Mercedes Pascual

She moved to Mexico at the age of nine, when her family had to leave Spain as a result of the Spanish Civil War, where she began attending ballet classes, participating in the Ballet Moderno de Bellas Artes and the Ballet de Opera de Bellas Artes. She later studied acting with maestro Seki Sano and at the Andrés Soler Theater Academy. Her debut as an actress was in the play La soga in 1952. The following year she became a Mexican citizen. She was the driving force and founder of the National Theater Company, and joined the stable cast when it was restructured in 2008; in 2012, she was distinguished as a Number One actress.

She had an extensive career as an actress, participating in films such as Persíguelas y alcánzalas, El retrato de Anabella, Jóvenes delincuentes, Ángel de fuego, Novia que te vea (for which she was nominated for an Ariel) and Cilantro y perejil, among many others. In television she has participated in several telenovelas, including Mi esposa se divorcia, Maximiliano y Carlota, El manantial del milagro, Viviana, Cuna de lobos, Teresa, Muchachitas, Retrato de familia and El candidato. She also acted in plays such as Miércoles de ceniza, Las criadas and El vestidor.

Mercedes married diplomat Víctor Flores Olea with whom she had her only daughter, actress Mercedes Olea. She was previously married to actor Claudio Brook, with whom she had her daughter Claudia Brook.

Her last participation was in the TV Azteca soap opera Emperatriz, where she played Doña Leonor Bustamante.

At the age of nine she began attending ballet classes, "I started in the art because I saw some great ballet artists on a ship going from Finland to I don't know where. I saw them doing their warm-up and they fascinated me, I put myself in a little corner to do the same steps they did and they told me: come here to the bar and do it with us.