Cecilia Romo

Cecilia Romo, also known as Ceci Romo (5 December 1945 – 30 August 2020) was a Mexican film, theatrical, and television actress. Prior to her professional acting career, which began in the 1980s, she was a member of Mexico women's national basketball team during the 1960s.^[1] Romo, who appeared in more than 30 theater productions during her career, was often cast as rebellious or comedic characters.^[1] Her telenovela and television roles became popular throughout Mexico and Latin America during the 1990s.^[1]

Biography

Early life and career

Romo was born on 5 December 1945, in Mexico City.^[1][2] She was raised in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.^[2] Her mother, Cecilia Santillan de Romo, was a high school teacher, while her father, Luis Romo Maconde, owned and operated several pharmacies and medical laboratories.^[1]

An athlete, Romo played for Mexico women's national basketball team during the 1960s.^[1] She then enrolled at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and received her bachelor's degree in 1978.^[1] Romo worked as an economist for the Mexican government before becoming a talent manager for advertising models.^[1]

Acting career

In the early 1980s, Romo received a phone call at her agency looking for extras for the American science fiction film, Dune, which was filming in Mexico at the time.^[1] Romo, who was 38-years old at the time, decided to sign up as an extra for film herself.^[1] She enjoyed the experience and quickly decided to pursue acting as a career.^[1] She was soon cast in the 1985 film, Los Náufragos del Liguria, which focused on a group of shipwreck survivors.^[1] Romo soon found on-screen acting roles in Mexican television during the mid and late 1980s as well, launching a decades-long professional TV career.^[1]

Romo was taller than most other television actresses, but became popular with audiences in Latin America and Mexico for her comedic facial expressions and gift for slapstick comedy.^[1] For example, in the 1990s telenovela De pocas, pocas pulgas, Romo enters a doctor's office, scaring the patient "with a syringe the size of a hunting rifle," according to the New York Times.^[1] In the TV Azteca telenovela Prófugas del destino (2010-2011), Romo utilized her trademark comedic facial expressions to play Madre Lourdes, a mother superior who discovers that several of the women in her convent are actually escaped fugitives disguised as nuns.^[1]

Romo also appeared in more than 30 professional theatrical plays and musicals, including the Spanish-language, Mexican productions of Hello, Dolly!, La Cage aux Folles, and Mame.^[1] In 2003, she appeared in the American film, Out of Time, starring Denzel Washington.^[2]

In 2012 interview for the program "Momentos de Telenovela" on Televisa San Luis [es], Romo discussed the range of characters she had played on stage and screen, which were often rebellious, but also comedic, "I've played all the nuns in the world: mother superior, the kitchen nun, the garden nun. All of them! In comedies, dramas, theater, musicals."^[1] Actress Mayra Rojas [es], who appeared opposite her in several productions, noted that "She [Romo] played a lot of villains, but the roles that she was most known for were playful and cheeky, because she was like that."^[1] Romo's villainous roles included a witch and evil nurses and nuns.^[1]

Romo was known for a personal and professional sense of humor.^[1] On the set of her final television series, Como tú no hay 2 (2020), Romo began whistling like a stereotypical truck driver to catch the attention of the crew and her co-stars.^[1] She and the show's writers ultimately incorporated her whistle into her character, Doña Remedios, a traditional healer in a local market.^[1]

Death

Cecilia Romo died from complications of COVID-19 in Mexico City on 30 August 2020, after a 169-day battle with the illness during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico.^[1][2] She had been hospitalized several times during her treatment for COVID-19 and its complications, including anemia and three pulmonary hemorrhages.^[2] Romo died just five months after she filmed her final episode of Como tú no hay 2.^[1]

Romo was survived by her third husband, film editor Guillermo Coelho; two of her four children, diplomat Claudia Romo Edelman and Luis Roberto Ravelo Romo; and two grandchildren.^[1] Her two other children, Adriana González Romo and Raúl González Romo, both died from genetic disorders as toddlers.^[1] Romo's previous marriages, to civil engineer Raul Domingo González Soto and musician Alfonso Ravelo, ended in divorce.^[1]

Filmography

Telenovelas

• Rosa salvaje (1987–1988)
• La casa al final de la calle (1989) - Verónica
• Lo blanco y lo negro (1989) - Cristina Carvajal
• Cadenas de amargura (1991) - Madre Superiora
• Valentina (1993) - Madre Eugenia
• Si Dios me quita la vida (1995)
• El premio mayor (1995–1996)
• Tu y yo (1996-1997) - Gudelia
• De pocas, pocas pulgas (2003)^[3]
• Marina (2006) - Madre Superiora
• Yo amo a Juan Querendón (2007)
• Amor sin maquillaje (2007)
• Juro que te amo (2008) - Olvido
• Mañana es para siempre (2008–2009) - Enfermera
• Prófugas del destino (2010) - Madre Lourdes
• Vivir a destiempo (2013) - Úrsula
• Como tú no hay 2 (2020) - Doña Remedios^[4]

Other television series

• La hora marcada (1988)
• La telaraña (1990)
• Papá soltero (1993)
• Que chavas (1994)
• Aquí está la Chilindrina (1994) - Sor Gertrudis
• Desde Gayola (2002) - Menopausica
• Mujer, casos de la vida real (1994-2006)
• ¡Que madre tan padre! (2006) - Señora Bueno
• Mujeres asesinas (2009) - Angeles Chata Bovela
• La rosa de Guadalupe (2008-2011) - Beatriz/Amparo/Martha/Felicia
• Como dice el dicho (2016) - Sarita
• Un día cualquiera (2016) - Tisibe
• Silvia Pinal, frente a ti (2019)

Films

• Los náufragos del Liguria (1985)
• El segundo aire (2001)
• Out of Time (2003)^[2]
• Fantasías (2003) - Michelle
• Corazón marchito (2007) - Isela
• Rock Marí (2010) - Edna
• Luz azul (2010) (short film)
• Amante de lo ajeno (2012) - Elvira

References

External links

• Cecilia Romo at IMDb

This page was last edited on 22 November 2022, at 20:51