María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García (16 January 1924 – 5 July 2002), known professionally as Katy Jurado (/dʒəˈrɑːdoʊ/ jə-RAH-doh, Spanish: [ˈkati xuˈɾaðo]), was a Mexican actress. She followed in the footsteps of earlier Mexican actresses in Hollywood, including Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, and María Félix. And her talent for playing a variety of characters helped to promote later Mexican actresses in American cinema. She acted in popular Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. She was the first Latin American actress nominated for an Oscar, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in Broken Lance (1954), and was the first to win a Golden Globe Award, for her performance in High Noon (1952).

María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, known from early childhood as "Katy", was born on 16 January 1924, in Mexico City, Mexico, the daughter of Luis Jurado Ochoa, a lawyer, and Vicenta García, a singer. Jurado's younger brothers were Luis Raúl and Óscar Sergio. Her mother was a singer who worked for the Mexican radio station XEW (the oldest radio station in Hispanic America). Her mother was sister of Mexican musician Belisario de Jesús García, author of popular Mexican songs such as "Las Cuatro Milpas". Jurado's cousin Emilio Portes Gil was president of Mexico (1928–1930).

Jurado lived her first years and studied at a school run by nuns in the Guadalupe Inn neighborhood of Mexico City. She later studied to be a bilingual secretary. She wanted to study law and become a lawyer.

Her singular beauty drew attention since she was a teenager, and she was invited to work as an actress by producers and filmmakers, among them Emilio Fernández (one of the most prominent Mexican filmmakers at that time), who offered her a role in his first movie The Isle of Passion (1941). Although her godfather was Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz, her parents never gave their consent.

Another filmmaker interested in her was Mauricio de la Serna, who offered her a role in the film No matarás (1943). She signed the contract without authorization from her parents, and when they found out, they threatened to send her to a boarding school in Monterrey. Around this time, she met aspiring actor Víctor Velázquez and married him soon afterward. Her marriage was largely motivated by the desire to continue a career as an actress and to escape the yoke of her parents. Velazquez was the father of her children, Victor Hugo and Sandra. The marriage ended in 1943, shortly after Jurado began her film career.

Jurado debuted as an actress in the Mexican film No matarás (1943). From that moment on, her acting talent, but above all her exotic beauty and sensual appeal, gave her the opportunity to work in numerous films. She specialized in playing wicked and seductive women. Jurado said:

I knew that my body was provocative, but also that I was not beautiful, although yes, I admit, my physique was different and very sensual.

She appeared in 16 more films over the next seven years in what film historians have named the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She acted with acclaimed Mexican film stars such as Pedro Infante, Sara Montiel, Pedro Armendáriz, and others. In 1953, she starred in Luis Buñuel's film El Bruto, for which she received an Ariel Award for Best Supporting Actress, Mexico's equivalent of an Academy Award.^{[citation needed]}