Isabel Sarli facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Isabel Sarli
Sarli in 1960
Born	Hilda Isabel Gorrindo Sarli (1929-07-09)9 July 1929 Concordia, Entre Ríos, Argentina
Died	25 June 2019(2019-06-25) (aged 89) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Occupation	Actress model
Years active	1954–1980 1996–2009
Known for	Starring in several popular films directed by Armando Bó
Notable work	Thunder Among the Leaves The Female: Seventy Times Seven Carne Fuego Fiebre
Spouse(s)	Ralph Heinlein ​ ​ (m. 1953; div. 1954)​
Partner(s)	Armando Bó (1956–1981, his death)
Children	2

Hilda Isabel Gorrindo Sarli (born July 9, 1929 – died June 25, 2019), known as Coca, was a famous Argentine actress and model. She was best known for her roles in many films directed by Armando Bó during the 1960s and 1970s.

Isabel Sarli started her career as a model and won beauty contests. She became Miss Argentina and even reached the semi-finals of Miss Universe 1955. In 1956, director Armando Bó discovered her. She made her first movie, Thunder Among the Leaves, the next year.

Sarli became a big star around the world as the main actress in Bó's films. After Bó passed away in 1981, Sarli mostly stopped acting. She returned for a few film and TV roles in the 1990s before her death in 2019. Since the year 2000, her films have become very popular again and are seen as cult classics. Isabel Sarli is now remembered as a true pop icon.

Early Life and Modeling Career

Isabel Sarli was born in Concordia, Entre Ríos, Argentina. Her family was very poor. When she was three years old, her father left the family. Isabel and her mother then moved to Buenos Aires. Her younger brother passed away when he was only five.

Isabel trained to be a secretary and started working for an advertising company to help her mother. Later, she was offered a job as a model. She was so good at modeling that she quit her secretarial job. She even won an award for being the "most photographed model." Her mother gave her the nickname "Coca."

Becoming a Film Star

In 1955, Isabel Sarli was chosen as Miss Argentina. She even met the President of Argentina at the time, Juan Perón.

In June 1956, she met film director Armando Bó on a TV show. He offered her the main role in his movie El trueno entre las hojas (Thunder in the Leaves). This was the start of her journey to becoming a huge Latin American star. She even appeared in famous magazines like Time and Life.

Isabel Sarli and Armando Bó worked very closely together. She became the main star in almost all of his films until he passed away in 1981. During this time, Sarli turned down many offers to work with other directors. She only worked with Leopoldo Torre Nilsson on Setenta veces siete and with Dirk DeVilliers on The Virgin Goddess, which was her only English-language film.

Bó's films were very popular, even though some were initially seen as daring for their time. Movies like Fuego (1969) and Fiebre (1970) were shown in America and Europe.

Isabel Sarli also received offers to work in the United States and the United Kingdom. However, she chose to keep working in Latin America, always with Armando Bó. She made films in Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Paraguay, and Brazil.

After Armando Bó's death in 1981, Sarli stopped making movies for a while. She returned in the mid-1990s for the film La Dama Regresa (1996). This movie was inspired by her life and was a tribute to her. In 2009, she had a small role in the film Arróz con Leche. In 2011, she starred in Mis días con Gloria, playing a character based on herself.

Personal Life

Bó and Isabel Sarli in Una mariposa en la noche, 1976.

Before meeting Armando Bó, Isabel Sarli was married to Ralph Heinlein, but they later divorced. Even though they worked together for many years, Bó and Sarli never officially married. Isabel had two adopted children, Martin and Isabelita.

Achievements and Recognition

Sarli at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, 2008

In 2007, an Argentine film critic named Diego Curubeto made a documentary about Isabel Sarli called Carne sobre carne. This film was a tribute to her. It included scenes from her movies that were never shown before, rehearsals, and interviews.

On October 12, 2012, the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, named Isabel Sarli the Argentinian Ambassador of Popular Culture. This was a great honor. The official government statement said that Isabel Sarli was "a true representative of the national culture" and "an emblematic figure of Argentine cinema."

In 2010, her movie Fuego was shown in New York at the Lincoln Center. This showed how important her films were internationally.

A famous phrase in Argentina, "What do you want from me?", is often mistakenly thought to have been spoken by Sarli in her movie Carne (1968). This line actually came from another one of her films, ...y el Demonio creó a los hombres.

The famous film director John Waters has said that Isabel Sarli's movies inspired some of his own films. In April 2018, John Waters even presented Fuego in Argentina and met Isabel Sarli.

Filmography

Images for kids

• 

  Sarli in 1960

See also

In Spanish: Isabel Sarli para niños