Joanna in 1925. Her second role was in the film High Steppers the following year.

normal’>The Whole Town’s Talking in 1926 before landing her first starring role in Pals First, also directed by Carewe. She was declared the most beautiful face in Hollywood, to quote Bernard Shaw, “The two most beautiful things in the world are the Taj Mahal and Dolores del Rio”. When asked about her beauty she said “Take care of your inner beauty, your spiritual beauty, and that will reflect on your face. We have the face we created over the years. Every bad deed, every bad fault will show on your face. God can give us beauty and genes can give us our features, but whether that beauty remains or changes is determined by our thoughts and deeds”.

Ramona.  

The Red Dance, 1928. In 1929 Carewe enticed Dolores to work on his next film Evangeline. Like Ramona, the film was released with a Vitaphone disc selection of dialogue, music, and sound effects.

Orson Welles who would later describe Dolores as “the greatest love of his life”. Welles directed her in Day of Terror. She accompanied Welles as he filmed Citizen Kane. Welles proposed several projects with Dolores but none of them came to fruition. Welles was invited by Nelson Rockefeller to visit South America as an Ambassador of Goodwill to counter fascist propaganda about Americans. While he was away, Welles had affairs in Rio de Janeiro. Dolores got wind of this and ended the relationship by a telegram, to which he did not answer.

Bird of Paradise as a Polynesian beauty who would jump into a volcano. She was later invited to a screening of a Mexican film Que Viva Mexico which she attended with Ramon Novarro and Lupe Velez. The film was directed by Sergei Eisenstein and was accused of promoting Communism in California with nationalist sentiment and socialist overtones. Because of this, Dolores was accused of being a communist in the United States.

I Live for Love (1935), Universal Studios The Devil’s Playground (1937), and MGM’s The Man from Dakota (1940). It became increasingly hard for her to work because her name was placed on what was known as “The Poison List”, alongside Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West. This meant their salaries were considered too high and the theater owners did not know if they could recoup their money from low ticket sales.

Flor Silvestre, the first Mexican film to be screened at Cannes. Fernandez’s interest in Dolores went beyond the professional. He gave her the best roles, including in La Malquerida in 1949. Dolores got good notices for her portrayal of Raymunda, a woman confronted by her own daughter for the love of a man.

Bette Davis. The two would go on to marry.

Spencer Tracy in Broken Lance. Then came a rude awakening: Dolores was denied a work visa to return to the States and so the role instead went to Katy Jurado. In 1956, the political situation was resolved, and she returned to the US and started to work on stage. In 1957, Dolores was selected to be the Vice President of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival, making her the first woman to do so.

Flaming Star. She went on to shoot an Italian film with director Francesco Rossi called More Than a Miracle with Sophia Loren and Omar Sharif, in which she played Sharif’s mother. She played roles in various television shows, such as The Dinah Shore Chevy Show and other shows like I Spy. Her last show on television was Marcus Welby, M.D. Her last film was The Children of Sanchez (1978).