Raquel Johanna Rosaly Guillermety (born January 13, 1947) is a Puerto Rican actress, singer, and television host.

Early years

Johanna Rosaly was born in Santurce, a district of San Juan. In 1956 at the age of eight, she started taking acting lessons with Argentinians Luis A. Negro and Elba Mania, and dancing lessons with Beatriz Trujillo. In 1957, she made her acting debut as a child, on stage, at Teatro Tapia, in Old San Juan, in Mientras los Niños Juegan (While the Children Play). That same year, she made her debut on television, with Channel 2's children's production of Los Amigos de Pinocho (Pinocho's Friends) as well as in the film Con Los Pies Descalzos (an Osvaldo Agüero production, starring the Catalan actor Ricardo Palmerola).

Teenage years

Rosaly started taking singing lessons when she became a teenager. Then, she participated on stage in Spanish zarzuelas such as “El Caserío”, and “Black el Payaso”; operettas, such as “La duquesa del Bal Tabarin”, and musicals performed in English, such as “My Fair Lady”, “The Sound of Music” and “I Do, I Do”. In 1966, already in her early years in college, she made her TV debut in the telenovela El Retrato de Angela, broadcast by Telemundo. In this soap opera, she played a mute girl.

Singing career

During the late 1970s and early 80s, Johanna Rosaly had a short but notable career as a singer. In 1978 she signed with the Venezuelan Velvet Records label, and began touring all over Latin America, to promote her two albums under that label and following the popularity of the soap operas she had starred in. In 1980 she would sign with CBS International label, now Sony Discos, and recorded two more albums for them, doing shows in many US cities with high Hispanic populations.

Television acting career

Rosaly performed in 15 soap operas altogether from 1966 - 1980. However, the leading roles she is mostly remembered for were, 1973's El Hijo de Angela María, alongside Rolando Barral, Mona Marti, Ángela Meyer, and Lucy Boscana, among others. This performance led her to carry out the same leading role, Marisela Perdomo, in the film based on the telenovela, in Mexico, opposite Iranian-Mexican actress Irán Eory. Her crossover as a singer/actress was in 1978's Cristina Bazán, opposite José Luis Rodríguez "El Puma", and alongside Alba Nydia Díaz, Esther Sandoval, and Adamari López, at the early age of 6, among others. In 1979 Johanna Rosaly left Telemundo (WKAQ-TV)for WAPA-TV, where she performed she starred in the 1980 soap operas: “Vida”,Amame, opposite Dominican-Mexican Andrés García, and “El Amor Nuestro de Cada Día”, opposite Venezuelan Jean Carlo Simancas. For each one she sang the musical theme, namely “Yo Soy Un Barco” (composed by [[Lou Briel), “Amándote” and “El Amor Nuestro de Cada Día”, respectively. "Amándote" (Loving You), respectively.

Anchor woman & TV host

As the 1980s came about, Rosaly made a short parenthesis in her acting career, working as an executive in WAPA-TV, and shortly moved to Telemundo again, becoming first a Cultural and Arts News reporter for Telenoticias, and eventually in 1982 an anchor woman and host in the talk-show, En Vivo a las Cinco. She also starred in the five-hours-long game show Super Sábados, which for several years was aired via satellite to many Hispanic enclaves in the US. In 1993, Johanna Rosaly joined WIPR-TV channel 6, Puerto Rico's Government TV channel, hosting several shows, such as Mucho Gusto, “Cultura Viva” and “¿Y Cómo Fue”.

Films

In 1989, she performed alongside Tommy Muñiz in the motion picture film Lo que le Pasó a Santiago, produced and directed by Jacobo Morales, which was nominated for an Oscar as the best foreign film. In 1993 she performed in, Shortcut to Paradise, and in 1994's Linda Sara, alongside Chayanne and Dayanara Torres. Other film credits include “Dios Los Cría II”, “El Bailao de Julia y Berto”, “Con los Pies Descalzos”, “Jugando en Serio” and “Force of Nature”.

Recent years

Since the 1990s, she has devoted herself mostly to the stage, to critical acclaim for works such as Master Class, “Punto y Coma” (W;t), “Buenas Noches, Mamá (“‘Night, Mother”, “Relaciones Peligrosas” (Liaisons Dangereuses), among many others. Altogether, she has performed in over 100 plays during her very long acting career. In 2010, she made her debut on the New York stage, in Sabina y Lucrecia. Rosaly and New York-based actress Eva Cristina Vásquez starred in this play by Alberto Adellach, " a tale of two very different mentally ill women who escape an asylum." Rosaly played "Mrs. Warren" in the San Juan revival of La profesión de la Sra. Warren, as part of the International Festival of the Puerto Rican Culture Institute.

Personal life

On January 11, 2008, Rosaly married José Manuel Saldaña, the former president of the University of Puerto Rico. The couple announced their separation in June 2011. During the 2018 California wildfires, Rosaly was at the residence of her son, film director José Gilberto Molinari, and her daughter in law as well as her two-month old grandchild in Agoura Hills. She escaped the Woolsey Fire with her family by taking refuge in a hotel. Molinari's house only suffered minor damages. A day later, close to the hotel the Rocky Fire started, however, it was soon controlled and the family did not have to flee for a second time.

Honors

She has received multiple honors, among them, the Puerto Rican Culture Institute (ICP), dedicated their 1997 International Theater Festival to her, honoring her more than 40 years as an actress.

Filmography

Film

Television