Exotic starlet Maria-Rosa Rodriguez (1942), born in Ecuador, was the sexy leading lady of a dozen French and Italian films of the 1960s and early 1970s. Her main claim to fame was the Louis de Funès comedy Le grand restaurant (1966). In the 1970s, she returned to Ecuador where she became a well-known stage star and also appeared in films under the name Toty Rodriguez.
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/335. Photo: Art Messick.
Italian postcard by Albacolor, no. 604/1.
Maria-Rosa Rodriguez was born in 1942 in Guayaquil (other sources say Quito), Ecuador. IMDb writes that during her film career she was also credited as Maria Rosa Rodrigues, Rosa-Maria Rodrigues, Rosa Rodriguez, and Toty Rodriguez. According to Wikipedia, she was also known as Yana Chouri in Italy.
She found an early interest in classical music and chose to study singing, the piano, and the cello while still in high school. At 17, while going to college, Rodríguez performed in the play 'Madre y Hija' in 1959. In 1960, Rodríguez became was crowned Miss Ecuador Mundo 1960 (Miss World Ecuador 1960) and came to compete in that year's Miss World contest. She toured London and other European cities but would spend the most amount of time in Paris because of modeling and advertising contracts. While in Paris, Rodríguez also took acting classes with Alain Delon and René Simon.
Her first film appearances were uncredited parts in such French comedies as Virginie (Jean Boyer, 1963) and as ‘Palma Diamantino’ in Pouic-Pouic (Jean Girault, 1963) starring Louis de Funès. Soon followed more film parts as a stripper in the kinky cannibal comedy Aimez-vous les femmes?/Do You Like Women? (Jean Léon, 1964), co-written by Roman Polanski, and the sexploitation drama L'amour à la chaine/Tight Skirts, Loose Pleasures (Claude de Givray, 1964).
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/335. Photo: Art Messick.
Italian postcard by Albacolor, no. 604/1.
Miss Ecuador Mundo 1960
Maria-Rosa Rodriguez was born in 1942 in Guayaquil (other sources say Quito), Ecuador. IMDb writes that during her film career she was also credited as Maria Rosa Rodrigues, Rosa-Maria Rodrigues, Rosa Rodriguez, and Toty Rodriguez. According to Wikipedia, she was also known as Yana Chouri in Italy.
She found an early interest in classical music and chose to study singing, the piano, and the cello while still in high school. At 17, while going to college, Rodríguez performed in the play 'Madre y Hija' in 1959. In 1960, Rodríguez became was crowned Miss Ecuador Mundo 1960 (Miss World Ecuador 1960) and came to compete in that year's Miss World contest. She toured London and other European cities but would spend the most amount of time in Paris because of modeling and advertising contracts. While in Paris, Rodríguez also took acting classes with Alain Delon and René Simon.
Her first film appearances were uncredited parts in such French comedies as Virginie (Jean Boyer, 1963) and as ‘Palma Diamantino’ in Pouic-Pouic (Jean Girault, 1963) starring Louis de Funès. Soon followed more film parts as a stripper in the kinky cannibal comedy Aimez-vous les femmes?/Do You Like Women? (Jean Léon, 1964), co-written by Roman Polanski, and the sexploitation drama L'amour à la chaine/Tight Skirts, Loose Pleasures (Claude de Givray, 1964).
Maria Rosa appeared again as eye-candy in the spy film Coplan FX 18/FX-18 Superspy (Riccardo Freda, 1964), the comedy Les gorilles/The Gorillas (Jean Girault, 1964) and the crime comedy La grande frousse/The Big Scare (Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1964) starring Bourvil.
Other French films of the mid-1960s with her were Les enquiquineurs/The pests (Roland Quignon, 1965), the comedy anthology Les bons vivants/How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning (Gilles Grangier, Georges Lautner, 1965) and the melodrama Le chant du monde/Song of the World (Marcel Camus, 1965) starring Hardy Krüger.
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/334. Photo: Art Messick.
Comedy Hit
1966 must have been quite a good year for Maria-Rosa Rodriguez. She was the leading lady opposite the immensely popular Louis de Funès in the hit comedy Le grand restaurant/The Big Restaurant (Jacques Besnard, 1966).
The choleric and energetic De Funès is the chef of Septim's, a very exclusive Paris restaurant. Problems occur when the president of an unnamed country gets kidnapped while having dinner at Septim's. With police, gangsters, and Maria-Rosa Rodriquez behind his back the always gesticulating De Funès tries to find the missing head of state by himself. The highlight of the film is a fabulous scene where a DS Citroen falls into a river and continues its ride as a boat.
Rodriguez soon followed this success up with a role in the fun-filled caper Estouffade à la Caraïbe/The Gold Robbers (Jacques Besnard, 1967) costarring with swimming champion Frederick Stafford, Jean Seberg, and Serge Gainsbourg. She also appeared on TV in Amalia Escudero, an episode of Au théâtre ce soir/Tonight at the Theatre (1966). More TV roles followed in series like Les chevaliers du ciel/The Aeronauts (1967) – about the adventures of the French comic book heroes Tanguy and Laverdure - and Fortune (Henri Colpi, 1969).
In the early 1970s, she moved to Italy where she appeared in the Giallo Il coltello di ghiaccio/Knife of Ice (Umberto Lenzi, 1972) starring Carroll Baker. Her last European film was a Spanish horror production, La novia ensangrentada/Blood Castle (Vincente Aranda, 1972).
Most of Maria-Rosa Rodriguez’s filmographies on the net stop here, but she kept on working as an actress. Under the name of Toty Rodriguez she is now a well-known stage actress in Ecuador.
In 1989 she appeared in another film, the East-German production Die Besteigung des Chimborazo/The Ascent of the Chimborazo (Rainer Simon, 1989) filmed on location in Germany, France, Spain, and Ecuador. In this adventure film, she appeared briefly as a countess.
Maria-Rosa Rodriguez was seen in a leading part in the Ecuadorian film Un titán en el ring/A Titan in the Ring (Viviana Cordero, 2002). She still lives there and appeared in 2012 in a documentary about her career directed by León Felipe Troya. Her most recent films are the comedy Sólo es una más/It's Just One Moore (Viviana Cordero, 2017), and the drama Azules turquesas/Blue Turkey (Monica Mancero, 2019) about an addicted girl.
French trailer for Le grand restaurant (1966). Source: Le Monde des Avengers (YouTube).
Original trailer for Il coltello di ghiaccio/Knife of Ice (1972). Source: CineComedies Bandes-annonces (YouTube).
Spanish language TV programme about the career of Toty Rodriguez. (Sorry, no subtitles). Source: Ecuador TV (YouTube).
Sources: IMDb, AllMovie, and Wikipedia (English and French).
This post was last updated on 14 February 2021.
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