Mariana Levy

Mariana Levy Fernández was born in Mexico City. By the time she turned sixteen in 1982, she participated in her first Televisa soap opera, Vivir Enamorada ("Living in Love"), where she played "Verónica". Levy took 1983 off, then returned to the small screen in 1984, in a major Televisa hit, Los Años Felices ("The Happy Years"). In Los Años Felices, she played the role of "Nancy". Her next telenovela, Martín Garatuza (1986) was not successful. The opposite can be said of her next work, as "Linda", in 1987's Rosa Salvaje ("Wild Rosa"). Rosa Salvaje, about a girl named Rosa who falls in love with a millionaire but was not accepted by his family, became a hit all over Latin America, Europe and Asia. Levy became known in places including Spain, Puerto Rico, Russia, Venezuela and Argentina.

She participated in 1988's Lo Blanco y Lo Negro ("What's White and What's Black"), alongside Rafael Sánchez Navarro among others, as "Alma de Castro". She took off the rest of the 1980s, but, in 1990, she returned to television with the task of playing three characters in the same soap opera; playing "Ángela", "Gimena" and "Estrella" in Yo compro esa mujer ("I'll buy that woman").

She married again, this time to José María Fernández, the half brother of Chantal Andere. In 2003, Mariana Levy joined her mother, Talina Fernández, as cohost of her televised variety show, Nuestra Casa ("Our House"), and also participated in her final telenovela, the hugely successful Amor Real. This production was set in the mid 19th century, and in one of her most memorable characters ever, Mariana played "Josefina", an ugly-duckling-turned-swan character. Levy retired to give birth to Paula and José Emilio

Death

Levy died of a heart attack on 29 April 2005 during a robbery attempt in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. The heart attack was attributed to the stress she experienced after an assailant approached her car on a city street and tried to steal her watch. The death shook the Mexican entertainment world. It was one of the highest-profile deaths in Mexico’s wave of common crime since TV comedian Francisco “Paco” Stanley was gunned down in 1999. “Her heart apparently could not take the shock,” Mexican journalist Lolita Ayala said.

• Mariana Levy at IMDb
• Mariana Levy at the Alma-Latina.com