Maria Conchita Alonso

María Conchita Alonso is an actress and singer whose career has spanned music, film, television, and theater. Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and raised in Venezuela, she began as a beauty pageant titleholder, including a top-seven finish at Miss World in 1975. Her first gold album and number one song, Love Maniac, arrived in 1979, and her 1984 album María Conchita earned the first of three Grammy nominations. She made her Hollywood debut in Moscow on the Hudson (1984), then appeared in The Running Man (1987), Extreme Prejudice (1987), Colors (1988), Vampire's Kiss, and Predator 2 (1990). Her role in Caught (1996) brought an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and later films include Chasing Papi (2003), Material Girls (2006), and The Lords of Salem. In 1995 she played Aurora in the Broadway musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, becoming the first Latin American actress born outside the U.S. to star in a Broadway musical.