Celebs and friends react to the death of Miami-born ‘Ugly Betty’ creator Silvio Horta
Silvio Horta, the 1992 Coral Gables High School grad whose “Ugly Betty” took him to the Emmy Awards’ red carpet, was found dead of an apparent suicide at a hotel in Kendall on Tuesday.
TV industry sources told Variety that Horta, 45, shot himself.
Miami-Dade Detective Lee Cowart confirmed that officers responded to a hotel in the 11500 block of Southwest 88th Street around 1 p.m. Tuesday. There, they found Horta dead of an apparent gunshot wound, he said.
The investigation is ongoing, Cowart said. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death after an autopsy.
Horta created and wrote ABC’s English-language version of the popular Colombian telenovela, “Yo soy Betty la fea.”
“Ugly Betty,” which aired four seasons from 2006 to 2010, made a star out of its lead actress, America Ferrera, and put singer-actress Vanessa Williams on TV in a high profile, Emmy-nominated role.
Ferrera, currently the star and producer of NBC’s “Superstore,” paid tribute on her Instagram page to Horta on Tuesday.
‘Ugly Betty’ stars react
“I’m stunned and heartbroken to hear the devastating news of Ugly Betty creator, Silvio Horta’s death. His talent and creativity brought me and so many others such joy & light. I’m thinking of his family and loved ones who must be in so much pain right now — and of the whole Ugly Betty family who feel this loss so deeply.”
Horta told the Miami Herald he came upon the idea of creating an American version of the show despite making fun of the Spanish-language telenovelas his mom, Ana Horta, watched on TV while he was a kid growing up in Miami.
Horta saw something in the Betty la fea character — a whip-smart but homely young woman from a traditionalist family making her way through the cutthroat magazine fashion industry — he could relate to. The “Ugly Betty” showrunner was also someone who could be made to feel different in often unenlightened times while coming of age in a major city.
Openly gay as an adult, the Cuban-American Horta came out to his family at 19, The Sun reported.
“That big-theme story-telling grabs you,” Horta said of “Ugly Betty” in an interview with the Miami Herald in 2006. “You couldn’t help but relate to these characters. I don’t know why it shouldn’t work for American viewers. The over-arching themes that made them work for Spanish-speakers — forbidden love, the peasant person swept up into a rich family, personal betrayal — those are universal.”
Horta came to create “Ugly Betty” by way of Miami, then film school at New York University in the early 1990s. He moved to Hollywood to be closer to the TV industry.
Williams’ wickedly amusing role as Wilhelmina Slater on “Ugly Betty” as the title character’s main tormentor put the actress in our living rooms and led to several Emmy nominations. Williams, whose signature song was “Save the Best for Last,” had subsequent parts in “Desperate Housewives” and “666 Park Avenue.”
On Instagram, Williams paid tribute to Horta on Tuesday.
“His creativity and passion will be missed by so many of us that worked with him,” Williams posted.
Christopher Gorham, who starred in two Horta TV creations — UPN’s short-lived sci-fi series “Jake 2.0” in 2003, and as Betty’s love interest Henry Grubstick on “Ugly Betty,” thanked Horta on Instagram.
“Silvio Horta gave me two of the greatest opportunities in my career with Jake 2.0 and Ugly Betty. I will be forever grateful for his creativity, his enormous heart, and his friendship,” Gorham wrote.
Reaction in Miami
In Horta’s hometown, reaction was similarly swift and heartfelt.
“I am SO UPSET about this ... 3rd suicide in a circle of acquaintances,” producer-director Richard Jay-Alexander posted on Facebook from his Miami Beach home.
Jay-Alexander’s Facebook friend, Mexican actor-singer Mauricio “Mau” Martínez, who played Emilio Estefan in the touring production of Broadway’s “On Your Feet!” posted in response:
“Depression is real and some people don’t pay attention to it. It’s so heart breaking. That’s why it’s important to SPEAK, even if people think or say you’re being ‘dramatic.’ I’m so sorry for your loss. He was a wonderful & talented man.”
Miami-born blogger Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. — best known as Perez Hilton — expressed his grief on Twitter and Instagram on Tuesday.
“NOOOO! His poor family! Poor him! Ugh! I always felt such kinship with #SilvioHorta. A fellow gay Cubanito from Miami who, like me, also went to NYU’s Tisch School Of The Arts. And we were around the same age. This is devastating! Sending all of the light to his loved ones!!!”
Post-’Betty’ struggles
The slow-build success of “Ugly Betty” — which garnered stronger ratings in Miami households — initially pleased Horta.
“Any pilot of any TV show is trying to catch lightning in a bottle,” he told the Herald when its first season premiered in 2006. “It’s treading in treacherous, tricky waters. You’ve got to get the right cast, the right scripts, the right directors . . . But once we started shooting it and I saw it coming together, I thought we had a good shot. Like I said, people can make fun, but they’ll watch.”
But two years into the “Ugly Betty” run, fatigue apparently set in and none of the shows he wrote and developed — including a 2015 NBC pilot for “The Curse of the Fuentes Women” — made it to the air since 2010.
“My first year doing this, people would constantly ask me, ‘Aren’t you happy? You must be thrilled. You’ve got a hit show. You must be having the time of your life.’ Well, no, I’m not. It’s all consuming,” the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom reported. “I was so exhausted by the time I got home on Friday night, I was just paralyzed. I didn’t want to go out. I didn’t want to socialize and I had so much work to do. That was it. That was my life.”
Horta’s survivors include his mother Ana Horta, his sister Hilda Horta, nephew Eric Nurquez and niece Lauren Nurquez. There is no information on services.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 11:32 AM.
