Edith González Fuentes (10 December 1964 – 13 June 2019) was a Mexican actress and dancer.
Her acting career began while she attended the popular Mexican variety show Siempre en Domingo, where she was chosen from the public to play a role in a sketch. From then on, she appeared as a child actress in small roles in several TV series and films from The '70s, making her film debut in René Cardona Jr.'s El rey de los gorilas (1977), alongside Hugo Stiglitz,note and appearing on Cardona Jr.'s Cyclone and Guyana: Cult of the Damned,note before being cast in her first mayor role in Los ricos también lloran. From then on, she would have a long career in telenovelas, with her most famous roles being as Mónica in the 1993 version of Corazón salvaje, the title character in Salomé (2001), and the title character in the 2008 TV adaptation of Doña Barbara.
In 2016, González was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, for which she received treatment and initially went into remission. Unfortunately, weeks of speculation of the return of the disease were confirmed when González died on June 13, 2019 as a result of it at the age of 54. In the eulogies that followed, González was fondly remembered by colleagues and fans as a great actress and a loving human being.
Series she appeared in with pages on TV Tropes:
- Cyclone (1978) as Tiersa Montava
- Los ricos también lloran (1979–1980) as María Isabel "Marisabel" Salvatierra
- Rosa salvaje (1987–1988) as Leonela Villarreal #1
- Corazón salvaje (1993–1994) as Countess Mónica de Altamira
- Salomé (2001–2002) as Fernanda "Salomé" Quiñones
- Doña Barbara (2008–2009) as Bárbara Guaimarán, "Doña Barbara"
This actress's work features examples of:
- Creator Backlash:
- González ended up being so disappointed at her character in Rosa salvaje that she ended up quitting the telenovela, saying "Nobody took me out. I resigned ... anything but to endure a humiliation." While for years it was assumed that González disliked playing a villain after having her first lead roles as heroines, it is now believed that it wasn't so much playing a villain (she even said that when she was first approached to play a villain, she though it was "cool"), but rather that her villain was only a secondary villain, since the telenovela's true Big Bad was agreed by everyone else to be Laura Zapata's character, the implication being that González assumed that she was misled. She also spoke of being "mistreated" during production, which most fans associate with an infamous scene where her character had pasta thrown at her.
- The character of Joselyn in Mundo de fieras was one that González was not particularly proud of, because the direction led her to turn into a cartoonish villain. Given that her character's tic of caressing everything she encountered while plotting her misdeeds led her to be mockingly compared with the Adam West's Batman incarnation of Catwoman, she may have had a point.I tried to build a character and all that remained was this camp crazy woman.
- Dye Hard: In Los ricos también lloran, she had her hair color dyed from blonde to brunette to back to blonde to make her look more like the protagonist's daughter. González, who was a natural blonde, remembered it as "one of the cruelest things" one can do to a natural blonde.
- Magic Plastic Surgery: The explanation given for her to be replaced with another actress on Mujer de madera; an enormous fire leaves her character horribly disfigured, so much that after several surgeries, she looks like a complete different person.
- The Other Darrin:
- Was replaced as Leonela on Rosa salvaje by Felicia Mercado.
- Was replaced as Marisa on Mujer de madera by Ana Patricia Rojo due to González's pregnancy.
- Playing Against Type: González became known for playing high-society sweet heroines, so certain characters she played through her career differed from that type.
- Her playing a street-smart nightclub showgirl in Salomé was a huge departure for her. That being said, when she has to play an older, more mature version of her character in the telenovela's second part, she resembles González's old characters much more.
- She was an out-and-out villain in Mundo de fieras.
- In Doña Barbara, the title character swung wildly between being an Anti-Hero and an Anti-Villain, and was more often than not the one who created the conflicts to be resolved.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Her getting pregnant while doing Mujer de madera resulted in her character having to be recast.
- Star-Making Role: María Isabel "Marisabel" Salvatierra in Los ricos también lloran was her big break.
- What Could Have Been:
- She offered to have her real-life pregnancy be written onto her character in Mujer de madera, but the producers refused and instead recast the role with another actress.
- She always wondered of what her career would've been if she tried her luck in Hollywood (her very European features not making her look typically Latina perhaps didn't help). Her only American film was a 2004 Direct to Video film, Señorita Justice, alongside Eva Longoria.
