Voice of Disney’s Coco, Mexican actor Ana Ofelia Murguia passes away

Mexican actor Ana Ofelia Murguia, who voiced the role of Mama Coco in Disney's two-time Oscar-winning animated feature film Coco has passed away. She was 90.

The news of her demise was shared on Monday by Mexico's National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature.  which said Murguía’s “artistic career was vital for the performing arts of Mexico”. Her cause of death was not given. “We send condolences and warm hugs to her family and friends,” the institute added.

Coco received two Academy Awards, Best Animated Movie and Original Song for Remember Me. The film follows a young boy as he travels to the kingdom of the dead on Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. The film which went on to become a huge hit, was lauded for its representation of Mexican culture.

Murguía, who was born in Mexico in 1933, won the Golden Ariel Special Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 at a ceremony honouring the best of Mexican cinema. 

After studying acting at Mexico's National School of Theatre Arts, she got her first play role in Trial By Fire and her first screen role was a decade later in the 1964 film Transit. Her last acting role was in a 2018 episode of José José: El Príncipe de la Canción, a fictionalized retelling of the famed Mexican singer’s life story.