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Dolores Del Rio was the one of the first Mexican movie stars with international appeal and who had meteoric career in 1920s/1930s Hollywood. Del Rio came from an aristocratic family in Durango. In the Mexican revolution of 1916, however, the family lost everything and emigrated to Mexico City, where Dolores became a socialite. In 1921 she married Jaime Del Río (also known as Jaime Martínez Del Río), a wealthy Mexican, and the two became friends with Hollywood producer/director Edwin Carewe, who discovered Del Rio and invited the couple to move to Hollywood where they launched careers in the movie business (she as an actress, Jaime as a screenwriter). Eventually, they divorced after Carewe cast her in her first film Joanna (1925), followed by High Steppers (1926), and Pals First (1926). She had her first leading role in Carewe's silent version of Pals First (1926) and soared to stardom in 1928 with Carewe's Ramona (1928). The film was a success and Del Rio was hailed as a female Rudolph Valentino. Her career continued to rise with the arrival of sound in the drama/romance Bird of Paradise (1932) and hit musical Flying Down to Rio (1933). She later married Cedric Gibbons, the well-known art director and production designer at MGM studios.

Dolores returned to Mexico in 1942. Her Hollywood career was over, and a romance with Orson Welles--who later called her "the most exciting woman I've ever met"--caused her second divorce. Mexican director Emilio Fernández offered her the lead in his film Wild Flower (1943), with a wholly unexpected result - at age 37, Dolores Del Río became the most famous movie star in her country, filming in Spanish for the first time. Her association with Fernández' team (cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, writer Mauricio Magdaleno and actor Pedro Armendáriz) was mainly responsible for creating what has been called the Golden Era of Mexican Cinema. With such pictures as Maria Candelaria (1944), Las abandonadas (1945) and Bugambilia (1945), Del Río became the prototypical Mexican beauty. Her career included film, theater and television. In her last years she received accolades because of her work for orphaned children. Her last film was The Children of Sanchez (1978).

Marlene Favela was born on 5 August 1976 in Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango, Mexico. She is an actress and executive, known for Gata salvaje (2002), Rubí (2004) and Contra viento y marea (2005). She was previously married to George Seely.

Julio Cesar Cedillo was born in 1970 in Durango, Mexico. He is an actor and producer, known for A Million Miles Away (2023), Sicario (2015) and Upon Open Sky (2023).

Ramon Novarro was born José Ramón Gil Samaniego on February 6, 1899 in Durango, Mexico, to Leonor (Gavilan) and Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego Siqueiros, a prosperous dentist. Ramon and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1913, as refugees from the Mexican Revolution. After stints as a ballet dancer, piano teacher and singing waiter, he became a film extra in 1917. For five years he remained an extra until director Rex Ingram cast him as Rupert in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922). He was cast with Lewis Stone and Ingram's wife, Alice Terry (Ingram was also the person who suggested that he change his name to Novarro). He worked with Ingram in his next four films and was again teamed with Terry in the successful Scaramouche (1923). Novarro's rising popularity among female moviegoers resulted in his being billed as the "New Valentino". In 1925 he appeared in his most famous role, as the title character in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), and later co-starred with Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927). His first talking picture was Call of the Flesh (1930), where he sang and danced the tango. He continued to appear in musicals, but his popularity was slipping. He starred with Greta Garbo in the successful Mata Hari (1931), but his career began to fade fast. In 1935 he left MGM and appeared on Broadway in a show that quickly flopped. His later career, when he was able to find work in films, consisted mostly of cameos. On October 30th, 1968, Ramon Novarro was savagely beaten in his North Hollywood home by two young hustlers. They had heard - in error - that he had thousands of dollars locked away somewhere in his home. They never found any money, and Ramon was discovered dead the next day by his servant.

