Early life

María Conchita Alonso was born María Concepción Alonso Bustillo in Cienfuegos, Cuba, the daughter of Ricardo Alonso and María Conchita Bustillo. Her family moved to Venezuela when she was five years old, in 1962, after the Cuban Revolution. She had her first experience in show business when she was crowned World Teen Princess in 1971, and was Miss World/Venezuela in 1975 where she became sixth runner-up in the Miss World pageant won by Puerto Rico's Wilnelia Merced; she quickly became a top model and a popular singer/actress in Venezuela.

Career

Alonso's first gold album and number one song in the charts was "Love Maniac" in 1979, her name as a singer back then was A'mbar, after that followed her second number 1 with "The Witch" and soon after "Dangerous Rhythm". In what is generally considered to be her best known song, she was asked by Giorgio Moroder to write the lyrics in Spanish and sing "Vamos a Bailar" which he had written to be part of the soundtrack for the film Scarface. The song instantly became a classic amongst Spanish speakers despite failing to garner any major attention outside of Cuba where it was recorded. As her two albums with Ambar and her solo debut were recorded in English, it was her second album María Conchita from 1984 that made her a singing star in the Spanish-speaking market, receiving a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Latin Performance".

She made her Hollywood film debut in 1984 in Moscow on the Hudson with Robin Williams, and also starred in movies like Extreme Prejudice, The Running Man, Predator 2, Touch and Go, The House of the Spirits, Vampire's Kiss and Colors.

She was one of the few Latin-born actresses to star in a Broadway show in 1995, playing Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman. She later acted in romantic comedies like Chasing Papi (2003) and The Last Guy on Earth (2006).

Alonso was cast to play Lucía, the mother of Gabrielle Solis, on the ABC hit show Desperate Housewives. The episode was aired on February 19, 2006. She was in the Latin version Amas de Casa Desesperadas for Univision Network. She was a guest star in the live-action film of the comic book El Muerto and appeared in the film Material Girls (2006).

Alonso hosted VH1's Viva Hollywood! on April 13, 2008 with Carlos Ponce. She portrayed Sam in the Werewolf horror film Wolf Moon, which was directed by Dana Mennie.

Alonso shot Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem, released in 2013. Her latest film, a fantasy short titled The Secret Of Joy, features her alongside fellow Venezuelan actor Carlos Antonio Leon, Spanish actress Laura Bayonas and Brazilian actress Ana Carolina Da Fonseca in a story that aims to bring awareness about pediatric cancer.

Political views

Alonso is an outspoken critic of Cuba's Fidel Castro and late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, whom she had described as a "dictator" like "Hitler," and those who vote and support him as "terrorists." She has appeared on Sean Hannity's Hannity's America on May 6, 2007, Hannity & Colmes on June 1, 2007 and Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor on August 13, 2007 and March 11, 2009.

Alonso issued an "Open Letter to Sean Penn" online on March 29, 2010 regarding his support of then-President Hugo Chávez. She used a point-by-point refrain of "WHY" in her letter questioning various issues occurring in Venezuela. In December 2011, she got into a heated exchange with Penn at a Los Angeles airport during which Penn called her a pig and she responded by calling Penn a communist.

In the fall of 2008, Alonso endorsed the presidential campaign of Republican nominee John McCain, writing:

As a Latina and a new American citizen, I believe in this country and its people, and I believe that we need more than just "change." We need a leader who can bring about the right kind of change, and John McCain has the experience and judgment necessary to lead us in these uncertain times. I grew up in Cuba and Venezuela, and I am appalled that Barack Obama apparently wants to emulate the "spread the wealth" economic policies of those countries and negotiate with their leaders.

In an August 2012 Spreecast interview, Alonso stated her opposition to Obama's re-election, saying that if reelected he will take steps to make the United States become more like Venezuela under the Chávez government.

In January 2014, Alonso resigned from a San Francisco production of The Vagina Monologues after appearing in an advertisement for Republican candidate for Governor Tim Donnelly.

On September 17, 2014, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro asked Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres to pursue on court legal actions to revoke Alonso's Venezuelan citizenship. The reason was her public request on a radio interview for a military intervention against Venezuela: "In my opinion, (the US) must intervene, because the Cubans already invaded without firing a single bullet because they gave it (Venezuela) for free. So I would like that the US would invade using bullets to get all those communist out of Venezuela"

