First-born of a family of six children - the mother a housewife and the father, a forge teacher, Amparo Muñoz never had a princess treatment in her humble house of Vélez-Malaga. No privilege for being the prettiest. As a girl she grew up with her godparents, who did not have children. People recall her as a " solitary, shy, happy, very ingenuous... and very pretty. When she was walking along the street, people would turn to look at her.” When she was in high school, she cut classes once and went to see the first movie of her life. "I was alone to the Astoria cinema in her natal city to see "A man called horse ". It dazzled me. In that time my favorite actors were Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando; now I like Susan Sarandon and Brad Pitt ".

At 17, she earned her first salary as saleswoman in a department store in Merida. Then she was employed at a French boutique and passed models in malls of Andalusia. Thanks to her insistence she was placed as secretary in an advertising company of exterior fences of which her father was an associate. The director of the newspaper Sur de Malaga, where she was going to put the announcements, encouraged her to participate in Miss Costa del Sol, an event that the diary was promoting.

Against her prediction, in 1973 she was crowned Miss Costa del Sol and Miss Spain. “ I always thought that these contests used woman, these events are like a cattle fair ", Amparo said.

" It awful for a woman to use an event like this as a springboard, but I was not aspiring to become an actress ". Her destiny changed when producer Jose Luis Dibildos saw her on television during her crowning and gave her a role in “Vida conyugal sana” directed by Roberto Bodegas, some months later she has a leading role in "Clara es el precio " where she was playing the role of a married woman that in her spare time worked as a porno actress.

Before the premiere prices went up to 100 pesetas, but that was no problem, this has been Vicente Aranda's movie that has collected the most.

In July 1974 she won the Miss Universe contest, celebrated in Manila. That gray Spain had suddenly a pretty image with a view to the exterior. More beautiful than it could imagine, in spite of the fact that the arrogant Spanish woman (with measures 84-56-84) had a pair of very thin legs that today would not adjust to the fashionable cannons. After six months of tortuous reign, during which they diagnosed her a nervous depression, in January 1975 she resigned, " She was fed up of being treated as a doll". Amparo was the only Spanish woman to win the title and the only one in rejecting the crown in the history of the contest.

Thank you Ademir (Brazil),
Information and pictures from www.el-mundo.es

This anecdote is from the month: DECEMBER 2004