Cecilia Callejo

Cecilia Lucila Callejo Correa was born on October 31, 1907, in Manatí, Puerto Rico, and died on August 18, 2003, in Tujunga, California, at the age of 95. Raised in New York, she was one of twelve children born to Fernando Callejo Ferrer, a composer and musicologist, and his wife Trinidad, a pianist. Callejo trained in dance under La Argentina, and musicians Olga Samaroff and Leopold Stokowski assisted her in establishing connections in Hollywood.

Callejo built a film career spanning the late 1930s and 1940s. Her screen credits include Outlaw Express (1938), The Renegade Ranger (1938), Dramatic School (1938), Verbena Tragica (1939), It's a Wonderful World (1939), Passport to Alcatraz (1940), The Falcon in Mexico (1944), Marriage is a Private Affair (1944), and The Cisco Kid Returns (1945). In 1948, she worked with actress Jennifer Jones, coaching her Cuban accent in preparation for the film We Were Strangers (1949).

Her stage work preceded her Broadway appearance by several years. In 1933, Callejo danced on a program alongside Ruth St. Denis, and in 1937 she performed at a benefit show in Los Angeles. She appeared in a Los Angeles production of Desert Song in 1939. Her single Broadway credit came in 1942, when she joined the original cast of The Cat Screams, a mystery melodrama.

In 1939, Callejo married screenwriter Robert Presnell Sr., becoming his third wife. Presnell died in 1969. Callejo died in Tujunga, California in 2003.