María Antonia Abad Fernández MML, known professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish-Mexican actress and singer. She began her career in the 1940s and became the most internationally popular and highest paid star of Spanish cinema in the 1960s. She appeared in nearly fifty films and recorded around 500 songs in five different languages.
Montiel was born in Campo de Criptana in the region of La Mancha in 1928. She began her acting career in Spain starring in films such as Don Quixote and Madness for Love. She moved to Mexico where she starred in films such as Women's Prison and Red Fury. She then moved to the United States and worked in three Hollywood English-language films Vera Cruz, Serenade and Run of the Arrow. She returned to Spain to star in the musical films The Last Torch Song and The Violet Seller. These two films netted the highest gross revenues ever recorded internationally for films made in the Spanish-speaking movie industry during the 1950s/60s and made her immensely popular. She then established herself also as a singer thanks to the songs she performed in her films and combined filming new musical films, recording songs and performing live.