Maria Dolores Fernandez Pradera was born on 29 August 1926 in Madrid. When she was six years old, her family moved to Chili. A few years later, they came back to Spain. The Civil war started when Maria was in middle school. She didn’t get a chance to finish it.
Pradera landed her first role in 1941. She acted in Juan de Orduna’s movie Porque te vi llorar. Later she played in the movie Mi vida en tus manos. That’s when she used her pseudonym for the first time. Pradera became famous as a drama actress after filming two movies Altar Mayor (1943), where she played with Maruchi Fresno and Luis Pena and Inés de Castro (1944) with Antonia Vilar, where she portrayed the queen.
Maria didn’t just play in the movies, she also worked on scripts. However, her acting career was taking up too much of her time. Pradera worked on such pieces as Espronceda (1945), Es peligroso asomarse al exterior (1945), Embrujo(1946), María Antonia la Caramba (1950), and many more.
She became a much demanded theater actress. Pradera was named the leading actress of Esclava theater in Madrid after working in La Celestina. She performed in this comedy in Paris as well.
