- She is best-known in the Latino community for her portrayal of Yolanda Saldivar in the movie, Selena (1997), and to Anglo audiences as the housekeeper on The Goonies (1985).
- She studied psychology and social work at Texas Women's University in Texas. She was social worker until she started acting in the 1970s.
- She estimates she has played a maid in at least 150 films or plays. She narrated a documentary, Maid in America (2005).
- Her parents owned a tortilla factory and two restaurants.
- She was an advocate for the hearing impaired. She founded the Latino Theater Company in Los Angeles, California in 1985.
- She is survived by her husband, Elias Ontiveros of Pico Rivera, California; her sons, Nicholas Ontiveros, Alejandro Ontiveros, and Elias Ontiveros; and two granddaughters.
- Two of Lupe's three sons are hearing-impaired. Lupe, as a young woman, worked in her own mother's small factory for a few months, with women not unlike those working in the sweatshop in Real Women Have Curves (2002).
- In 2005, Ontiveros was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest star role as Juanita "Mama" Solis, the nosy mother-in-law of Eva Longoria's character on "Desperate Housewives.".
- Graduate of Texas Women's University, with majors in psychology and social work.
- Received a Lifetime Achievement Impact Award in 2002 from the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC). The NHMC Impact Awards recognize outstanding contributions to the positive portrayal of Latinos in media.
- Has worked part-time as a social worker.
- Ontiveros was a founding board member of the Latino Theater Company in downtown Los Angeles.
- She has appeared in five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Zoot Suit (1981), El Norte (1983), The Goonies (1985), Selena (1997) and Real Women Have Curves (2002).
- Mother, with Elias P. Ontiveros, of three sons.
- She was a lifelong Democrat.
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