Actress and singer Renée Victor, best known for voicing Abuelita Elena in the animated Disney-Pixar film Coco and playing Lupita on Weeds, has died at the age of 86 due to lymphoma, her agency confirmed to Deadline on Saturday (May 31).

“Renee is perhaps best known as the voice of ‘Abuelita’ in Disney’s 2017 blockbuster Coco,” a statement from her daughters Raquel and Margo Victor reads in part. “Renee was loved by so many & had fans all over the world. Her memory will be cherished by all who knew her.”

Victor, a San Antonio, Texas, native, began her entertainment career in Los Angeles as a singer in the 1960s, touring with her husband as the duo Ray & Renee and is credited for introducing prominent Latin musicians, including Pérez Prado and Xavier Cugat, to an American audience. The singer made one of her earliest television appearances on the show Pacesetters, which chronicled the Chicano Movement of the 1970s, before transitioning to acting with early television roles on Matlock and Scarecrow and Mrs. King and the films A Night in Old Mexico, The Doctor and The Apostle.

Victor was later credited for television roles on the animated version of The Addams Family, The Tony Danza Show, Team Knight Rider, Four Corners, ER, House of Payne, Children's Hospital and Snowpiercer, as well as film roles in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, Stuntmen, SuperFly, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Paranormal Activity: The Market Ones.

Victor was also credited for voice work on the video games Skyrim and Oblivion Remastered.

Podcasts