Actress, singer and vedette, Mary Santpere managed to enter the field of comedy, which was monopolised by men. She became famous as the “Queen of the Paral·lel” because of her prominent presence at the theatres on Barcelona’s Av. Paral·lel. She worked on both the small and the big screen and was an outstanding theatrical performer. In 1938 she made her début as a film actress with Paco Martínez Soria, who she also worked with on other occasions. Shortly afterwards, she met director and scriptwriter Ignasi Ferrés Iquino (better known as Ignacio F. Iquino), who she would collaborate with for over four decades. In the 1950s she got her break as a musical theatre actor, but her career as a comic actor would continue until the end of her life. Versatile and charismatic, the roles she played, such as that of the countess in Luis García Berlanga’s National Heritage (1981), were unforgettable. In 1959 she received the Círculo de Bellas Artes Gold Medal, and in 1988 the Generalitat de Catalunya awarded her the Premi d’Honor de la Generalitat de Catalunya.
An actress, singer and vedette, she managed to enter the field of comedy, which was monopolised by men. She became famous as the ‘Queen of the Paral·lel’ because of her prominent presence at the theatres on that avenue.