Miriam Colón Dead At 80: Legendary Puerto Rican Actress Dies After Pulmonary Infection

Miriam Colón has passed away at the age of 80, her husband Fred Valle has confirmed. The cause of death was revealed to be complications from a pulmonary infection. Colón is a legendary Puerto Rican actress that was widely recognized as playing the mother of Tony Montana in the 1983 remake of "Scarface." The directors of Pregones Theater and Puerto Rican Traveling Theater released a statement honoring her legacy:

Miriam Colón was a theater, film and televisión actress, a defender of universal Access to the arts, and founder of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, she launched her career at the age of 12 and starred in her first film Los peloteros (The Baseball Players) for the legendary División de Educación de la Comunidad de Puerto Rico (DivEdCo).

She studied at teh Actors Studio in New York under Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg. In Hollywood she joined the cast of popular televisión series such as Bonanza and Gunsmoke and of important films of the moment such as One-Eyed Jacks y The Appaloosa with Marlon Brando. She won over audiences, together with Al Pacino, in the role of Mama Montana in Brian De Palma’s Scarface. Other starring appearances were in John Sayles’ Lone Star andCity of Hope , Billy Bob Thornton’s All The Pretty Horses the principal role in the film version of Rudolfo Anaya’s novel Bless Me, Última.

Her work on stage was enduring, highlighted by the success of The Oxcart, by René Marqués in New York in 1966, starring together with Raúl Juliá and Lucy Boscana under Lloyd Richards direction. The following year Colón founded the Puerto Rican Traveling THeater. At a time when there no other models for producing bilingual theater, in Spanish and in English. Colón served and provided resources, education and training in the arts to youth and adults of Caribbean and Latin American origin. She was a pioneer in the field bringing to light hundreds of playwrights and important works. Later, in consolidating the fusion with Pregones, Miriam Colón ensured the continuation of that legacy for future generations.

Throughout her formidable career she obtained numerable awards and recognitions, among them eight honoris causa doctoral degrees, Golden Agüeybaná , the GarcÍa Lorca Award from the University of Granada and the Image Award. In 2006 the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture dedicated its Theater Festival to her. In 2015, Miriam Colón received the National Medal of the Arts, the highest recognition for an artist in the United States, from the then President Barack Obama.

Pregones/PRTT joins the City of New York, the people of Puerto Rico and the world, in the acknowledgment of this great loss.