Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso, 1905-1994

Today marks the birth anniversary of Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso, who was born in Mexico on this date in 1905. Now, you've probably never heard of that particular actor; at least, not as Luis Antonio. His family moved ot the US when he was young, and by his early 20s he was in Hollywood playing supporting roles in silent movies. It's here that he took his screen name from two of the actors he worked with: Gilbert Roland (from John Gilbert and Ruth Roland). Gilbert Roland transitioned to talkies just fine, which is mildly interesting considering that he wasn't a native English speaker. Granted, some of those roles included immigrants or foreigners, as in the brief role in Life Begins, or the Russian in She Done Him Wrong. In the 1940s, Roland played the Cisco Kid, before really making his mark as a "Latin lover" type, probably most notably in The Bad and the Beautiful, from which the photo above is taken. At the end of his long career, he made frequent appearances in episodic TV and TV movies, as did a lot of actors from the earlier generation.