Fernando Lamas

Fernando Álvaro Lamas y de Santos was born on January 9, 1915, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and went on to become an actor and director whose career spanned Argentine cinema, Hollywood films, Broadway, and American television. He died of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles on October 8, 1982, at the age of 67.

Lamas built his early career in Argentina, appearing in a series of films throughout the 1940s, among them En el último piso (1942), Frontera Sur (1943), Villa rica del Espíritu Santo (1945), Stella (1946), The Poor People's Christmas (1947), The Tango Returns to Paris (1948), The Story of a Bad Woman (1948), La rubia Mireya (1949) opposite Mecha Ortiz, De padre desconocido (1949), Vidalita (1949), The Story of the Tango (1950), Corrientes, calle de ensueños (1949), and La otra y yo (1950). He was reported to be among the three biggest stars in the country at that time. His first American production was The Avengers (1950) for Republic Pictures, filmed partly on location in Argentina and partly in the United States, which led to his relocation to Hollywood.

In September 1949, Lamas signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he was cast primarily in Latin lover roles and occasionally in musical productions. His MGM credits included Rich, Young and Pretty (1951), in which he played Paul Sarnac opposite Jane Powell; The Law and the Lady (1952) with Greer Garson and Michael Wilding; and the Franz Lehár operetta The Merry Widow (1952), in which he played Count Danilo as Lana Turner's love interest. He appeared opposite Elizabeth Taylor in The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) and served as Esther Williams' leading man in Dangerous When Wet (1953). Outside MGM, he received top billing at Paramount Pictures in Sangaree (1953), starred in The Diamond Queen (1954) at Warner Bros., appeared in Jivaro (1954) at Paramount, and was Rosalind Russell's leading man in The Girl Rush (1955), also at Paramount. He returned to MGM for a remake of Rose Marie (1954), supporting Howard Keel and Ann Blyth.

In 1956, Lamas made his Broadway debut in the musical Happy Hunting, co-starring with Ethel Merman. His performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical in 1957.

Lamas transitioned increasingly to television during the late 1950s and 1960s, with appearances on Lux Video Theatre, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Jane Wyman Show, Climax!, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, and Shirley Temple's Storybook. He returned to feature films with The Lost World (1960) before relocating to Europe with Esther Williams, whom he married in 1969. While in Europe, he directed Magic Fountain (1961), a film in which both he and Williams appeared that was never released in the United States, and acted in Duel of Fire (1962) and Revenge of the Musketeers (1963). He also contributed to the writing of the Western A Place Called Glory (1965).

Back in the United States, Lamas concentrated on television acting and directing. From 1965 to 1968, he held a recurring role as Ramon De Vega on Run for Your Life, starring Ben Gazzara, and also directed episodes of that series. His guest appearances during this period included Burke's Law, The Virginian, Laredo, Combat!, The Red Skelton Hour, Hondo, and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. As a director, he worked on episodes of Mannix, Alias Smith and Jones, S.W.A.T., The Rookies, Starsky and Hutch, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Amazing Spider-Man, Flamingo Road, and Code Red, among others. He also directed the 1967 feature film The Violent Ones, which co-starred Aldo Ray and David Carradine, and appeared in Kill a Dragon (1967) and 100 Rifles (1969). His later acting credits included the TV movies The Lonely Profession (1969) and Murder on Flight 502 (1975), as well as Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) and The Cheap Detective (1978). In 1979, he produced the TV movie Samurai, and he subsequently directed episodes of Falcon Crest, which featured his son Lorenzo Lamas in the cast.

Lamas was married four times. His first marriage, to Argentine actress Perla Mux in 1940, produced a daughter, Christina, before ending in divorce in 1944. His second marriage, in 1946 to Lydia Valeria Babacci, produced a daughter, Alejandra Lydia, and ended in divorce in 1952. He married American actress Arlene Dahl in 1954; their son, Lorenzo Lamas, was born on January 20, 1958, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1960. His fourth and final marriage was to swimmer and actress Esther Williams in 1969, and the two remained married until his death in 1982. Lorenzo Lamas went on to become an actor. Following Lamas's death, his ashes were scattered by close friend Jonathan Goldsmith from a sailboat.