Eduardo Ugarte

• Name — Eduardo Ugarte • Birth Name — Eduardo María de la Presentación y de las Mercedes Mauricio Ugarte y Pagés • Born — 22 October 1900 • Birthplace — Hondarribia, Spain • Died — 30 December 1955 • Place of death — Mexico City, Mexico • Occupation — Screenwriter, writer, film director

Eduardo Ugarte was the son of the minister Francisco Javier Ugarte Pagés and his cousin Josefina Pagés y Bordiu. Ugarte studied law and philosophy and literature in Madrid and Salamanca. He became a prominent member of the Socialist Students Union. In 1919, after the Russian Revolution, he traveled to Russia in order to volunteer for the Red Army, but was detained by the German police and sent back to Spain. Following this, he became a founding member of the Spanish Communist Party, the predecessor to the Communist Party of Spain. Ugarte was close to the writers of the Generation of '27 and began his literary career by composing several plays in collaboration with José López Rubio. In 1929 he traveled to Hollywood and worked as a screenwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer. He returned to Spain less than a year later and founded, together with Federico García Lorca, the Spanish University Theatre La Barraca. From 1934 to 1936 he was director of the literary department of the production company Filmófono where he collaborated with Luis Buñuel. In 1933 he became one of the founders of the Association of Friends of the Soviet Union. After the beginning of the Spanish Civil War Ugarte became a founding member of the Alliance of Antifascist Intellectuals. He was then appointed cultural attaché at the Spanish embassy in Paris where he conducted pro-Republican propaganda and prepared the evaluation of Republican fighters. Following the war, Ugarte went into exile in Mexico where he eventually became a citizen. He continued his cinematic work in Mexico as screenwriter of sixteen films and director of six films. Eduardo Ugarte died from a cardiovascular disease at the age of 53 in Mexico City.

• Bésame mucho (1945) • Por culpa de una mujer (1947) • Yo quiero ser tonta (1950) • El Puerto de los siete vicios (1950) • Doña Clarines (1951) • Prisionera del recuerdo (1952)