Maria Montez

A classic B-movie bombshell, Latin American-born Maria Montez was an actress with world-class beauty, immense charisma and a zest for life. Audiences weary from the Great Depression and the ongoing war relished Montez's colorful escapist adventures, including "The Invisible Woman" (1940), "South of Tahiti" (1941), "Bombay Clipper" (1942) and "Arabian Nights" (1942). Her winning box office formula made Universal Studios millions and saw the actress facing a variety of dramatic perils while draped in diaphanous costumes. She scored with movies like "White Savage" (1943), "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (1944), "Gypsy Wildcat" (1944) and, most memorably, "Cobra Woman" (1944), which found her playing warring twin South Seas sisters. Dubbed "The Queen of Technicolor" for her reign in deliciously campy fare, Montez married French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont and moved to France after the end of World War II. After appearing in several European films and authoring several books, she died unexpectedly on Sept. 7, 1951 after suffering a heart attack and drowning in her bathtub. To honor the actress, Montez's hometown named a street after her, and decades later, an international airport. Maria Montez became a lasting icon of B-movie glamour and campy feature film classics.