Francisco "Pancho" Villa was born Doroteo Arango to rural peasant parents in San Juan del Rio, Mexico, on June 5, 1878. He later took several aliases, the most popular and well-known being "Pancho Villa". Raised in poverty in Durango, he turned to cattle rustling and robbery as a young man. The turning point in his life, however, was the day his sister was attacked and raped by Mexican army troops. Villa wanted revenge against the whole world and soon turned from being simply a bandit leader into a full-fledged revolutionary with the aim of overthrowing Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz. To that end Villa became an ally of another revolutionary, the urbane and educated Francisco I. Madero, and although the two were about as opposite from one another as it was possible to be, Villa soon became a diehard supporter of the diminutive Madero, whom he affectionately called "the little man". Madero appointed Villa a colonel in the revolutionary army. On May 11, 1911, Villa led a daring raid against the federal stronghold of Juarez, soundly defeating the government forces and securing Madero's position as the new president. After Diaz was driven from power and Madero installed as president, Villa went home. His stay there was not to be very long, however. Two years later Madero was overthrown and executed by renegade Gen. Victoriano Huerta. Enraged, Villa re-formed his army, now called the Army of the North, and became an important member of a coalition of anti-Huerta forces, among whom were such legendary Mexican figures as Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza.

Villa's mounted troops, called "Villistas", were highly mobile and seasoned by years of fighting against the Diaz regime. They inflicted a decisive defeat on Huerta's army in northern Mexico at the Battle of Zacatecas on June 23, 1913, then began a campaign to drive Huerta's forces south to their stronghold of Mexico City. By December, in conjunction with the armies of Carranza and Zapata, Villa captured Mexico City, forcing Huerta to flee and placing control of the government in the hands of the three rebel leaders. However, the following spring Villa was forced out of the triumvirate when he lost a power struggle with Carranza. In the ensuing conflict his troops were badly defeated by Carranza's army and Villa was forced to withdraw to his headquarters in Durango. There he resumed his life as a bandit, raiding isolated American border towns and mining camps as well as Mexican villages.

On March 9, 1916, troops under Villa's command raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico, looted it, burned down much of it and caused the deaths of more than a dozen residents, although about 30 of their own men were killed by American soldiers and civilians defending the town (supposedly Villa was angered by the U.S. authorities allowing elements of Carranza's army, which was pursuing him, to cross through American territory as a shortcut in an attempt to get ahead of Villa and ambush him, and the raid was in retaliation for that). The U.S. government sent an expeditionary force into Mexico under Gen. John J. Pershing to capture Villa. However, Villa's maneuverability and superior knowledge of the terrain enabled him to elude the pursuing American troops, and Pershing's forces withdrew from the area the following year.

In 1920 the Carranza government struck a deal with Villa in which he agreed to halt his raids in exchange for settling down on a ranch in Canutillo and being appointed a general in the Mexican army. However, on June 20, 1923, Villa was ambushed and murdered in Parral by followers of Álvaro Obregón, a former army general, who feared that Villa would oppose their leader's candidacy for president in the upcoming elections. Immediately following his death the name of Pancho Villa was eliminated from all history books, children's books and all monuments in Mexico. It wasn't until 1975 (more than a half-century after his death) that both the Mexican and American governments felt safe enough to exhume his body, and when they did, they discovered that someone had stolen his head. After a large parade was held in his honor in Mexico, Pancho Villa's body was sent to the cemetery where many Mexican revolutionary heroes were buried, and he was finally given the proper burial he deserved.

Julio Bracho was born on 17 July 1909 in Durango, Durango, Mexico. He was a director and writer, known for Twilight (1945), Rosenda (1948) and Cantaclaro (1946). He was married to Rosenda Monteros and Diana Bordes. He died on 26 April 1978 in Mexico, D.F., Mexico.

'Chico' Hernandez was born on 2 January 1958 in Durango, Mexico. He is an actor and director, known for The Mask of Zorro (1998), The Mexican (2001) and The Legend of Zorro (2005).

José Torvay was born on 28 January 1909 in Durango, Mexico. He was an actor, known for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) and My Outlaw Brother (1951). He was married to Ofelia Carranza Silva. He died on 19 March 1972 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.

