Ana Ofelia Murguía, a renowned Mexican actress who voiced Mama Coco in the 2017 Pixar film “Coco,” died Sunday at the age of 90.
The news of her passing was shared on social media by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, aka INBAL).
“With deep sadness we regret the death of actress Ana Ofelia Murguía, who was part of the stable cast of the @CNTeatromx (National Theater Company) of Inbal and whose artistic career was vital for the performing arts of Mexico,” read the tribute on X.
Murguía’s 40-year career in theater, film and television includes roles in Prime Video’s Gael García Bernal-led “Mozart in the Jungle,” as well as films “Tear This Heart Out,” “The Queen of the Night” and “No One Will Speak of Us When We’re Dead” with Victoria Abril. She starred in in 70 plays and more than 90 films.
“Her great acting quality will remain in the artistic memory of Mexico,” the Ministry of Culture of Mexico City said on X.
“She leaves an enormous void on our country’s sets,” Culture Secretary Alejandra Frausto Guerrero said in a statement.
Murguía won Mexico’s Ariel Award, the nation’s equivalent of the Oscar, three times. In 2011, she was presented with a Golden Ariel for career achievement.
She also won an individual and an ensemble Behind the Voice Actors award for voicing the elderly grandmother in “Coco,” whose memories prove to be the key to the main character’s quest to find his late father in the afterlife.
Murguía was born in Mexico in 1933 and graduated from INBAL. She got her start in an episode of the Mexican telenovela “La Tormenta” in 1967.
Her last role was in a 2018 episode of the Telemundo series “José José: El Príncipe de la Canción.”
