Patty Shepard, star of Spanish silver screen, dies at 68

Patty Shepard, star of Spanish silver screen, dies at 68

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The American actress Patty Shepard in 1972.

An American model and actress who became a star of the Spanish silver screen has died from a heart attack.

Patty Shepard, who was from Greenville, South Carolina, died at the age of 68 in her Madrid home on January 3, Spanish media reports.

Born in 1945, she moved to Madrid in 1963, aged just 18, to study philosophy. She never returned home.

The young Shepard soon became a model and appeared in several popular television commercials â€" most notably one for a brandy firm.

It was her TV appearances that saw her gain her cinematic break with a small part in the 1966 film “The City Is Not For Me.”

Her career then spiraled, and led to her starring in more than 50 Spanish and Italian movies before her retirement in 1988.

She married Spanish actor Manuel de Blas in 1967 after meeting him on set of their movie “A Date In Navarra.”

They went on to share the screen several times over the next two decades.

She was the daughter of a U.S. Air Force official, who had been stationed at the Torrejón de Ardoz military base, south of the capital.

Her younger sister is Judith Chapman, who has appeared in American television shows, including, “The Young And The Restless” and “Murder, She Wrote.”