- Luis Miguel Dominguín
-
Luis Miguel Dominguín Born Luis Miguel González Lucas
November 9, 1926
Madrid, SpainDied May 8, 1996 (aged 69)
SpainNationality Spain Ethnicity Spanish Occupation Torero Children Miguel Bosé, Lucía, Paola Luis Miguel González Lucas (November 9, 1926, Madrid - May 8, 1996) was a famous bullfighter from Spain, better known as Luis Miguel Dominguín. His father was the legendary Domingo Dominguín; he adopted his father's name to gain popularity.
Dominguín enjoyed wide popularity during the 1940s and 1950s as he conquered bulls all over Spain, Portugal, Colombia and other places. He debuted at the age of eleven and was active in the card where another legend, Manolete, lost his life.
Dominguín was also a socialite having friends like Pablo Picasso and who had a tempestuous romance with the American actress Ava Gardner and the fashion model China Machado.[citation needed] In 1954, he married actress Lucia Bosé, who gave birth to his son Miguel Bosé, a Grammy winning singer. In 1959, he and his brother-in-law, Antonio Ordóñez, engaged in a bullfighting rivalry that was chronicled by Ernest Hemingway in his book, The Dangerous Summer. Ordóñez won.
Contents
Later career
In 1971 at the age of 44 he returned to the bullring. That year he retired again, but returned to the ring in 1971, aged 45, when he attempted to fathom the sport's continuing allure. His comeback was at Las Palmas, the Canary Islands, when he wore the costume known as the "suit of lights," which had been designed for him by Picasso. He killed two bulls and won one ear, but was overshadowed by younger men - although the actress Deborah Kerr, who was in the crowd, insisted, "He is still the greatest bull-fighter."
Dominguin's last fight was in Barcelona on Sept 12 1973.
Death
He died of heart failure at 69 in 1996. He is buried in the cemetery San Enrique de Guadiaro, near Sotogrande (Cadiz).
Marriages and relationships
Miroslava Sternova
In 1953 Luis Miguel Dominguin meets Miroslava Sternova in Cuba. Dominguin is half a year her junior, so far they parted as friends only until they met again in 1954, this time in the States. She went on to work abroad in Spain to meet up with friends and Dominguin. After her return back to Mexico Sternova was found dead from an overdose. In one hand she clutched three farewell notes; in the other, a photograph showing her with Dominguin and his mother. Rumor has it that she took her own life over the marriage of Dominguin and Bosè.[1]
Ava Gardner
By 1954 Dominguin's friendship with Ava Gardner was being widely reported. He considered her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but liked her more, he said, for her humor and understanding; he confessed himself unsure what he looked for in women. "Men fall in love with a woman`s faults rather than her qualities," he mused.[2]
Ava, had been previously associated with other bullfighters, though then she was still married to Frank Sinatra, she didn't spare any affairs during her vacations in Spain. The most spirited of them all was, no doubt, Luis Miguel Dominguin. However, the relationship was so passionate and stormy, and the fights between him and the diva had people talking. But also they had their tender moments. It is said that in their first night of lovemaking, he got out of bed and she asked: "Where are you going?". "To go tell!" Replied the bullfighter. Years later, he admitted to a friend he made up that anecdote. Frank Sinatra's jealousy intervened in this affair, and it is said that on one occasion in which she was beside herself, mixing insults in English and Spanish, Luis Miguel whipped her a few slaps.
Subsequently Ava divorced Sinatra and Luis Miguel saw his chance to establish their relationship. He wanted to get married and have children, but this wasn't in the Hollywood actress's plans. The idyll ended in September 1954. Years later, he was recalling with affection: "She was the prettiest and the most fierce. I had a very fierce wolf in a cage."[3]
Lucia Bosé
Italian actress and former Miss Italy, Lucia Bosé flew to Madrid to shoot the film "Muerte de un ciclista" (Death of a cyclist).
At the airport she met the producer, Manuel Goyanes, and Luis Miguel, who introduced him to the Italian actress. At first she thought he was just a blowhard bully, but in the end he inspired interest and won her over. They soon overcame the language barrier that separated them and the fact that she knew nothing about bullfighting. They still had not yet kissed when he asked her to marry him. They were married in Las Vegas on March 1, 1955.
Lucia has confessed that their first year of marriage was not too idyllic: "It was a very hard experience. I did not speak Spanish and I do not know anything, he did not speak Italian. I think that's how the passion was born, because we did not understand each other. When I began to understand who he was and he who I was, the crisis began."
But the matador knew well how to compensate: "It never ceased to amaze me the incalculable force of his sexual incontinence," said the actress. Shortly after marrying she became pregnant and was forced to marry through the church in order to quell the scandals. The ceremony took place on 19 October 1955.
Luis Miguel returned to the bullfighting arenas abroad and their first son, little Miguel, was born in Panama on April 3, 1956. Their second child, Lucia, born in 1957 and Paola, born in 1960.
Lucia and Luis Miguel were married for years, but their differences were accentuated over time, especially her lack of interest for the bulls. She never became part of the "Dominguin" clan, and the Dominguíns never liked her. On the other hand, the infidelities of the bullfighter also took their toll. "I, in a matter of horns, a gold medal," Lucia asserted.
Rosario Primo de Rivera
He divorced Bosé in 1968, and in 1987 married Rosario Primo de Rivera. In 1971 at the age of 44 he returned to the bullring, and retired for good in 1973.
References
- ^ http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/191/Miroslava/index.html
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/5256506/Luis-Miguel-Dominguin.html
- ^ http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/370166/0/dominguin/mujeres/ava/
External links
- Luis Miguel Dominguin - Daily Telegraph obituary
Categories:- 1926 births
- 1996 deaths
- People from Madrid
- Spanish bullfighters
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
