Elisa Ruiz Penella known as Elisa Montés, is a Spanish actress who took her pseudonym from the celebrated work of her grandfather, Manuel Penella, El gato montés.

Montés is the sister of actresses Emma Penella

Emma Penella

Emma Penella was a Spanish film and television actress.Emma Penella was the sister of Spanish actresses Elisa Montés and Terele Pávez, and the granddaughter of composer Manuel Penella. She was also the widow of producer Emiliano Piedra...

 (1930–2007) and Terele Pávez (1939), daughter of Magdalena Penella Silva and the law politician Ramón Ruiz Alonso, and granddaughter and great-granddaughter to composers Manuel Penella

Manuel Penella

Manuel Penella Moreno was a Spanish composer. His father was the composer Manuel Penella Raga...

 and Manuel Penella Raga. She was married to actor Antonio Ozores

Antonio Ozores

Antonio Ozores Puchol was a Spanish actor.He died on 12 May 2010, after a long illness....

. The daughter of this marriage, Emma Ozores, has also dedicated herself to acting.

Biography

Since she was a child she dedicated herself to acting, debuting in the big screen in 1954 with the film Elena, by Jesús Pascual. Near then end of the 1950s she worked in the cinema and obtained notable roles, acting in La vida en un bloc by Luis Lucia

Luis Lucia

Luis Lucia Mingarro was a Spanish film director and screenwriter.He studied Law and was the attorney of CIFESA film studios....

, about the original text by Carlos Llopis, Ana dice sí (1959), by Pedro Lazaga

Pedro Lazaga

Pedro Lazaga was a Spanish film director and screenwriter. He directed 94 films between 1948 and 1979.-External links:...

, costarring Fernando Fernán Gómez

Fernando Fernán Gómez

Fernando Fernán-Gómez was a Spanish actor and director. He was born in Lima, Peru as his mother, Spanish actress Carola Fernán-Gómez, was making a tour of Latin America. Inheriting his surname as a stage name, he moved to Spain in 1924.After the Spanish Civil War he began a study of Law but...

 and Analía Gadé

Analía Gadé

Analía Gadé is an Argentine film actress. She appeared in over 60 films between 1948 and 2001. She appeared in the film Emergency Ward which was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.She was born in Córdoba, Argentina....

, and La cuarta ventana (1963), by Julio Coll

Julio Coll

Julio Coll was a Spanish screenwriter and film director. He wrote for 37 films between 1947 and 1971. In 1972, he was a member of the jury at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...

, costarring Montés’s two sisters.

In the 1960s, Montés frequently worked in co-productions and spaghetti-westerns, with titles like Samson and the Mighty Challenge (1964), El proscrito del Río Colorado (1965), Sette dollari sul rosso (1966), Texas, Adiós (1966), Return of the Seven

Return of the Seven

Return of the Seven , is the first sequel to the 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven. Made in 1966, Yul Brynner is the sole returning cast member from the first film, portraying Chris Adams....

 (1967) and Maneater of Hydra

Maneater of Hydra

Maneater of Hydra is a Spanish-German coproduction released in 1967 directed by American expatriate Mel Welles. The alternate titles include La isla de la muerte and Island of the Doomed...

 (1967).

She also started working in Spanish TV during this period, acting in the series Tragedias de la vida vulgar, protagonizing with her then-husband, and her brother-in-law, José Luis Ozores, and forming a part of the successful cast of Valerio Lazarov, El Irreal Madrid (1969).

Later her appearances on television and in movies decreased gradually, especially in her participation in one of the most emblematic series in the history of Spanish television: Verano azul (1981), by Antonio Mercero

Antonio Mercero

Antonio Mercero is a Spanish director of the series Verano azul and later Farmacia de guardia. He is best known as the director of a 1972 surrealist short horror film titled La cabina, that won an Emmy Award...

, in which she played Carmen, the mother of Bea (Pilar Torres) and Tito (Miguel Joven).

On the other hand, her theater career boomed as she acted in Es mentira (1980), and Las prostitutas os precederán en el reino de los cielos (1984), by José Luis Martín Descalzo.

In 1991 she returned to film to star in Martes de Carnaval, with Fernando Guillén

Fernando Guillén

Fernando Guillén was a Spanish Olympic fencer. He competed in the individual and team sabre events at the 1924 Summer Olympics.-References:...

 and Juan Diego. Before retiring, she played in the series by Antena 4 Hermanos de leche (1994-1995) and in the movie Mar de luna (1995), with the lead role played by her sister Emma Penella.

Awards

• Valladoid Festival. Best actress for La vida en un bloc (1956).
• Prize of the Circle of Cinematographic Writers (1955). Best supporting actress for Últimas banderas.
• Prize of the National Syndicate of the Spectacle for Abiciosa (1975).