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1978	Savana - Sesso e diamanti	Margaret Johnson	Italian B Movie
1979	Solon
1979	Estefanía	Silvana Cataldo	TV series
1979	Mabel Valdez, periodista		TV series
1980	Natalia de 8 a 9	Mariana Brito	TV series
1980	Mi hijo Gabriel		TV series
1981	Marielena		TV series
1981	Angelito		TV series
1981	Luz Marina	Luz Marina	TV series
1981	El Esposo de Anaís		TV series
1982	Claudia	Claudia	TV series
1982	Fantasy Island	French Girl	1 episode
1982	Knight Rider	Marie Elena Casafranca	1 episode
1984	Nacho	playing herself	TV series
1984	Moscow on the Hudson	Lucia Lombardo
1984	Fear City	Silver	as Maria Conchita
1986	A Fine Mess	Claudia Pazzo	aka Blake Edwards' A Fine Mess (USA: complete title)
1986	Touch and Go	Denise DeLeon
1987	Il cugino americano	Caterina Ammirati	aka Blood Ties (USA: TV title)
1987	Extreme Prejudice	Sarita Cisneros
1987	The Running Man	Amber Mendez
1988	Con el Corazón en la Mano
1988	Colors	Louisa Gomez
1989	One of the Boys	Maria Conchita Navarro	1 episode
1989	Vampire's Kiss	Alva Restrepo
1990	Predator 2	Leona Cantrell
1991	Cuerpos clandestinos (TV)	Claudia
1991	McBain	Christina
1992	Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (TV)	Carmen	aka Power Play: The Jackie Presser Story (UK: video title)
1993	Roosters	Chata
1993	The House of the Spirits	Tránsito Soto
1994	Alejandra TV series	Alejandra
1994	Texas (TV)	Lucia	aka James A. Michener's Texas
1994	MacShayne: The Final Roll of the Dice (TV)	Cindy Evans
1996	Caught	Betty	aka Atrapados (USA: Spanish title)
1996	For Which He Stands	Theresa Rochetti
1996	Sudden Terror: The Hijacking of School Bus#17	Marta Caldwell
1997	Women: Stories of Passion	Sophia	1 episode
1997	Chicago Hope	Emma Scull	2 episodes
1997	Robert Altman's Gun	Marti	1 episode
1997	Catherine's Grove	Charley Vasquez
1997	F/X: The Series	Elena Serrano	2 episodes
1997	Acts of Betrayal	Eva Ramirez
1998	Exposé	Nancy Drake	aka Footsteps (Philippines: English title) (USA: working title)
1998	Blackheart	Annette
1998	The Nanny	Concepcion Sheffield	1 episode
1998	The Outer Limits	Marie Alexander	episode: "The Vaccine"
1998	El Grito en el cielo	Miranda Vega	aka Shout Out (USA: festival title)
1998	My Husband's Secret Life (TV)	Toni Diaz
1999	Touched by an Angel	Dr. Sandra Pena	1 episode
1999	Dillinger in Paradise	Lola
2000	Chain of Command	Vice President Gloria Valdez
2000	Knockout	Carmen Alvarado
2000	A Vision of Murder: The Story of Donielle (TV)	Gloria
2000	Best Actress (TV)	Maria Katarina Caldone
2000	High Noon (TV)	Helen Ramirez
2000	Twice in a Lifetime	Kat Lopez	1 episode
2000	The Princess & the Barrio Boy (TV)	Minerva Rojas	aka She's in Love (UK)
2001	The Code Conspiracy	Rachel
2001	Resurrection Blvd.	Julia Hernandez	3 episodes
2001	Birth of Babylon	Lupe Velez
2002	Blind Heat	Adrianna Scott
2002	Robbery Homicide Division	Claudia	1 episode
2003	The Company You Keep	Vera
2003	Kingpin (TV mini-series)	Ariela
2003	Heart of America	Mrs. Jones	aka Home Room (Australia)
2003	Chasing Papi	Maria
2003	Newton's Law
2004	CSI: Miami	Marisela Gonzalez	1 episode: Blood Moon
2005	English as a Second Language	Consuelo Sara
2005	La Academia USA	Judge
2005	Smoke	Aurora Avila
2006	Desperate Housewives	Lucia	1 episode
2006	Material Girls	Inez
2007	The Dead One	Sister Rosa
2007	The Condor (V)	Mrs. Valdez (voice)	aka Stan Lee Presents: The Condor (USA: DVD box title)
2007	Saints & Sinners	Diana Martin	62 episodes
2008	Richard III	Queen Elizabeth
2008	Tranced	Libra
2008	The Art of Travel	Mrs. Layne
2008	The Red Canvas (post-production)	Maria Sanchez
2008	Trópico de Sangre (filming)
2008	Two Minutes Of Hate (announced)		Dos minutos de odio
2008	Unauthorized Clifford (announced)		Des-Autorizado (Venezuela: wide-release title)
2009	Maneater (miniseries)	Alejandra Alpert	Two episodes
2009	Dark Moon Rising	Sheriff Sam.
2009	Spread (film)	Rich woman from the pool
2012	Lords of Salem
2014	Return to Babylon	Lupe Vélez

Discography

• Love Maniac (Polydor/PolyGram, 1979)
• The Witch (Polydor/Polygram, 1980)
• Dangerous Rhythm (PolyGram, 1982)
• Te Amo (Polydor/PolyGram, 1983)
• María Conchita (A&M/PolyGram, 1984)
• O Ella o Yo (A&M/PolyGram, 1985)
• Grandes Éxitos (PolyGram, 1986)
• Mírame (PolyGram, 1987)
• Hazme Sentir (PolyGram, 1990)
• En Vivo México (Capitol/EMI Mexico, 1991)
• Imagíname (Columbia/SME Mexico, 1992)
• Alejandra: Boleros (PolyGram, 1994)
• Hoy y Siempre (ARDC/PolyGram, 1997)
• Grandes Éxitos (2004)
• Soy EP (Hypnotic, 2005)
• Greatest Hits (ARDC/Universal Latino, 2008)
• Mienteme (ARDC/Universal Latino, 2009)

Singles

Year	Song		Album
1987	"Sueltame"	22	Grandes Éxitos
1987	"Otra Mentira Más"	24	Mírame
1988	"Y Es Que Llegaste Tú"	5
1990	"Hazme Sentir"	24	Hazme Sentir
1991	"A Él Lo Quiero"	35
1993	"Promesas"	20	Imagíname

[ Source: Wikipedia ]