Deborah Carthy-Deu – Miss Universe 1985

Deborah Carthy-Deu – Miss Universe 1985


The city of Miami welcomed 79 candidades who competed for the Miss Universe title in 1985. Unexpectedly, Puerto Rico conquered its 2nd crown with Deborah Carthy-Deu, ranked 57th in the Most Beautiful Miss Universe 1952-1960 contest.

When Bob Barker announced the ‘top 10?, there were no negative surprises. Uruguay, Chile, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Ireland, Brazil, USA, Zaire, Spain, and Canada all deserved to be semi-finalists.

The audience, mostly Latin, had Miss Spain as the favorite, but loudly applauded all Latinas and Miss USA (the first Hispanic to win the Miss USA title, Laura Martinez-Harring was born in Mexico. She later became an actress of relative success. Laura was also the first of five women from Texas to consecutively win the Miss USA title).

The press covering the pageant had Misses Spain and Canada as the two main front-runners, but Miss Canada failed to advance to the final five. Conversely, based on the scores she had received throughout the competition, it looked like Spain’s Teresa Sanchez easily ‘had it’.

Benita Mureka-Tete, the exotic (and at the same time classic!) black Cinderella from Zaire (today’s Democratic Republic of Congo), and Andrea López, a knockout bombshell blonde from Uruguay, seemed to be the ones who represented some threat to the Spaniard stunner (Teresa was actually the 1st runner-up from Spain, the actual titleholder could not compete in Miss Universe), but it was Deborah from Puerto Rico, who had entered the top 5 in 5th place, who surprisingly became the final judges’ choice.

Deborah started ‘getting ground’ in the competition when she won the evening gown competition. Elegance, by the way, is one of her trademarks. Although the results were disappointing for most of those who watched the pageant, Carthy-Deu had an excellent year as Miss Universe, and in 1986 returned to crown her successor, in Panama City, more beautiful than ever.

Miss Universe 1985 was not a very successful actress, but has always been an excellent television presenter. She owns a modeling school in Puerto Rico for future models, actresses and beauty queens. In 2009, at the age of 43, Deborah gave birth to her first son.



The top 5: Uruguay (5th), Zaire (3rd), Puerto Rico (Miss Universe 1985), Spain (2nd), and Venezuela (4th). (courtesy of Pageantopolis)