Carmen Zapata
Birthday: Born in 1927-07-15 in New York City, New York, USA
Deathday: 2014-01-05
Carmen Margarita Zapata (July 15, 1927 – January 5, 2014) often referred to as "The First Lady of the Hispanic Theater" was an American actress best known for her role in the PBS bilingual children's program Villa Alegre. Zapata was also the co-founder and director of the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts in Los Angeles. Zapata took an active part in the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Zapata was born in New York City to Julio Zapata, a Mexican immigrant, and Ramona Roca, an Argentine immigrant.
TV Credits
Falcon Crest
Character: Judge Patterson
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced. The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the Californian wine industry. Jane Wyman starred as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, alongside Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew who returns to Falcon Crest following...
The Rookies
Character:
The Rookies is an American crime drama series that aired on ABC from 1972 until 1976. It follows the exploits of three rookie police officers working in an unidentified city for the fictitious Southern California Police Department....
Trapper John, M.D.
Character:
Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable doctor who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986....
Santa Barbara
Character:
Santa Barbara is an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on July 30, 1984, and last aired on January 15, 1993. The show revolves around the eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of Santa Barbara, California. Other prominent families featured on the soap were the rival Lockridge family, and the more modest Andrade and Perkins families. Santa Barbara aired in over 40 countries around the world and is best remembered for its witty dialogue and sometime...
The F.B.I.
Character: Leila Dracus
The F.B.I. is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1974. It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and the characters almost always drove Ford vehicles in the series. Alcoa was co-sponsor of Season One only....
Love, American Style
Character:
An anthology comedy series featuring a line up of different celebrity guest stars appearing in anywhere from one, two, three, and four short stories or vignettes within an hour about versions of love and romance....
Chico and the Man
Character:
Chico and the Man is an American sitcom which ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown, the cantankerous owner of a run down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and Freddie Prinze as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic Chicano young man who comes in looking for a job. It was the first U.S. television series set in a Mexican-American neighborhood....
Flamingo Road
Character:
Flamingo Road is an American prime time soap opera that aired on NBC. It was first seen as a TV movie on May 12, 1980, and as a series on January 6, 1981, after a rebroadcast of the pilot on December 30, 1980. The show is based on the 1949 movie starring Joan Crawford, which is, in turn, based on the novel by Robert Wilder. Flamingo Road was created to compete against CBS's Dallas and Knots Landing, nighttime dramas that were inspired by the daily afternoon soap operas that had been a staple of ...
The Streets of San Francisco
Character:
Two police officers, the older Lt. Stone and the young upstart Inspector Keller, investigate murders and other serious crimes in San Francisco. Stone would become a second father to Keller as he learned the rigors and procedures of detective work....
Kojak
Character: Ellen Conforti
A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New York City....
Medical Center
Character:
Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976. It was produced by MGM Television....
Archie Bunker's Place
Character:
Archie Bunker's Place is an American sitcom originally broadcast on the CBS network, conceived in 1979 as a spin-off and continuation of All in the Family. While not as popular as its predecessor, the show maintained a large enough audience to last for four seasons, until its cancellation in 1983. In its first season, the show performed so well that it knocked Mork & Mindy out of its new Sunday night time slot....
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Character: Dona Verano
Dr. Michaela Quinn journeys to Colorado Springs to be the town's physician after her father's death in 1868....
Wonder Woman
Character: The Prime Minister
With the strength of Hercules, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Mercury and the beauty of Aphrodite, she’s Wonder Woman. Beautiful Amazon princess Wonder Woman travels to 1940s America disguised as Diana Prince, assistant to handsome but trouble-prone Major Steve Trevor. Using her golden belt, which imbues her with astonishing strength, her bullet-deflecting bracelets, a golden lasso that dispels dishonesty and an invisible supersonic plane, Wonder Woman combats evil....
Emergency!
Character:
The crew of Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 51, particularly the paramedic team, and Rampart Hospital respond to emergencies in their operating area....
Hunter
Character: Edna Watley
Hunter is an American police drama television series created by Frank Lupo, and starring Fred Dryer as Sgt. Rick Hunter and Stepfanie Kramer as Sgt. Dee Dee McCall, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1991. However, Kramer left after the sixth season to pursue other acting and musical opportunities. In the seventh season, Hunter partnered with two different women officers. The titular character, Sgt. Rick Hunter, was a wily, physically imposing, and often rule-breaking homicide detective with the Los ...
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Character:
Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 season. It featured a fictional Chicago newspaper reporter who investigated mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly those that law enforcement authorities would not follow up. These often involved the supernatural or even science fiction, including fantastic creatures....
The White Shadow
Character: Mrs. Alvarez
The White Shadow is an American drama television series that ran on the CBS network from November 27 1978, to March 16 1981....
