Iconic Mexican Actress Sasha Montenegro Dead at 78

Mexican actress Sasha Montenegro died on Wednesday (February 14) after suffering a stroke caused by lung cancer. She was 78.

Born Aleksandra Aćimović Popović in Bari, Italy, Montenegro was raised in Argentina. She was the only child of an immigrant couple from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 

She started her career in the entertainment industry when she relocated to Mexico in 1969. Her first film came three years later when she starred with José José in Un Sueño de Amor. And she obtained Mexican citizenship in 1989.

Montenegro would go on to make dozens of films over her 30-year career, including projects with Lucha libre star El Santo like Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein and Santo in Anonymous Death Threat.

She was also known for several Mexican sex comedies over the years, including Carnival Nights, Midnight Dolls, La Golfa del Barrio, and Fieras en Brama. This particular genre peaked in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s.

Montenegro also starred in a series of telenovelas from 1974 to 2002, including Ana del Aire, Lo imperdonable, Rina, and Un mujer maracada. In her last telenovela role, she played the main antagonist in Las vias del amor.

In the 1980s, she became romantically involved with then-president José López Portillo, who was married at the time. Montenegro and Portillo would later marry in 1995 and have two children, Nabila and Alexander.