Lillian Molieri

Lillian Molieri Bermúdez was born in Managua to Mélida Bermúdez and L. Arturo Molieri.[1] Her father was the president of the Nicaraguan National Bank.[2] Her family was of Italian descent, but had lived in Nicaragua for three generations prior to Molieri's birth. The oldest daughter in the family,[1] she attended school at the Convento Notre Dame de Cion and then furthered her education at the Colegio de la Asuncion in Nicaragua.[3] Completing her high school education, Molieri traveled in Europe learning French and Italian.[1] After winning several beauty contests in Nicaragua in the early 1940s, she came to Los Angeles, where her brother Ronald was serving as Nicaragua’s Vice Consul, to improve her English and enrolled in university to study banking.[3][4][5] She was discovered by Paramount while at university and offered her first movie role in 1944.[6][7]

Molieri in 1953

Her first appearance was in The Princess and the Pirate (1944).[1] In 1945, Molieri starred in Lambert Hillyer's western South of the Rio Grande for Monogram Pictures. She sang two songs in the film, appearing opposite Duncan Renaldo as the Cisco Kid. In John Cromwell's Anna and the King of Siam the following year she portrayed one of the wives of the King (Rex Harrison).[1] She had a featured role in Paramount's People Are Funny.[7] In May, 1949, Molieri was married to Adolph Hartman, Jr., a descendant of one of the founders of Anaheim, California.[8]

Because of typecasting, Molieri was often limited to roles where she played stereotypical parts as an exotic, foreign woman. She was often assigned bit parts,[1][9] like in Valentino, with Anthony Dexter. Dexter became her dancing partner and he and Molieri performed routines which toured from the Midwest to Miami. The duo mainly performed Spanish or South American dances, but also included tap and ballroom dancing in their repertoire.[10][11] She also performed in several television roles, most noted was her appearance as "Carlota Romero", Ricky Ricardo's long-lost Cuban girlfriend in an episode of I Love Lucy.[1]

In 1955, Molieri appeared in "The Great McGinty" episode of Lux Video Theatre, appearing opposite Nancy Gates and William Schallert.[12] Her last film was The Three Runaways (1956)[1] and then she left the United States to tour with her parents in Europe for the next three years, while her father served as a diplomat. In 1959, the family returned to Managua[13] and Molieri instituted divorce proceedings to dissolve her marriage with the Catholic Church. She opened a dance studio and performed and taught in Nicaragua from the 1960s. She also hosted a weekly radio show, Aquí con Lillian Molieri (Here with Lillian Molieri), beginning in 1965. The show was an hour-long broadcast on National Radio,[1] which was honored in 1966 with the Monje de Oro, "the Nicaraguan equivalent of an Oscar".[14]

Molieri died at her home in Managua at age 55 in 1980. She is remembered as one of the first Nicaraguan actors to perform in Hollywood.[1]

• Lillian Molieri at IMDb