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Luis Alonso, better known as Gilbert Roland, worked as an assistant director. Pictured here (left to right) with western star Jack Perin and friend Robert Madrid on location at Universal Studios, circa 1920’s Luis Alonso wanted to be a matador like his father, but the Mexican Revolution led his family to run to the U.S., and those dreams were shelved.
Born in 1905 in Juarez, Alonso anglicized his name to Gilbert Roland, and began work as an extra in Hollywood. In the 1920s Rudolph Valentino helped Roland get more roles, leading to “Camille” (1926).
Gilbert Roland shown here as the star of the English and Spanish language versions of MGM’s “Men of the North” (1931), with the other leading men starring in their respective languages.
In talkies, Roland was often assigned traditional Latin Lover role, though his comedic sense enabled him to expand his range. Roland became the first and only genuine Mexican to portray the Cisco Kid onscreen in the 1940s, reprising the role in 11 films. Other major films included “The Sea Hawk” (1940), “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952) and “Around the World in Eighty Days” (1956). Roland died of cancer in Beverly Hills in 1994.
On the set of “The Loves of Carmen” (1927 Silent Film),
Mexican born Dolores Del Rio has her palm read by an
extra while director Raoul Walsh looks on.
Dolores Del Rio was considered the first Mexican movie star with top-billing appeal to white audiences. Born 1905 into an aristocratic family in Durango, and eventually came to the U.S. to escape the compatriots of Pancho Villa.
Dubbed “Lolita,” the 5-foot-3 Del Rio was cast in roles that emphasized her race and “exotic beauty.” She made her first film, “Joanna”, a silent film in 1925. It was a smash, and the publicity machine hailed her as the “Female Rudolph Valentino,” while claiming that she “slept for 16 hours a day to maintain her beauty.” Her close friend Marlene Dietrich called her “the most beautiful woman in Hollywood.”
But the years and the advent of “talkies” was not kind to her career. After tumultuous marriages and affairs, Del Rio returned to Mexico in 1942, where she soon became a famous film star in her native country.
With such pictures as “María Candelaria” (1944) and “Bugambilia” (1945), Del Río won the Ariel (Mexican Academy Award) three times and became known as THE Mexican beauty around the world.
Other well known films included "Flying Down to Rio" (1933), where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced together for the first time; and "Journey Into Fear" (1942), with her co-star and then lover, Orson Welles, who called her “the most exciting woman I’ve ever met.” She also starred in John Ford's "The Fugitive" (1947 with Henry Fonda) and his "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964), as well as “Flaming Star” (1960, playing Elvis Presley’s mother). Her last film was “The Children of Sanchez” (1978 with Anthony Quinn).
A long time advocate for orphaned children, she died in 1983.
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