Andrea Palma became the first diva of Mexican cinema, when she appeared in the tragic leading role of Rosario, the prostitute of The Woman of the Port (1934), one of the iconic films of the "cine de pecadoras" genre that became a staple in the Mexican film industry. Andrea was the daughter of Julio Bracho Zuloaga, a wealthy land and textile factory owner who lost all his possessions during the Mexican revolution. Mr. Bracho moved his family to Mexico City, where Andrea became interested in theater during her school years, and later in fashion and hat design. She entered the hat business in the early 1920s and opened her own shop, called Casa Andrea (from where she took her first name as an actress, adding the last name of one of her clients, the elegant Mrs. Palma.) Known in the theater world, she had her first opportunity replacing her friend Isabela Corona when the actress gave birth to a child. She closed the shop and remained with the theater company and traveled to the United States, where she stayed until the early 1930s, helped by a young and struggling Cecil Kellaway, having small roles in the films of her cousins Dolores Del Río and Ramon Novarro and as hat and make-up consultant for Marlene Dietrich, when the German diva arrived in Hollywood. When she was called from Mexico and offered the part of Rosario, it was Dietrich's style that inspired her in creating her character. The languid, stylized and slim figure of Rosario stood out in a milieu of drunken sailors and ordinary prostitutes. The Woman of the Port (1934) became an instant success and Andrea Palma became a superstar, practically out of nowhere. In the succeeding years, she was much in demand: her next movie was completely opposite to Rosario, playing the famous 17th century poet, playwright and nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; she returned to Hollywood to make two "Latin film", took a four-year break doing theater and in 1943 she was directed by her brother Julio Bracho in the classic melodrama Another Dawn (1943). She played Julieta, a frustrated wife during the day and a prostitute during the night, and it is considered by many the best role and film in her career. After other movies, including a Tarzan vehicle, starring Johnny Weissmuller, in which she played the mother of actress Linda Christian, Andrea went to Spain to perform in a play and during rehearsals she met actor 'Enrique Díaz 'Indiano'' who became her only husband. When Andrea returned to Mexico, she was no longer considered a young leading lady and became specialized in character roles. In the 1950s she was in two classic "pecadoras" productions and huge commercial successes starring Cuban superstar Ninón Sevilla and directed by Alberto Gout, playing a mean brothel owner in The Adventuress (1950) and a suffering wife in Sensualidad (1951); and she worked with Luis Buñuel in The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955). Although she worked in the Mexican film industry until the 70s, Andrea Palma concentrated in television and theater since the late 1950s, including her weekly appearance as hostess of the popular series "La novela semanal", based on literature classics, until her retirement in 1979 due to illness. Her last role was besides her niece and goddaughter Diana Bracho in the series Ángel Guerra (1979).

Carmen Laroux was born on 4 September 1909 in Durango, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Cavalier of the West (1931), Saved by the Belle (1939) and Las campanas de Capistrano (1930). She was married to Elmer Ellsworth and Roberto O. Ybarra. She died on 24 August 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

René Elizondo was born on 16 July 1962 in Durango, Mexico. He is a director and composer, known for Poetic Justice (1993), Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989) and Janet Jackson: Again (1993). He has been married to Britt Coelho since 19 August 2010. They have one child. He was previously married to Janet Jackson.

Leonor Llausás was born on 3 August 1929 in Durango, Durango, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Los Fernández de Peralvillo (1954), Las poquianchis (De los pormenores y otros sucedidos del dominio público que acontecieron a las hermanas de triste memoria a quienes la maledicencia así las bautizó) (1976) and La casa al final de la calle (1989). She died on 13 February 2003 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Lorenzo de Monteclaro was born on 5 September 1939 in Cuencamé de Ceniceros, Durango, Mexico. He is an actor, known for Kingpin (2003), Las sobrinas del diablo (1983) and Las tres tumbas (1980).

