Isabel Torres, Star of HBO Max’s ‘Veneno,’ Dead at 52

Isabel Torres, the actress best known for her starring role in HBO Max’s Veneno, has died. Torres passed away on Friday, Feb. 11 at the age of 52 following a battle with lung cancer. Torres’ family confirmed her passing in a statement originally written in Spanish shared to her Instagram account which read, “Today, February 11, 2022, we say goodbye to Isabel. Although her family and friends feel her loss deeply, we know that wherever she goes she will have fun as only she knows how. Thank you for all the messages of affection and concern. She has left feeling very loved and protected.”

Torres first announced she was battling cancer in March 2020, though Out reported that she had been battling the disease since 2018. Torres said in a TV interview that she “was in the middle of filming” Veneno when she first began noticing symptoms. In November 2021, she told fans in an Instagram video that doctors had given her “two months to live.” In the emotional video, Torres added, “let’s see if I get over it, and if not, what are we going to do? Life is like that.” In the caption, Torres said this would be her “last video,” though she continued to share photos on her account. Her final Instagram post came in December when she shared a photo of herself in Charlotte Tilbury makeup.

Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain in 1969, Torres, who was transgender, made history as the first Canarian woman to legally change her name and gender on her ID in 1996. She also became the first trans woman to be a candidate for the title of Las Palmas Carnival Queen in 2005. While Torres had a number of credits to her name, she was best known for her portrayal of the oldest version of Spanish transgender icon Cristina Ortiz Rodríguez, also known as La Veneno, with younger versions played by Daniela Santiago and Marcos Sotkovszki, in the HBO series Veneno. The biographical limited series premiered in March 2020.

Speaking to The Advocate in January 2021, Torres said the opportunity to play Rodríguez “meant the role of a lifetime.” Torres explained, “I think in it, there was a lot of me, and in her, there was a lot of all of us. I never thought we would have a lot of similarities, and at the end, after seeing the character, learning her story, and learning to love her through her wounds, I understood that we share a lot in common.”

Following news of her passing, many of those who worked with Torres took to social media to pay tribute. In an emotional post, Veneno co-writer and creator Javier Calvo wrote, “I love you, I respect you, I admire you and I will miss you so much. Thank you for everything you have given us. Your Pedro Marín, as you called me every morning of filming, feels privileged to have met you.”