresnes , presumably suffering from a heart attack , at the age of only thirty-nine. It seems that her syncope was due to the actress's habit of bathing with excessively hot water temperatures.

Montez endorsed Max Factor Cosmetics, Jergens Lotion, Deltah Pearls, Lux Soap, and Woodbury Powder.

Dalia Davi, Puerto Rican actress from the Bronx, created the 2011 play The Queen of Technicolor Maria Montez. Davi wrote, directed, and starred in the play.

Montez is a key character in Gore Vidal's 1974 novel Myron, his sequel to Myra Breckenridge.

For more than a year, Montez was reportedly engaged to Claude Strickland, a flight officer with the RAF whom she met in New York. However, it was later revealed that this was just a publicity stunt.

The journalist and Dominican actress Celines Toribio stars as Montez in the 2015 film María Montez: The Movie (2014), which she also executive produced.

She left the bulk of her $200,000 estate (more than $2 million in 2021 dollars) to her husband and their five-year-old daughter.

In 1995, Montez was awarded the International Posthumous Cassandra, which was received by her daughter, Tina Aumont. In March 2012, the Casandra Awards were dedicated to Montez to commemorate the centenary of her birth.

The American underground filmmaker Jack Smith idolized Montez as an icon of camp style. He wrote an aesthetic manifesto titled "The Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez", and made elaborate homages to her films in his own, including his notorious Flaming Creatures (1963).

Montez also wrote three books, two of which were published, as well as penning a number of poems.

In 1949 Jean-Pierre Aumont announced that they would get divorced but they remained together until Montez's death.

In 1998, the TV show Mysteries and Scandals made an episode about Maria Montez.

She is buried at the Cimetière de Montparnasse, in Paris, France, with her daughter Tina Aumont, Aumont's baby daughter, and her youngest sister, model Teresita Montez.