Actors - Fanny Cano

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Fanny Cano

	Actors - Fanny Cano

Fanny Cano (born María Fanny Cano Damián February 28, 1944, and died December 7, 1983) was a well-known Mexican actress and producer, born in Huetamo, Michoacán, Mexico.

Although Fanny Cano had not appeared in a film for five years, her sudden death in December 1983 made headlines in Mexico, a testimony to the impact the beautiful blonde actress had in her relatively brief film and TV career. The 1960s were a period of transition in Mexican cinema, the last gasp of the "studio" system--such as it was--giving way to the mixture of independent cinema and cheaply-produced mass entertainment films that would characterize the 1970s and 1980s (before the industry itself collapsed in the 1990s).

Few new, lasting stars emerged in the decade: in 1965, for instance, one sees the majority of leading roles being essayed by performers who gained fame in the 1930s and 1940s (Cantinflas, María Félix, Marga López, Arturo de Córdova, Luis Aguilar, Resortes, Elsa Aguirre, Emilio Fernández, María Antonieta Pons, Tin Tan), and the 1950s (Fernando Casanova, Antonio Aguilar, Viruta and Capulina, Maricruz Olivier, Joaquín Cordero). Among the "stars" of the 1960s (even though in some cases their careers began earlier) active this year were Javier Solís, Manuel López Ochoa, Julio Alemán, Rodolfo de Anda, Enrique Guzmán and Alberto Vázquez (it could be noted that only de Anda and Alemán maintained significant film careers well into the 1970s and beyond, although the others--except Solís, who died before the decade was out--did stay active in TV and other venues). But leading actresses? Julissa, Sonia Infante, Lucha Villa, and Rosa María Vázquez were the four "new" actresses who earned the most credits in 1965: Julissa, although she would soon prove to be a capable actress, was still considered a "youth" figure, as was Rosa María Vázquez; Lucha Villa and Sonia Infante were generally typed in "folkloric" films (rancheras, rural dramas, and to some extent, Westerns). The time was ripe for a new star.

Fanny Cano Damián, for a brief time, seemed to be the chosen one. She was born in 1944 (some sources list 1945 and even 1948) in the town of Huetamo, Michoacán--also the birthplace of Lilia Prado--one of six children (5 girls and a boy) born to Francisco Cano and Aurelia Damián de Cano. Fanny came to Mexico City and enrolled in the national university (UNAM), studying psychology. While she was still a student, a journalist got Fanny a small role as a friend of Angélica María in the film El cielo y la tierra, shot in July 1962. As the story goes, when Fanny saw herself on the screen later that year, she was so upset by her appearance (in the film she is a brunette!) and her performance that she swore never to make another film. However, she soon changed her mind. In February 1963, a photo of Fanny Cano appeared on the entertainment page of Excelsior, where she was identified as the secretary of "Acción Femenil de la Federación Estudiantil Universitaria," visiting the offices of the newspaper to promote the activities of the group. This type of exposure was a typical publicity ploy of aspiring starlets, and Fanny soon saw her career get underway in earnest, beginning with a substantial role in the Cantinflas vehicle Entrega inmediata, shot that May. In all, she made five films in 1963, and three the following year. Buenas noches, año nuevo was a romance with music, pairing Silvia Pinal with Ricardo Montalbán, back in Mexican cinema for a brief sojourn, after years of work in Hollywood-- Fanny was given a substantial supporting role but, as with most of her early parts, was required to do little but look decorative.

Indeed, it was the rare Fanny Cano film that did not showcase her figure in lingerie, skimpy costumes, or bathing suits. Her blonde hair added to her "sexy"image, and her face had a distinctive cast, with its high cheekbones and (due to a slight overbite), a large and expressive mouth.

Gradually, Fanny's roles became more important and somewhat more demanding. In Los perversos, she plays a young woman who forms a crush on a priest (Arturo de Córdova), then accuses him of raping her. At the film's end, she is taken away to a mental hospital!

By the middle of the decade, Fanny Cano's career was progressing significantly. In 1966 she traveled to Spain to appear with José Luis López Vázquez in the comedy Operación secretaria. She starred in several very popular telenovelas--Yesenia, Rubí, and Muñeca (ironically, she did not appear in the film versions of either of the first two telenovelas, her roles going to Jacqueline Andere and Irán Eory, respectively)--as well as other TV shows and on the stage (like many notable Mexican performers from the 1940s through the 1960s, she had been trained for the stage by the famous Seki Sano). In 1967 Fanny made 6 films, but in 1968 only one, the multi-story Tres noches de locura.

1969 was the high-water mark in Fanny's film career. She starred in 4 films, all melodramas in which she was the primary female character: Una mujer honesta (which she co-produced, with Julissa and journalist Jaime Valdés, who had been responsible for Fanny's debut in El cielo y la tierra), La amante perfecta, Las cadenas del mal, and Flor de durazno.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Fanny Cano ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Fanny Cano; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay