Margarita Sierra

Spanish singer, dancer, and actress. Born January 5, 1936 in Madrid, Spain. Died September 6, 1963 (age of 27) in Hollywood, California, USA. Perhaps best known for her supporting role as the nightclub-singing Cha Cha O'Brien on the early 1960s ABC/Warner Brothers television series, Surfside 6, with Troy Donahue, Van Williams, Lee Patterson, and Diane McBain. Episodes of Surfside 6 often featured Sierra singing, usually in English but occasionally in Spanish. The Cha Cha Twist, a song featured during the show's second and final season, was released as a single on Warner Brothers Records but did not enter the Billboard Top 100 chart. Sierra was an accomplished tap dancer at the age of four. She appeared throughout her childhood in children's shows and later in nightclubs as a dancer and singer. She arrived in the U.S. on a nightclub tour at the age of 20. Sierra died in 1963 at the age of twenty-seven from complications following heart surgery performed a day earlier. She is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.