Helena Rojo

María Elena Enríquez Ruiz (18 August 1944 – 3 February 2024), known as Helena Rojo, was a Mexican actress and model.

Biography
Born in Mexico City, Mexico, she began her career as a model in 1961. Toward the end of the decade, she studied drama with renowned Mexican directors Carlos Ancira and José Luis Ibáñez, making her film debut in 1968 in the film El Club de los suicidas. That same year, Rojo appeared in her second film, Los Amigos. She continued working as a model and appearing in small film roles in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In 1969, she signed an exclusivity contract with Productora Cinematográfica Marte. Later, she began expanding her acting career into television and theater. In 1974, her first television role was the lead in the telenovela Extraño en su pueblo.

Rojo's cinematic career led her to work with the most important Mexican film directors of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Felipe Cazals, Arturo Ripstein, Rafael Corkidi, Alberto Bojórquez, Marcela Fernández Violante, and Jorge Fons.

Rojo worked with international talents, such as German director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski, with a role in the film Aguirre, the Wrath of God. She also appeared in the film Foxtrot (1976), directed by Arturo Ripstein, alongside actors Charlotte Rampling, Peter O'Toole, and Max von Sydow.

In 2006, she appeared in the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, playing a mother who tries to steer her son away from the stepmother who has eyes for him in a "faux" telenovela watched on TV by the main character's family.

Rojo died after a battle with cancer on 3 February 2024, at the age of 79.

Theater performances

 * Mujeres de Ceniza (Women of ashes)
 * Dios mio hazme viuda por favor (God please make me a widow)
 * Las muchachas del club (The Club Girls)
 * Cuentas muertas (Dead accounts)
 * El cartero (The Mailman)
 * Bajo cero (Below zero)
 * 10, el marido perfecto (10, The Perfect Husband)
 * Lecciones para casadas (Lectures for Married Women)
 * Se infiel y no mires con quien (Be Unfaithful with Whomever)
 * Cena de Matrimonios (Dinner with Married Couples)
 * Me enamoré de una bruja (I fell in love with a Witch)
 * La mujer del pelo rojo (The Redheaded Woman)
 * Pecado en la isla de las cabras (Sin on the Isle of Goats)
 * La Ronda de las Arpías (Song of the Harpies)
 * Una oferta inmoral (Indecent Proposal)
 * Yo miento, tú mientes, todos mentimos (I Lie, You Lie, We All Lie)

Ariel Awards

 * Won – 1972 Best Supporting Actress Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film, for her role in Fin de Fiesta
 * Nominated – 1973 Best Actress Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film, for her role in Los Cachorros
 * Won – 1981 Best Actress Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film, for her role in Misterio
 * Nominated – 1992 Best Actress Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film, for her role in Muerte Ciega

TVyNovelas Awards

 * Nominated 1985 – Best Leading Actress – La Traición
 * Nominated 1996 – Best Leading Actress – Retrato de Familia
 * Won 1999 – Best Leading Actress – El privilegio de Amar
 * Won 2001 – Best Senior Actress – Abrázame muy Fuerte
 * Won 2005 – Best Antagonistic Actress – Inocente de Ti
 * Nominated 2006 – Best Senior Actress – Peregrina
 * Won 2007 – Best Senior Actress – Mundo de Fieras
 * Won 2009 – Best Senior Actress – Cuidado con el ángel
 * Nominated 2010 – Best Senior Actress – Corazón Salvaje
 * Nominated 2013 – Best Senior Actress – Por ella soy Eva
 * Nominated 2015 – Best Senior Actress – El Color de la Pasión
 * Won 2017 – Best Senior Actress – La Candidata