Abuelas in Mourning: Mexican Telenovela Star Rebecca Jones Passes Away

Latin America is in mourning after the death of Rebecca Jones, the star of Mexican telenovelas. The actress passed away last Wednesday at 65 after years of fighting ovarian cancer.

The actress “was accompanied at all times by her loved ones. She left in peace and with deep gratitude to her audience for whom she worked all her life,” the agency that represented her confirmed in a statement shared on Twitter.

In 2019, Rebecca Jones communicated that she was in remission. However, in 2022, the media reported that she had been hospitalized after relapsing from the disease.

“On January 29, life shook me like I never imagined,” she said in an interview following her diagnosis. “I faced eight chemotherapies and managed to beat it from the fourth session.”

“Death brought me closer to life,” she asserted.

Rebecca Jones, the actress who broke the mold

Even if you didn’t know her name, Rebecca Jones’ face and performances have been forever imprinted in the collective memory of Latin America. Since her debut in the 1982 telenovela “El amor nunca muere,” Jones became an unstoppable force in television.

Those who worked with her say that, upon arriving on a set or in a theater, Rebecca Jones was imposing. Her friends and co-stars remember her as a woman who stood out in how she spoke her lines and looked. Her professionalism, demand, and character guaranteed her a career spanning over three decades.

The daughter of an American father and Mexican mother, the Jones family moved to California when Rebecca was a young child. Jones attended Laguna Beach High School, Saddleback College, and the University of South Carolina.

Jones studied at the South Coast Actors Corporation and trained in acting, literary analysis, set design, lighting, and makeup.

After working as a waitress, Jones returned to Mexico in the early 1980s and made her television debut two years later.

Her successes include “El ángel caído” (1985), “Cuna de lobos” (1986), “Imperio de cristal” (1994), ” and “El país de las mujeres” (2002).

Rebecca Jones also rode the streaming wave. Among her most notable series is HBO’s “Sr. Avila,” HBO’s “La casa de las Flores” and Netflix’s “Quién mató a Sara.”

When the last role is the most important

As is often the case in life, the most challenging roles are always given to the strongest people.

“I’ve never been given the good bimbo. Never,” said Rebecca Jones in an interview with the Tlnovelas channel. 

Despite her diagnosis, Jones continued to work. This year, her latest production as a leading actress was “Nada que ver,” directed by Kenya Marquez.

“Cancer is a disease that stops. It subsides when it is in remission,” the actress said in her last interview. “I have been in remission several times. Last November, precisely because I was working too much in a Televisa soap opera, my defenses went down, and I got pneumonia. I was in intensive care for 10 days”.

Despite responding “wonderfully” to intensive therapy, Jones lost 10 kilos, and her condition deteriorated rapidly.

“I want to tell the public, [especially] people who are sick, that everything passes,” were his words in his last interview. “Everything passes. The good and the bad.”