Cosmé McMoon (born Cosmé McMunn; February 22, 1901 - August 22, 1980) was a Mexican-American musician, pianist and composer, best known as the accompanist to notably tone-deaf soprano Florence Foster Jenkins.

McMoon was born as Cosmé McMunn in 1901 in Mapimí, Mexico, the son of Maria (Valadez) and Cosme McMunn. His paternal grandparents were Irish.

He moved with his family to San Antonio, Texas around 1911. He moved to New York City around 1920 to further his musical studies, and likely adopted the McMoon surname around that time.

Foster Jenkins met McMoon in the late 1920s, and knowing McMoon was a concert pianist, eventually asked him to help her prepare for her performances and accompany her.

McMoon never ended up making a career in music after Jenkins' death in 1944, and instead took an interest in bodybuilding and judging bodybuilding contests. He resided in New York City until shortly before his death in August 1980. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and moved back to San Antonio, where he was buried.

McMoon was portrayed by actor Donald Corren in Souvenir, a play about Florence Foster Jenkins' career, which ran on Broadway in 2004 and has since been staged in many regional theaters.

He was portrayed by Simon Helberg in the 2016 feature-film about the life of Jenkins titled Florence Foster Jenkins.

Carlos Cardán was born on 3 November 1932 in Ciudad Lerdo, Durango, Mexico. He was an actor, known for The Scapular (1968), Muchachitas (1991) and Birds of Prey (1968). He died on 17 July 2016 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Silvia Manríquez was born in Durango, Durango, Mexico. She is known for Misterio en las Bermudas (1979), The Other Woman (2002) and Timeless Love (2010).

José Guadalupe Esparza was born on 12 October 1954 in Hermenegildo Galeana, Durango, Mexico. He is an actor and composer, known for Harsh Times (2005), The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002) and Two Women, One Road (1993).

Hernando Name was born on 6 February 1939 in Guadalupe Victoria, Durango, Mexico. He is a director and actor, known for Muerte en Tijuana (1991), Estrella negra (1992) and Emboscada (1990).

Juan Antonio de la Riva was born on 21 December 1953 in San Miguel de Cruces, Durango, Mexico. He is a director and writer, known for Vidas errantes (1985), Elisa Before the End of the World (1997) and El gavilán de la sierra (2002).

A star in her native Mexico, Revueltas was branded a Communist and deported from the U.S. after making her one U.S. film, "Salt of the Earth" (1954), a Mexican-American film about striking miners. She continued her acting career in Mexico, and was also a dancer and author. In her later years she was a dance teacher and yoga instructor.

Lico Reyes was born on 4 April 1946 in Durango, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Problem Child (1990), Joe (2013) and The Many Faces of Lee Harvey Oswald (1991). He died on 20 August 2019.

Felipe de Flores was born on 19 May 1907 in Durango, Durango, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Neutron Traps the Invisible Killers (1965), En busca de la muerte (1961) and Asesinos, S.A. (1957). He died on 28 July 1969 in Mexico D.F., Mexico.

Alejandro Reyna was born on 21 October 1920 in Gómez Palacio, Durango, Mexico. He is an actor, known for El ojo de vidrio (1969), Vuelve el ojo de vidrio (1970) and Valente Quintero (1973).

Pepe Jaramillo was born on 27 October 1921 in Lerdo, Durango, Mexico. He was an actor, known for What We Do in the Shadows (2014), Cooperama (1966) and The Dick Emery Show (1963). He died on 30 April 2001 in Mijas, Malaga province, Andalusia, Spain.

Born in Durango, Durango, Mexico. After finishing high school, Lorena made the move to Los Angeles in 2010 to study at the Stella Adler-LA acting conservatory. Before finishing the two year program, Lorena was called to read for the part of Sylvia in the Film "Cesar Chavez and American Hero" directed by Diego Luna. She was offered the job to play the daughter of Cesar Chavez opposite Michael Peña and America Ferrera as her parents.