MIAMI, United States. – Chelo Alonso was a Cuban actress who rose to fame in the golden age of Italian cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. She is still remembered today for her exotic beauty and her roles as the evil queen or seductive dancer in swords and sandals films ( genus peplum).
Though her stint as “queen of the peplum” was brief, her outlandish moves and performances earned her a place on the pedestal of international sex symbols and cult status. according to the IMDb platform.
Born as Isabel Apolonia García Hernández on April 10, 1933 in Central Lugareño, Camagüey, Chelo Alonso showed her inclination for dance from a young age. At the age of 17, she began acting seriously in Havana and soon gained notoriety at the National Theater of Cuba for her sensual and exotic style.
In 1957, she took her talents to Paris, where she became a sensation at the Folies Bergère as a young Josephine Baker. Known as the “Cuban Bomba H,” her style combined Afro-Cuban rhythms with seductive belly dance moves.
His foray into Italian cinema came soon after, when bodybuilder Steve Reeves burst onto the movie scene with his character Hercules, giving birth to a new genre.
Chelo Alonso, with his volcanic temperament, distinctive cheekbones and wild mane of hair, shared the screen with muscular actors like Reeves, Gordon Mitchell and Mark Forest in adventure films like The pirate and the slave (1959), Goliath and the barbarians (1959) and morgan the pirate (1960), among others.
In 1960, he met producer Aldo Pomilia while they were working on Morgan the pirate. They married a year later and had a son, Aldino, in 1962. After a brief appearance in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), starring Clint Eastwood, Cello starred in I ran or how I ran (1968), together with his Cuban compatriot Tomas Milian, in what is considered the best role of his career. Subsequently, she retired from cinema and focused on Italian television.
After the death of her husband in 1986, Chelo Alonso moved to Tuscany, Italy, where she found various interests to keep herself busy, such as her cats and running a hotel/restaurant.
The actress passed away at the age of 85 in Italy in 2019, leaving behind a legacy of talent and perseverance in the world of cinema and entertainment.
