LOS ANGELES, July 28 (UPI) -- Actress Lupe Ontiveros, a founding board member of the Latino Theater Company in Los Angeles, has died of liver cancer, her agent said. She was 69.
Michael Greenwald told the Los Angeles Times the "Selena" co-star and "Desperate Housewives" cast member died Thursday in a Whittier, Calif., hospital.
Born in Texas to Mexican immigrants, Ontiveros once estimated she had played the role of a maid more than 150 times throughout her career.
Her film credits include the films "Chuck & Buck," "Real Women Have Curves," "Storytelling," "As Good As It Gets," "The Goonies" and "El Norte."
"Lupe Ontiveros was a gift," actor Edward James Olmos, her "Selena" co-star, told the Times Friday. "She was part of the evolutionary process of the art form of Latino storytelling in the last 30-plus years. She was one of the true pioneers of the Latin artistic movement in theater, film and television."
Ontiveros is survived by her husband of 46 years, Elias Ontiveros Jr.; her sons, Nicholas, Alejandro and Elias P. Ontiveros; and two grandchildren, the Times said.
