Olga San Juan, the Puerto Rican Pepperpot, was a scene-stealing personality with a flavorful brand of comedy, delightfully mangling the English language. Born in Brooklyn's Flatbush section, her family returned to Puerto Rico when she was three, but came back to America after a few years, settling in "Spanish Harlem". By age three, she was taking dancing lessons and was thrust into the limelight by her mother. By age 11, she and five other young girls executed the Fandango for Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House.
As a teenager, Olga performed at hot spots like the El Morocco and the Copacabana, earning pay as a dancer with renowned jazz and mambo musician Tito Puente. She gained momentum on radio and formed a popular night club act, Olga San Juan and Her Rumba Band, which caught the eye of Paramount Studios. Putting her under contract, Olga became the first dyed-blonde Latin movie spitfire.
Making her film debut in the tropical musical short Caribbean Romance (1943),her second short film, Bombalera (1945),earned an Academy Award nomination. In her third short, The Little Witch (1945),she played herself as a night club singer. Her feature film debut came in Rainbow Island (1944),a typical South Seas vehicle for sarong-wearing Dorothy Lamour.
Soon, Olga was seen playing "other woman" supports. Her finest hour came alongside Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in Blue Skies (1946),adding zest to songs like "You'd Be Surprised", "Heat Wave", and "I'll See You in C-U-B-A". While the boys vied for the romantic attentions of gorgeous Joan Caulfield, Olga was paired up, engagingly, with comedy scene-stealer Billy De Wolfe.
Constricted in films by her heavy accent, Olga became an ethnic commodity for Paramount and was enjoyably featured in light "B" material. She stood out playing Mary Hatcher's comedy sidekick and fellow wannabe movie star in Variety Girl (1947),which seemed more of an excuse to feature Paramount's huge roster of superstars in cameo bits.
Olga married actor Edmond O'Brien in 1948 and had three children, two girls and a boy. Her last hurrah in the industry came when famed lyricist Alan Jay Lerner offered her a lead in his Broadway-bound musical, "Paint Your Wagon", in 1951. The show was a flop, running just eight months, and Olga left the cast before the run ended, after becoming pregnant with her second child.
In the aftermath, Olga decided to concentrate on marriage and family. Aside from a smattering of TV shows, she completely retired. On film, she was briefly glimpsed only two times more, both of them being her husband's vehicles, The Barefoot Contessa (1954),in which he won the "supporting actor" Oscar, and The 3rd Voice (1960).
Settling in West Los Angeles, Olga suffered a stroke in the 1970s and slowly declined in health, from that point on. Divorced from O'Brien in 1976, their children all involved themselves in different facets of the movie business. Daughter Maria O'Brien became an actress in her own right, son Brendan O'Brien delved into acting, writing, and guitar-playing, and other daughter Bridget O'Brien Adelman became a TV producer.
After decades of being out of the news, it was reported in January 2009 that Olga had died at a Burbank hospital of kidney failure, following an extended illness. She was 81.
