Maria Elena "Lina" Romay (January 16, 1919 - December 17, 2010) was an American

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

and singer. She was born in 1919 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, the daughter of Porfirio Romay, then-attache to the Mexican Consulate in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Romay performed for a time with

Xavier Cugat Xavier Cugat (; 1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City ...

before eventually retiring. She was featured on ''Cugat Rumba Revue'' on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

radio in the early 1940s. Along with Cugat and his orchestra, she appeared in the films ''

You Were Never Lovelier ''You Were Never Lovelier'' is a 1942 American musical romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. The supporting cast also features Adolphe Menjou, Xavier Cugat and Adele Mara. The music was co ...

'' (1942) and ''

Bathing Beauty ''Bathing Beauty'' is a 1944 musical film starring Red Skelton, Basil Rathbone, and Esther Williams, and directed by George Sidney. Although this was not Williams' screen debut, it was her first Technicolor musical. The film was initially to be ...

'' (1944). Prior to singing with Cugat, she had sung with Horace Heidt's orchestra, billed as Josette, a Frenchwoman. She was married to John Lawrence Adams, and later was the third wife of Jay Gould III, whom she married on 30 June 1953. Romay died at age 91 on December 17, 2010 of natural causes at a hospital in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

Filmography

References

External links

* *
Los Angeles Times Movie Star Mystery Photo of Lina Romay
1919 births 2010 deaths Latin jazz singers American musicians of Mexican descent American women singers People from Greater Los Angeles 21st-century American women {{US-singer-stub