Switch
Character: Clarita
Switch is an American action-adventure, tongue-in-cheek detective series starring Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner, who work as private eyes, for a deceptive sting operation. It was broadcast on the CBS network for three seasons between September 9, 1975 and August 20, 1978, bumping the Hawaii Five-O detective series to Friday nights....
McCloud
Character:
Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud of the small western town of Taos, New Mexico is assigned to the metropolitan New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a special investigator....
Matt Houston
Character: Marta
Matt Houston is an American crime drama series that aired on ABC from 1982 to 1985. Created by Lawrence Gordon, the series was produced by Aaron Spelling....
O'Hara, U.S. Treasury
Character:
O'Hara, U.S. Treasury is an American television crime drama starring David Janssen and broadcast by CBS during the 1971-72 television season. Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited packaged the program for Universal Television. Webb and longtime colleague James E. Moser created the show; Leonard B. Kaufman was the producer. The series was produced with the full approval and cooperation of the United States Department of the Treasury....
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
Character: Judge Martinez (segment "Justice is Served")
Can you tell the difference between fact and fiction? Several stories of strange, mysterious and incredible occurrences are chronicled during each episode. It is up to the viewer to decide which stories actually happened and which were completely fabricated by the show’s writers. The answer is revealed by Jonathan Frakes at the conclusion of each episode....
Batman: The Animated Series
Character: Judge Maria Vargas (voice)
Vowing to avenge the murder of his parents, Bruce Wayne devotes his life to wiping out crime in Gotham City as the masked vigilante "Batman"....
The Mod Squad
Character: Mrs. Gomez
The Mod Squad was the enormously successful groundbreaking "hippie" undercover cop show that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Pete Cochren, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as Linc Hayes, and Tige Andrews as Captain Adam Greer. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas. The iconic counter-culture police series earned six Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations plus one win for Peggy ...
Adam-12
Character: Mrs. Encara Flores
Adam-12 is a television police drama that followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12....
Jake and the Fatman
Character: Judge
Jake and the Fatman is a television crime drama starring William Conrad as prosecutor J. L. "Fatman" McCabe and Joe Penny as investigator Jake Styles. The series ran on CBS for five seasons from 1987 to 1992. Diagnosis: Murder was a spin-off of this series....
Married... with Children
Character: Madame Olga
Al Bundy is an unsuccessful middle aged shoe salesman with a miserable life and an equally dysfunctional family. He hates his job, his wife is lazy, his son is dysfunctional (especially with women), and his daughter is dim-witted and promiscuous....
Adam-12
Character: Mrs. Cipreano
Adam-12 is a television police drama that followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12....
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
Character: The Seventh Fairy (voice)
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series....
The Streets of San Francisco
Character: Mrs. Martinez
Two police officers, the older Lt. Stone and the young upstart Inspector Keller, investigate murders and other serious crimes in San Francisco. Stone would become a second father to Keller as he learned the rigors and procedures of detective work....
Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
Character: Mrs. Chavez
...
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
Character: Rosa Villacres
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors is an American medical drama that lasted for four seasons on NBC, from 1969 to 1973....
Mannix
Character: Chambermaid
Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions....
Adam-12
Character: Maria Lopez
Adam-12 is a television police drama that followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12....
Marcians
Character: Self - Interviewee
...
Bonanza
Character: Maria Valdez
The High-Sierra adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons as they run and defend their ranch while helping the surrounding community....
Medical Center
Character: Luisa
Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976. It was produced by MGM Television....
Love, American Style
Character: Pilar
An anthology comedy series featuring a line up of different celebrity guest stars appearing in anywhere from one, two, three, and four short stories or vignettes within an hour about versions of love and romance....
Mrs. Columbo
Character: Landlady
Mrs. Kate Columbo, wife of the famous lieutenant, solves crimes as a reporter, while raising her little daughter....
Harry O
Character: Mrs. Reynosa
After being shot in the line of duty, Harry Orwell was forced to retire from the San Diego Police Department. To supplement his police pension, Harry runs a private detective agency out of his beach house... The series starred David Janssen and was executive produced by Jerry Thorpe....
McMillan & Wife
Character: Mrs. Barteloni
McMillan & Wife is a lighthearted American police procedural that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971 to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the series premiered in 90-minute episodes as part of the wheel series NBC Mystery Movie, in rotation with Columbo and McCloud. Initially airing on Wednesday night, the original line-up was shifted to Sundays in the second season, where it aired for the rest of its run. This was the first element to be created spe...
The New Dick Van Dyke Show
Character: Teela
The New Dick Van Dyke Show is an American sitcom starring Dick Van Dyke that aired on CBS from 1971 to 1974. It was Van Dyke's first return to series television since The Dick Van Dyke Show....
