Rosa MarÃÂa Almirall MartÃÂnez (25 June 1954 â 15 February 2012), known by the stage name Lina Romay, was a Spanish actress and filmmaker. She often appeared in films directed by her long-time companion, and later husband, Jesús Franco. She appeared in approximately 109 Franco films made over a 30-year period, from 1973 to 2010. She sometimes used the pseudonyms Candy Coster and Lulu Laverne.
Romay was born Rosa MarÃÂa Almirall MartÃÂnez in Barcelona on June 25, 1954. She attended high school at Lope de Vega between 1964 to 1970. After graduating high school, she enrolled in the Massana Art School, where she met and married actor/photographer Ramon Ardid (aka Raymond Hardy). She began acting in amateur stage productions.
Romay first met Franco when he and a friend came to see her troupe's performance of Terra Baixa. After the play ended, Franco offered her a role in one of his films. Her husband at the time, Ramon Ardid, was working for Franco as a still photographer. Her first film with Franco was Relax Baby, but the movie was never released.
She began appearing in Jesús Franco's films when they met in 1972, adopting the stage name Lina Romay after an actress and jazz artist from the 1940s. She also used the stage names, Candy Coster and Lulu Laverne, stating, I'm Lina Romay when I have brown hair, Candy Coster when I have blondeàhair,àand LuluàLaveme when I have red hair." Franco cast her in her first lead role in his 1973 film The Female Vampire.
She acted in over a hundred feature films, most directed by Franco. A self-confessed exhibitionist, the majority of their films together were in the erotic film genre (including many X titles featuring unsimulated sex scenes; she had unsimulated sex with Franco in one of this movies), but she also appeared in many of his horror, comedy, and action/adventure films as well. Among the better known of her horror films are The Bare Breasted Countess (1973), Barbed Wire Dolls (1975) and Jack the Ripper (1976). Ardid co-starred with her in several of Franco's films until he realized she was having an affair with Franco in 1975. Romay and Ardid finalized their divorce in 1978, and Ardid stopped working with Franco after 1980.
Although Romay was listed in the credits of several of Franco's films as a co-director, actor Antonio Mayans stated in a 2019 interview that Franco used to credit her in that manner for business reasons, and that she never actually co-directed any of the films. However, she contributed occasional plot ideas and assisted in the editing room.
Romay was a polyglot, speaking Spanish, Catalan, French, Portuguese, Italian, and English.
Lina Romay and Jesús Franco lived as a couple for almost four decades but only officially married on 25 April 2008. She died from cancer at the age of 57 on 15 February 2012 in Málaga, Spain. Franco died soon after in 2013.