Leonora Amar on AllMovie

A Latin leading lady of extraordinary beauty, Leonora Amar graced a relative handful of movies in a career lasting less than a decade. Born Leonora Amaresco in Brazil, she was the daughter of a wealthy rancher of French descent, and decided on an acting career while still in her teens. She headed to Mexico City and was signed to a film contract in the late '40s. There she made a reported 16 movies over the next six years, using the name Leonora Amar. A handful of her films, including El Mago and Curvas Peligrosas, were released on a limited basis in the United States. A startlingly beautiful woman with a statuesque figure, Amar felt that her appearance and acting ability could carry her career north of the border, and she made one serious attempt at breaking into Hollywood during the early '50s. The result was her only English-language movie, United Artists' release of Captain Scarlett (1953). Shot in Mexico by an American director and producer, the movie, a swashbuckler set in post-Napoleonic France, featured Amar in a dashing role as a swordswoman and the love interest of Robin Hood-like hero Richard Greene. She could have been a perfect female answer to Zorro, based on the athletic ability that she showed in that movie, but Amar had much bigger plans for her career. She intended to do movies based on the lives of such powerful women as Eva Peron and Marie Antoinette, but she was never able to attract the attention of producers or the financing for them. She retired from movie work following Captain Scarlett.