Margarita Lozano

**Margarita Lozano** (born Margarita de las Flores Lozano Jiménez on 14 February 1931) was a prolific Spanish actress whose career spanned more than five decades, bridging the golden ages of Spanish and Italian cinema. Raised in Lorca after being born in the former Spanish protectorate of Morocco, she moved to Madrid at nineteen to study fashion before surrendering to the stage, quickly becoming the favored collaborator of director Miguel Narros. Her early theatrical work included daring productions such as *Fedra* (1957) and *Three Sisters* (1960), where her performances were praised for their emotional depth and commanding presence. Transitioning to film, Lozano earned a National Syndicate of the Show award for her role as Ramona in Luis Buñuel’s controversial masterpiece *Viridiana* (1961). She then gained international recognition appearing as the aristocratic Doña Consuelo Baxter in Sergio Leone’s iconic western *A Fistful of Dollars* (1964) and as Madame Klotz in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s unsettling *Pigsty* (1969). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s she became a fixture in Italian cinema, working with the Taviani brothers on *The Night of the Shooting Stars* (1982) and *Kaos* (1984), and sharing the screen with Claude Berri in the beloved duology *Jean de Florette* and *Manon des Sources* (both 1986).

Beyond her screen achievements, Lozano remained a devoted theatre artist, returning to the stage in the late 1980s for productions like *Long Day’s Journey into Night* and *La vita che ti diedi*, and concluding her performing life in 2007 with *La casa de Bernarda Alba* under Amelia Ochandiano’s direction. Her personal life was marked by extensive travel—living in Germany, Madagascar, Italy, Senegal, and other African nations—yet she always returned to Lorca, where she cared for her ailing mother and eventually passed away on 7 February 2022, just shy of her 91st birthday. In recognition of her cultural impact, the Universidad de Murcia awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2015, and she later received Spain’s prestigious Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes in 2018.