I Always Thought Of Her As Elizabeth “Underappreciated” Pena

I am damned if I am going to let the only post about this wonderful actress be made by a troll. I first saw her in an invisible 80s sitcom, I Married Dora, and she just came leaping off the screen. She took scenes that were buttressed with canned laughter and gave them a passion that made us in the TV audience know that this lady was slumming in Dora. She went on to appear in over 100 different titles in her too-short life, including her role as a consciousness-raised Latina housemaid to the wealthy in Down And Out In Beverly Hills—where she more than held her own with Bette Midler, Nick Nolte and Richard Dreyfus (all of them in their cinematic prime), and as the slinky Mirage in The Incredibles where, again, she made herself memorable and loved among a cast of Titans. Perhaps Elizabeth arrived too soon by about 30 years. I believe that a young Elizabeth would have her own TV series and string of comic films today; but how much did she pave the way for Latin artists who followed her? How many of them did she perhaps inspire? I think, and feel, that the answer is “a lot.” She had to take a lot of thankless roles, but she kept working—in one of the hardest businesses on earth. Elizabeth Pena was a heroine, and a true star manquee. May she rest gently. May she find the posthumous appreciation that she so much deserved in life.