The ABC Afternoon Playbreak
Character: Aunt Caroline
The ABC Afternoon Playbreak is an American television anthology series that was broadcast on ABC from 1973 to 1975. The ninety-minute dramas aired once a month and featured some of the more popular television and film stars of the 1970s....
Villa Alegre
Character: Doña Luz
Villa Alegre (Happy Village) centers on life in a whimsical bilingual village. Designed to teach English to Latino children and Spanish to Anglo children, it also features various educational subjects....
Movie Credits
Rabbit Test
Character: Madam Nundi
Lionel's life turns around after a one-night stand on top of a pinball table... he becomes the world's first pregnant man!...
Boss Nigger
Character: Margarita
Two black bounty hunters ride into a small town out West in pursuit of an outlaw. They discover that the town has no sheriff, and soon take over that position, much against the will of the mostly white townsfolk....
The Girls of Huntington House
Character: Miss Rodriquez
An unmarried teacher in a school for unwed mothers finds herself becoming too emotionally attached to her students and their problems....
How to Beat the High Cost of Living
Character: Mama (uncredited)
In order to beat inflation and subsidize their alimony checks, three suburban housewives plot to steal $1 million from a large plastic ball which is displayed in a local shopping center....
Bad Charleston Charlie
Character: Lottie
A pair of miners attempt to muscle their way into a life of crime. 'Hilarity' ensues....
Reel Horror
Character: Lottie (archive footage)
Evil spirits that emerge from cans of old movie film terrorize a neighborhood....
Homeward Bound
Character: Lorenza
The relationship among a divorced man, his incurably ill teenage son, and his long-estranged father is explored when the youngster joins his dad for one final summer vacation and they end up at the grandfather's vineyard where he reconciles the two older men....
Hail, Hero!
Character: Juana
Carl Dixon decides to quit school and enlist in the Army, even though he's already run afoul of the law as a Vietnam protestor. It is our hero's intention to use love, rather than bullets, to combat the Viet Cong. Needless to say, his idealism is no match for the harsher realities of war....
Toke
Character:
Vietnam vet hitchhikes to Mexico, and goes on a revenge-o-matic....
Point of No Return
Character: Judge
Hardened criminal Maggie Hayward's consistent violence, even in police custody, ends in the execution chamber. However, top-secret US government agent 'Bob' arranges a staged death, so Maggie can be elaborately trained as a phantom killer and subdued into obedience....
Flying High
Character: Mrs. Bellagio
In this pilot film to the subsequent short-lived series, three attractive young women -- Marcy Bower, Pam Bellagio, and Lisa Benton -- succeed in qualifying for airline stewardess training at Sun West Airlines, and then start getting a taste of the rigors and fun of the real thing as rookie stewardesses....
W
Character: Betty
Is a young woman being stalked by her ex, or is she imagining things?...
Daniel and the Towers
Character: Consuelo Guerra
The story of Simon Rodia, the real-life artist who spent 30 years constructing Los Angeles' Watts Towers, a monument to Christopher Columbus, and his fictional relationship with Daniel, a young boy....
Broken Angel
Character:
A man combs Los Angeles for his missing daughter, and discovers she belongs to a gang dealing in crack....
There Goes The Bride
Character: Mrs. Ramirez
A nervous ad executive creates havoc on his daughter's wedding day and becomes obsessed with a dream girl he keeps seeing everywhere but whom he can't catch....
Leave Yesterday Behind
Character: Connie
A happy-go-lucky veterinary student, paralyzed for life in a college polo meet, finds love with a young woman who leaves her fiancée to help him overcome his handicap....
Portnoy's Complaint
Character: Mrs. Harero (uncredited)
During a session with his psychoanalyst, Alexander Portnoy rants about everything that is bothering him. His complaints include his childhood and his family with an emphasis on his mother, his sexual fantasies and the problems that he has with women, and his obsessive feelings about his Judaism....
I Will, I Will...For Now
Character: Maria
Les Bingham takes umbrage that his ex-wife Katie has a new love in life. What he doesn't know is that her new paramour is lawyer Lou Springer. When Katie's sister Sally arrives and tells the two about her new, hip '70s marriage contract, Les and Katie decide to try to get together again under a more liberal marriage contract, like Katie's sister. But, unfortunately for the couple, the contract is planted with the seeds of self-destruction....
A Home of Our Own
Character: Elena De La Paz
The story of Father William Wasson, who founded and operated a home for abandoned and orphaned children in Mexico....
The Last Porno Flick
Character: Mama Theresa
Two young men wanting to make a porno movie raise money from their family and friends by claiming that they're making a religious film. Complications ensue when the porno is a hit....
Gang Boys
Character: Roses
Two determined parents fight back against a Los Angeles gang terrorizing the neighborhood after their son is brutally attacked....
