BARBA, MERCEDES MECHE

(Mercedes Barba Feito)

(1922-2000)

   dancer/actress who was one of the mainstays of the cabaretera genre, often teamed with Fernando Fernández, she came to film from the variety theatre, and made her screen debut in 1943. Popular from the late '40s through 1953, then suddenly: "they froze me out. I still don't know why." Returned to films and television in the late 1980s. Won an Ariel Award as Best Female Co-Star for Los años de Greta (1992). Meche Barba died of complications from emphysema in January 2000.