On the facade of number 4 Don Pedro Street, in the heart of La Latina, a plaque marks the house where “the popular actress María de los Ángeles López Segovia was born on March 20, 1937”—that is, the great Lina Morgan. At 12 Samaria Street (in Retiro), another plaque marks the place where the actress lived until the end of her days. The first was installed in 1988, and the second on October 15, 2025—10 years after her death.
Between them, in addition to the Barrio de las Letras and El Retiro Park, lies an entire professional career dedicated to the performing arts, both on stage and behind the scenes; for, in addition to being a film and television star, the actress and showgirl was, for decades, the owner of the Teatro La Latina, next to Plaza de la Cebada.
The La Latina Theater, the joy of Lina Morgan’s life
María de los Ángeles was the fourth of five children born to Emilio López Salas (a tailor’s assistant) and Julia Segovia García. Born into a humble family and far from the aesthetic conventions of the starlets of the time, it was not easy for the actress—despite having been interested in dance and acting from a very young age—to make her way in the world of show business.
At just 16 years old, she began performing as a backup dancer at the Teatro La Latina, although it wasn’t until she was 22 that, on the recommendation of her brother José Luis, she adopted the stage name Lina Morgan (Lina, from Angelines, and Morgan, after the famous pirate Henry Morgan).
After achieving theatrical success alongside Juanito Navarro and carving out a niche for herself on the big screen through box-office hits like *La tonta del bote* (1970), it was alongside her brother (and agent) that Lina Morgan purchased the Teatro La Latina in 1983, which would become the cradle of her unique reinvention of the genre that had brought her success: the Spanish musical revue.
“The truth is that I haven’t quite come to terms with owning a theater yet, even though it’s my lifelong dream,” the actress told El País at the time. The theater remained her property until 2010, when she sold it to Focus-Penta, a partnership between two theater companies: Pentación Espectáculos and Grupo Focus.
However, even though she no longer owned the theater, the actress retained—as part of her contract—an office and a reserved box at the theater for life. Furthermore, after her death, the Teatro La Latina also hosted her funeral chapel, where hundreds of people came to say goodbye to the actress, just across the street from the place where she was born 78 years earlier.