Secrets
Character: Judge
Producer Mel Wexler is putting together "Manhattan," a night-time soap opera that will definitely be the toast of the town. He puts together a stellar cast, however, each member of this cast has his own little secret: Zach is a Hollywood leading man apparently being blackmailed by 2 mysterious women; Jane was a former daytime soap star who had to abruptly leave her popular role due to problems at home; Bill is a male model whose marital status would rather be kept secret by his agent; Gaby is a ...
Children of Divorce
Character: Mrs. Ruiz
The conflict and separation of their parents and the impact on four youngsters from three socially different families is the thrust of this drama....
A Guide for the Married Woman
Character: Mrs. Garcia
A seriocomic look at the life of Julie Walker. Bored with her marriage, and encouraged by her friends, she contemplates an affair. Fantasy and reality mix often, leading to complications and headaches....
Sister Act
Character: Choir Nun
A Reno singer witnesses a mob murder and the cops stash her in a nunnery to protect her from the mob's hitmen. The mother superior does not trust her, and takes steps to limit her influence on the other nuns. Eventually the singer rescues the failing choir and begins helping with community projects, which gets her an interview on TV—and identification by the mob....
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit
Character: Choir Nun
Deloris Van Cartier is again asked to don the nun's habit to help a run-down Catholic school, presided over by Mother Superior. And if trying to reach out to a class full of uninterested students wasn't bad enough, the sisters discover that the school is due to be closed by the unscrupulous chief of a local authority....
Carola
Character: Mireille
Norman Lloyd directed this televised production of Jean Renoir's World War II-era play. Taking place backstage at a theatrical performance in Nazi-occupied France, Carola is a tale of passion and intrigue that involves a beautiful stage actress and her emotional and psychological struggles over a Nazi officer, whom she is entangled in an affair with, and a Resistance leader whom she is hiding. Featuring Leslie Caron as Carola, the play also stars Mel Ferrer, Albert Paulsen, Michael Sacks, Carmen...
Vultures
Character: Elena Garcia-Lopez
A dying wealthy patriarch, Ramon summons his relatives to his bedside, setting the tone for intriguing suspense when a bizarre set of murders occurs. The terror begins with the arrival of the old man's sister and her lover. Blood and gore are a regular state of affairs. The first suspect is Carl who, despite his protests of his innocence, is hounded by the local detective. But the morbid killings continue... so is he the murderer, or isn't he?...
How to Murder a Millionaire
Character: Clara
A Beverly Hills housewife suspects that her husband of thirty years is trying to kill her....
Winner Take All
Character: Sara
The chronicle of an average American housewife who just happens to be addicted to gambling....
Telefon
Character: Nurse
Nicolai Dalchimski, a mad KGB agent steals a notebook full of names of "sleeping" undercover KGB agents sent to the U.S. in the 1950's. These agents got their assignments under hypnosis, so they can't remember their missions until they're told a line of a Robert Frost poem. Dalchimski flees to the U.S. and starts phoning these agents who perform sabotage acts against military targets....
The Couple Takes a Wife
Character: Maria
Complications ensue when an overworked couple decides to hire a "wife" — someone who can run the household for them with complete autonomy — but she's a little too attractive for comfort....
The Eggplant Lady
Character: Rosa Vecino
Based on the First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, The Agony in the Garden, The Eggplant Lady is a heartwarming story about a family’s decision to move to a bigger house in a better neighborhood and how the teen, Jamie, and the grandmother, Rosa, come together to face a situation neither can control. Rosa teaches Jamie the valuable lesson of Christ’s suffering in the garden of Gethsemani. The Eggplant Lady, featuring a recipe with a secret ingredient, tears and laughter, faith and family, will ...
Boulevard Nights
Character: Mrs. Landeros
Raymond Avila is an ex-gang member trying to build a future. His kid brother Chuco is a sullen low-rider still caught up in the life. Despite their differences, their family bond is strong. But that bond is violently tested when rivals challenge Chuco's gang and ignite a neighborhood war....
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Character: Narrator
1985 Argentine documentary film directed by Susana Blaustein Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo....
A Gift of Terror
Character: Aunt Caroline
Young woman starts having premonitions of her friends dying. Once her friends begin to die, she starts having premonitions of her own death....
Not Just Another Affair
Character: Judge Mercado
A lady marine biologist, determined to save herself until marriage, meets a handsome attorney who is not used to being rejected sexually, and it becomes a battle of wills as to who will emerge the winner....
The Abduction of Allison Tate
Character: Teresa Aleman
When wealthy real estate developer Richard Tate seizes land belonging to a Native American tribe for his next construction project, a group of young men from the tribe decide to kidnap Tate's daughter Allison as a means of persuading her father to abandon the project and return their land. As time drags on with no resolution in sight, Allison begins to sympathize with the plight of her captors and joins them in their fight against her father....
The Sleepy Time Gal
Character: Anna
A young woman learns of her adoption and eventually quits her law firm job and goes on a journey to find her birth mother....