Patricia Medina facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Patricia Medina
Medina by Allan Warren in 1973
Born	Patricia Paz Maria Medina (1919-07-19)19 July 1919 Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Died	28 April 2012(2012-04-28) (aged 92) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, Virginia
Nationality	British
Other names	Patricia Medina Cotten
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1937–1978
Spouse(s)	Richard Greene ​ ​ (m. 1941; div. 1951)​ Joseph Cotten ​ ​ (m. 1960; died 1994)​

Patricia Medina and Richard Boone in Have Gun - Will Travel (1959)

Patricia Paz Maria Medina (born July 19, 1919 – died April 28, 2012) was a British actress. She was well-known for her roles in movies like Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) and Mr. Arkadin (1955).

Early Life and Start in Acting

Patricia Medina was born in Liverpool, England. Her father, Laureano Ramón Medina Nebot, was a lawyer and opera singer from the Canary Islands in Spain. Her mother, Edith May Strode, was English. Patricia had two sisters, Piti and Gloria. They grew up in a large house in Stanmore.

Patricia started acting when she was a teenager in the late 1930s. She worked hard to get bigger roles in movies. By the mid-1940s, she moved from London to Hollywood, California, to continue her acting career.

Film and TV Career

In the 1950s, Patricia Medina often worked with British actor Louis Hayward. They appeared together in several films, including Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950), The Lady and the Bandit (1951), Lady in the Iron Mask (1952), and Captain Pirate (1952).

Because of her striking looks, Patricia often played characters in historical dramas. Two of her most famous films were Stranger at My Door by William Witney and Mr. Arkadin by Orson Welles.

Even though she was very busy in the early 1950s, her movie career slowed down by the end of the decade. She then started appearing more on television. In 1958, she played Margarita Cortazar in four episodes of Walt Disney's Zorro series. She also appeared in the Western show Have Gun, Will Travel with Richard Boone.

Patricia Medina also had guest roles in many other popular TV shows. These included Perry Mason (1958), Bonanza (1960), Thriller (1961), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964), and The Man from U.N.C.L.E (1965). She also appeared in Rawhide and Branded.

In 1968, she returned to the big screen in the movie The Killing of Sister George. Patricia and her husband, American actor Joseph Cotten, also performed together in several plays, including a mystery play on Broadway called Calculated Risk.

Autobiography

In 1998, Patricia Medina wrote a book about her life in Hollywood. It was called Laid Back in Hollywood.

Personal Life

Patricia Medina was married twice. Her first husband was British actor Richard Greene. They got married on December 24, 1941, in London and divorced in 1951.

On October 20, 1960, she married American actor Joseph Cotten. They were married in Beverly Hills at the home of David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones. Patricia and Joseph bought a historic house in Palm Springs, California, where they lived from 1985 to 1992. Patricia did not have any children from either of her marriages.

Death

Patricia Medina passed away on April 28, 2012, at the age of 92. She died from natural causes at the Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles, California. She was buried next to her husband, Joseph Cotten, at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia.

Film Roles

Siren of Bagdad (1953) with Hans Conried and Paul Henreid

Selected TV Roles

• Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers (1956)
• Zorro (1957)
• The Californians (1958)
• Perry Mason (1957 TV series) (1958)
• Rawhide (1960)
• Bonanza (1960)
• Thriller (1961)
• Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963)
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964)
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965)
• Branded (1966)

See also

In Spanish: Patricia Medina para niños