The daughter of circus actors (the clown
Padín el 77) and Eulalia Mendizábal (trapeze artist), María Padín had a sister from this marriage named Aída Padín, who would later marry Francisco Aniceto Benavente and give her a nephew,
Saulo Benavente, a painter, illuminator, and scenographer. After her parents separated, Manuel Padín married the Uruguayan actress Máxima Hourquet, giving María seven half-siblings (one of whom died a young child), including the first comic actress and vedette
Margarita Padín, and the young figures and . Her sister-in-law was the actress Raquel Oquendo. María started working as a professional actress in 1905 with the , and later also worked in radio and television. In radio, she was the first actress of the Radio-Teatrales Argentinas companies of Ricardo Migueres and Ricardo Bustamante. Her appearance in cinema occurred very early, starring alongside leading figures of the
golden age of Argentine cinema, including ,
Azucena Maizani,
Floren Delbene, , , ,
Santiago Arrieta,
Homero Cárpena,
Pedro Aleandro, , and
Domingo Sapelli. In
Chile she acted in several historical
silent films with her husband Arturo Mario as director. In addition to her career on the big screen, Padín had several roles in theatrical
revues. She worked for
Pablo Podestá's company, directed by and with and . After the company was dissolved, she settled for a few years in Chile and returned to form her own comedy company with advice from Dr. Oscar R. Beltrán. Then she joined her husband's company, called "Mario", which was made up of the actors , Ángeles Arguelles, Rosa Martínez, Julio Scarcella, and . With this company she toured locations such as
Valparaíso,
Mendoza, and
Lima. In 1946 she joined the list of The Democratic Actors Grouping, during the government of
Juan Perón, whose board of directors was composed of ,
Lydia Lamaison, ,
Alberto Barcel, and . She was a great friend of the actress Herminia Mancini, sister of Julia Mancini, with whom she worked in theater. ==Personal life==