Alfredo Ripstein, producer of films in Mexico, dies at 90

MEXICO CITY — Alfredo Ripstein, a Mexican film producer whose prolific and influential career stretched from the country's cinematic Golden Age in the 1940s to the dawn of the 21st century, has died. He was 90.

Mr. Ripstein died of respiratory failure Jan. 20 at his home in Mexico City's Polanco district, his family said.

"He didn't struggle. He didn't fight. So it's an ending of a film from the '40s that he would've liked very much," said his son, Arturo Ripstein, one of Mexico's most accomplished independent directors.

In his native country, Mr. Ripstein was widely regarded as the last surviving member of a group of powerful producers who helped shape Mexico's film industry into one of the world's most efficient and dynamic in the years before and after World War II.

He also gave exposure relatively early in their careers to some of Mexico's premier contemporary young actors, including Salma Hayek and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Mr. Ripstein produced more than 100 films, from melodramas to serious films that explored the layers of corruption and contradiction in Mexican society.

Among the latter category was Mr. Ripstein's final feature film, in 2001, "The Crime of Padre Amaro," which starred Garcia Bernal as a tormented young priest who impregnates a woman.

Based on a 19th-century novel by Portuguese writer Jose Maria Eca de Queiros, the film's highly critical depiction of the Catholic Church made it a "succes de scandale" in Mexico.

Produced with Mr. Ripstein's grandson and partner, Daniel Birman, it was the country's official entry for the best foreign-language film Oscar, and it remains one of the top-grossing Mexican films ever.

Mr. Ripstein was born Dec. 10, 1916, in Parral in the northern state of Chihuahua; his father was a merchant of Polish origin.

At the time, his parents were running a small supply store whose biggest customer was Pancho Villa's revolutionary army, then in the middle of its insurrectionary struggle against the federal government.

Mr. Ripstein was 5 when his family moved to the Mexican capital. He studied to be an accountant and began work in that capacity in the 1930s.

In 1950, having already produced some 50 films, he opened Alameda Films.

Some of Mr. Ripstein's movie reminiscences will be published soon in a book by Nelson Carro, "Churubusco-Babilonia," a fusion of the name of the legendary Mexico City movie studio complex and the Spanish word for Babylon.

In addition to his wife, Freida, and son, Mr. Ripstein is survived by two daughters, Sylvia and Patricia, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.