Jaime Bravo
Jaime Bravo might well be considered a classic example of a star that never burned. In the late 1960s he was clearly being groomed for movie roles. Then tragedy struck and he was killed. Who knows how far he might have gone or if he would have even been the hit that some some hoped.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Mexico was full of crossover movie stars. You had the singer, Antonio Aguilar, making western films, usually singing in them like a Latin version of Elvis, the scripts groomed to fit his more high-profile career. You had Gaston Santos, the rejoneador, making movies. You had wrestlers like Blue Demon, El Santo, Chanoc, Mil Mascaras and Nathaniel Leon making horror films. Then you had bullfighters like Carlos Arruza, Luis Procuna and David Liceaga entering the field. Like the last group, Jaime Bravo was a bullfighter for many years, especially popular with the ladies and with the border town crowds. He had the looks, if not the talent, to make it on the screen and to some producers, that’s all that mattered.
Bravo played a small part in a movie called “Call Of A Bull”, which was available through a California distributor some years ago in both English and Spanish. The film starred the late Emilio Fernandez and a cast of Americans, the main theme being about a woman wanting to be a bullfighter. Bravo was there, for more reason than not, just to see how he looked on the screen.
He was also the topic of a (currently unavailable) documentary directed by the American, Art Swerdloff. This film, titled “The Making Of A Matador”, was a David Wolper production, with Bravo demonstrating what a bullfighter went through as he rose to stardom in the rings. “It is one of my favourite half hour films,” Swerdloff commented recently when asked about it. “One of the best I’ve done.”
Away from the bullrings Bravo already had the making of a big screen movie idol, if only by his - often scandalous - behaviour. His reputation as a romantic was well-known and more often than not, caused him trouble.
The biggest scandal concerning Bravo and his misadventures related to Arabella Arbenz, daughter of Guatemala’s leftwing president Jacobo Arbenz, who was ousted long ago. This woman was a top fashion model, who eventually committed suicide in front of the matador. After all this, Bravo had a son by an actress named Ann Robinson, whom they named Stephen, though whatever happened to him is anyone’s guess. Clearly, this bullfighter made the rounds.
By the late 1960s, Bravo was aging and could not function as well as he had in the bullring. He still had his looks and, as such, was looking to the film world for a career after retiring from the bulls. There were a variety of production companies keen on giving him a go. He had a high enough profile that his name could draw the people, both within the Mexican interior and in the USA. Keep in mind he had a large following in the border towns, such as Tijuana, Nogales, Juarez and Matamoras, making his name easily recognizable in states such as California, Arizona and Texas as well. But such was not to be.
In 1970, Jaime Bravo was killed in a car crash, spelling an end to whatever hopes there might have been for him to establish himself as a movie star.
Tuesday 18 Mar 2003 | Dale Pierce | Profiles
