Inda Ledesma (born Margarita Rodríguez; March 29, 1926January 26, 2010) was an Argentine stage, television, and cinema actress who also gained prominence as a theatre director and instructor.

Life and work

Inda Ledesma was born in the Argentine town of

Coronel Suárez Coronel Suárez is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the administrative centre for Coronel Suárez Partido. Its population is largely made up of Argentines of Volga German descent. In its surroundings, within Coronel Suárez Parti ...

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

parents who fled persecution in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. In 1945 she debuted on the stage with a part in an Argentine National Comedy production of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

's ''

L'Avare ''The Miser'' (french: L'Avare; ; also known by the longer name ''L'Avare ou L'École du Mensonge,'' meaning The Miser, or the School for Lies) is a five-act comedy in prose by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed on September 9 ...

''. The following year, she was given her first role in the

cinema of Argentina Cinema of Argentina refers to the film industry based in Argentina. The Argentine cinema comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of Argentina or by Argentine filmmakers abroad. The Argentine film industry has histor ...

, in

Pierre Chenal Pierre Chenal (; 5 December 1904 – 23 December 1990) was a French director and screenwriter who flourished in the 1930s. He was married to Czech-born French film actress Florence Marly from 1937 to 1955. Work Chenal was best known for film no ...

's ''El viaje sin regreso'' (''Journey of No Return''), by then she was known by her pseudonym, Inda Ledesma.IMDb profile
/ref> Ledesma continued to appear in film, though in subsequent years she became prominent in the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, where she was trained by well-known local stage directors such as

Antonio Cunill Cabanellas Antonio Cunill Cabanellas (August 27, 1894 – February 18, 1969) was an influential Spanish-Argentine playwright, theatre actor, director and instructor. Life and work Cunill Cabanellas was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1894. His father, Juan Cuni ...

and Augusto Fernándes. She was named artistic director of the Teatro Argentino in 1964. She led productions of, among many other works, ''

Mr Puntila and his Man Matti ''Mr Puntila and his Man Matti'' (german: Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti) is an epic comedy by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. It was written in 1940 and first performed in 1948. The story describes the aristocratic land-own ...

'' (

Berthold Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

), ''

Man and Superman ''Man and Superman'' is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. ''Man and Superman'' opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London ...

'' (

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

), and ''

Death of a Salesman ''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montag ...

'' (

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...

), as well as ''Israfel'' by

Abelardo Castillo Abelardo Castillo (March 27, 1935 – May 2, 2017) was an Argentine writer, novelist, essayist, diarist, born in the city of San Pedro, Buenos Aires. He practised amateur boxing in his youth. He also directed the literary magazines ''El Escarab ...

, and her modernized version of

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

' ''

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...

''.''Clarín'' (1/26/2010)
She starred with director

Alejandro Doria Alejandro Doria (November 1, 1936 – June 17, 2009) was a noted Argentine cinema and television director. Life and work Born in Buenos Aires in 1936, he first worked for Argentine television in 1965 as a writer for a local variety show, ''S ...

in Jacobo Langsner's ''El tobogán'' for ''Alta comedia'', a popular theatre showcase program on Argentine television during the early 1970s, and numerous similar programs. Her theatre appearances in subsequent years included that of

Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth is a leading character in William Shakespeare's tragedy '' Macbeth'' (). As the wife of the play's tragic hero, Macbeth (a Scottish nobleman), Lady Macbeth goads her husband into committing regicide, after which she becomes quee ...

in a 1973

Teatro General San Martín The Teatro General San Martín (General San Martín Theater) is an important public theater in Buenos Aires, located on Corrientes Avenue and adjacent to the cultural center of the same name. It is one of the major theaters in Argentina and offe ...

production, and works by

Carlos Gorostiza Carlos Gorostiza Rodríguez (; June 7, 1920 – July 19, 2016) was an Argentine playwright, theatre director, and novelist. His seminal work ''El puente'' debuted in 1949 and he garnered numerous awards for his proceeding works. He later was Se ...

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power ...

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

(''Three Sisters''),

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

(''

The Glass Menagerie ''The Glass Menagerie'' is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his Histrionic persona ...

''), and as

Mrs. Patrick Campbell Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner (9 February 1865 – 9 April 1940), better known by her stage name Mrs Patrick Campbell or Mrs Pat, was an English stage actress, best known for appearing in plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and Barrie. She also toured the ...

in a long-running production of

Jerome Kilty Jerome Timothy Kilty (June 24, 1922 in Baltimore, Maryland – September 6, 2012) was an American actor and playwright. He wrote ''Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters.'' He worked extensively on the stage, both in the United States and abroad. Career K ...

's ''Dear Liar'' (with Ernesto Bianco as

). Her prolific work as an actress and director twice earned her a

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The pur ...

, the highest in the Argentine cultural realm, in 1981 and 1991. She continued to appear in film, including roles in

Eduardo Mignogna Eduardo Mignogna (August 17, 1940 – October 6, 2006) was an Argentinian film director and screenwriter. Filmography * 1975 - ''La Raulito en libertad'' (writer) * 1983 - ''El Desquite'' (writer) * 1983 - ''Evita, quien quiera oír que oiga'' ...

's biopic, ''Flop'' (1990), and as Leonor Acevedo de Borges (writer

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

's mother) in '' Un amor de Borges'' (2000). Having retired for a number of years, Ledesma appeared in Pietro Silvestri's ''Ciudad invisible'' in 2008. She died from cardiopulmonary failure in a Buenos Aires nursing home two years later in 2010, aged 83. She was interred in the Actors' Pantheon at

Chacarita Cemetery Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is known as the National Cemetery and is the largest in Argentina. Location The cemetery is in the barrio or district of Chacarita, in the western part of Buenos Aires. Its main entrance i ...

.''La Nación'' (01/26/2010)

Selected filmography

* ''

The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' (french: Les Trois Mousquetaires, links=no, ) is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight f ...

'' (1946)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ledesma, Inda 1926 births 2010 deaths Argentine film actresses Argentine stage actresses Argentine television actresses Argentine theatre directors Argentine women theatre directors Argentine people of Spanish descent People from Buenos Aires Province Deaths from lung disease Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery Argentine radio actresses