Regina Torné

Regina Torné was born Rosa Virgen del Pilar Martina Incháustegui Anaya on 21 July 1944 in the municipality of Centro, Villahermosa, Tabasco. She was the daughter of Pedro Salvador Incháustegui Rueda and Pilar Anaya and had an older sister. Some sources give her birth year as 1943, but reports of her death at 82 match 1944.

Although born in Mexico, she was raised and educated in the United States, where her parents had sent her to study. She returned to Mexico at the age of 18 on a scholarship to study acting, having completed university level studies and become fluent in English, French and Italian.

Torné began her artistic career in 1962 as a jazz singer before moving into acting. She made her film debut in Despedida de soltera in 1966 and worked steadily through the late 1960s and 1970s in more than 30 films, including Solo de noche vienes, El Rata, El temerario, La señora Muerte, Las luchadoras contra el robot asesino, Blue Demon contra las invasoras, Hijos de Satanás, Viento salvaje and Tiempo y destiempo. She also appeared in English language work, including the I Spy episode "Turnabout for Traitors" in 1968 and the 1969 film The Big Cube.

She played Gloria, the aunt in Roberto Gómez Bolaños's El Chavo del Ocho, in the 1978 season, a role that made her known to a huge television audience. Her later television work included the telenovelas Rosalía, Chispita, Clarisa, Agujetas de color de rosa, Caminos cruzados, Retrato de familia, Rivales por accidente, Chiquititas, La Chacala, Catalina y Sebastián, Por ti, Belinda, La niñera, La Loba, Cielo rojo and Siempre tuya Acapulco.

In 1992 she was cast as Mama Elena de la Garza in Como agua para chocolate, Alfonso Arau's adaptation of Laura Esquivel's novel. Her portrait of the authoritarian, rigid mother who forbids her youngest daughter to marry won her the Ariel Award for Best Actress and became the role for which she was most remembered. Her later films included Tú puedes, si quieres, Simple mortal and Mi vida por ti.

She retired from acting in 2016 after about five decades of work and moved to Puebla, where she founded and directed an academy of performing arts.

Torné spent her youth in the United States before building her career in Mexico, and she was known for working in English, French and Italian as well as Spanish. In her later years she lived in Puebla, where she taught through her own acting academy.

In January 2026 it was reported that she had faced health complications after a fall in November 2025, which left her in hospital for several weeks and in need of nursing care during her recovery.

Regina Torné died at her home in Mexico City on Wednesday 11 November 2026, aged 82. The news was first reported by the television programme Ventaneando and was confirmed by the National Association of Actors (ANDA), which posted condolences to her family, friends and colleagues under her legal name, Rosa Virgen del Pilar Martina Inchaustegui Anaya.

Her family did not make a cause of death public. Reports noted her fall and hospital stay in late 2025, but no link to her death has been confirmed.

Torné's Mama Elena is one of the most recognisable characters in Mexican cinema. Como agua para chocolate became one of the most successful Mexican films internationally, and her severe, commanding performance anchored it.

For television audiences across Latin America she remained Gloria from El Chavo del Ocho, and her long run in telenovelas made her a familiar presence for decades. Through her academy in Puebla she passed her craft on to a new generation of performers.