Evita Muñoz

Eva María Muñoz Ruíz (November 26, 1936 – August 23, 2016), known professionally as Evita Muñoz "Chachita", was a Mexican actress and comedian.

Her professional career began in 1941, when she was only four years old, and she continued performing through, and contributing to, the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.

Muñoz was still four years old when she played the character Chachita in her second film, ¡Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes! (Ay! Jalisco, don't back down) (1941), and went on to play Chachita in eight more films and numerous television roles over the subsequent decades, and would be credited as Eva Muñoz "Chachita" in other appearances.

For more than 75 years, "Chachita" was recognized as a successful artist in cinema, television, theater, radio, nightclub and circus shows.

At a little under four years old, Muñoz shot her first motion picture, starting a career of starring roles as a child talent; beginning with a minor role in El secreto del sacerdote in 1941.

After playing the character Chachita in her second movie, ¡Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes! (1941), she received the nickname "Chachita".

Around 1944, her popularity in starring in her movies led to her starting a radio career in the radio show La legión de madrugadores on the XEQ radio station.

To promote her movie La Hija del Payaso (1946), in which she performed along with trained elephants and dogs, Muñoz learned to play the marimba and the xylophone.

She made personal appearances with the Atayde Circus when she was only eight years old.

In 1947, she signed a contract with CBS in New York to star in the radio serial: Aventuras de una niña, which was broadcast in all Central and South America, and produced by Carlos Montalbán.

During her teenage years, she costarred with Pedro Infante in the trilogy: Nosotros los pobres (1948), Ustedes los ricos (1948) and Pepe el Toro (1952).

She was invited by Pérez Prado as a mambo dancer for a tour all over the Philippines and Japan where she became a sensation.

During that tour they also performed in USO shows during the Korean War for the Hispanic-American soldiers.

During the mid-1950s, she played all the female roles in Panzón Panseco's radio sketches, along with Pedro Vargas, and Juan García Esquivel's orchestra (1957): "Ahora es la hora".

In the late 1950s, she starred in the show El Risámetro.

In the 1970s Muñoz played the role of "Sister Carmela", a novice nun in the Mexican versión of the soap opera Mundo de Juguete.

In 1975, she starred in the variety show Un hombre y una mujer with Fernando Allende.

She appeared as a guest star on episodes of various American television shows, including Columbo and I Spy, as well as live performances in the Million Dollar Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

During the 1980s, she played the role of the witch Hermelinda Linda in several films.

On television, she co-starred with Jorge Ortiz de Pinedo in the sitcom Dos mujeres en mi casa.

In 1986, she co-starred in the sitcom Nosotros los Gómez.

In the 1990s, Muñoz continued working in a series of soap operas for Televisa, as well as making films such as De lengua me como un plato.

She played a nun from northern Mexico in Cambiando el destino with the band Magneto.

In the 2000s, Muñoz starred in several episodes of Mujer: Casos de la vida real and lent her voice to CGI animated characters.

In 2008, Muñoz played a role in Televisa's soap opera Cuidado con el ángel that was broadcast all around the globe and appeared in the 2011 season of Sesame Street – Mexico.

In 2016, Muñoz celebrated 75 years of an uninterrupted artistic career.

For her countless contributions to the Television, Theater and Motion Picture industries, Muñoz' handprints have been embedded onto the Paseo de las Luminarias in Mexico City.

Muñoz married Hugo Macías when she was 22, and they had three children.

Muñoz died in Mexico City, Mexico on August 23, 2016, due to complications from pneumonia.

She was 79.