Grecia Colmenares

Perhaps one of the most successful actresses in Latin soap operas and telenovelas of all time, she was launched into international stardom in the 1980 after her highly successful show Topacio was the first Spanish-language soap opera to be translated for the American audiences.

She made her mother take her to open auditions for a soap opera in Venezuela when she was a young child. Her first major role was in the telenovela Angelica at the age of 11.

She leaves in Palm Beach, Florida, with her son Gianfranco, whose father she divorced in 2005. Her mother's name was Grecia Mieussens and her father's was Lisandro Ernesto Colmenares.

She starred alongside Venezuelan pop singer Jose Luis Rodriguez in her first telenovela Angelica.