CÁRDENAS, ELSA

(1938? or 1935? - )

   Petite brunette actress who began working in films in the 1950s. Because she speaks fluent English, Cárdenas has appeared in a significant number of Hollywood films, mostly those shot in Mexico (including 1963's Fun in Acapulco with Elvis Presley and Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, 1968), although she may also be seen with James Dean, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor in Giant (1956). Cárdenas, who was married to Hollywood director Oscar "Budd" Boetticher in the 1960s, played first or second female leads in mostly routine pictures into the early 1970s, and continues to work - now in character roles - in television.