Mexican actress Ana Ofelia Murguía, who voiced the character of “Mama Coco” in the 2017 Pixar animated movie “Coco,” died at the age of 90.
On Sunday, Mexico’s National Fine Arts Institute announced the news of her passing in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“With deep sadness we regret the sensitive death of the first actress Ana Ofelia Murguía, who was part of the stable cast of the [Compañía Nacional de Teatro] del [INBAL] and whose artistic career was vital for the performing arts of Mexico,” the post read in Spanish.
The institute also gave its “condolences and warm hugs to his family and friends.”
Mexican Culture Secretary Alejandra Frausto Guerrero paid tribute to Murguía on X, stating her death “leaves a huge void on the stages of our country.”
According to USA Today, in 2017, “Coco” introduced her to a global audience in her golden age. She voiced the great-grandmother of the main character Miguel.
In the movie’s synopsis, Miguel is an aspiring musician who “confronted with his family’s ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.”
In a review from The New Yorker, “Coco” was praised as “a definitive movie for this moment.”
“An image of all the things that we aren’t, an exploration of values that feel increasingly difficult to practice in the actual world. It’s a story of a multigenerational matriarchy, rooted in the past—whereas real life, these days, feels like an atemporal, structureless nightmare ruled by men,” the review continued.
In 2018, “Coco” won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, via The Hollywood Reporter.
Murguía had a long-standing career in entertainment. She appeared in numerous Mexican television, films, and plays, including the 1979 film “Life Sentence” and the 1994 film “The Queen of the Night.”
In 2011, she received the Golden Ariel Lifetime Achievement Award, “recognizing significant figures in the Mexican cinema industry,” via The Guardian.
