Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland
“In Show Celebrities: Gilbert Roland. @GusSummers of theINshow.com showcases a short filmography.”
Roland in 1952
Gilbert Roland (December 11, 1905 – May 15, 1994) was a Mexican-born American film and television actor.
Biography
He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was picked at random for a role as an extra. He chose his screen name by combining the names of his favorite actors, John Gilbert and Ruth Roland. He was often cast in the stereotypical “Latin Lover” role.
Roland’s first major role was in the collegiate comedy The Plastic Age (1925) together with Clara Bow, to whom he became engaged. In 1927, he played Armand in Camille opposite Norma Talmadge, with whom he was romantically involved, and they starred together in several productions. Roland later appeared in Spanish language adaptations of American films, in romantic lead roles.
Beginning in the 1940s, critics began to take notice of his acting and he was praised for his supporting roles in John Huston’s We Were Strangers (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Thunder Bay (1953), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964). He also appeared in a series of films in the mid-1940s as the popular character “The Cisco Kid.” He played Hugo, the agnostic (and totally fictional) friend of the three shepherd children in The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, based on the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. In 1953, Roland played Greek-American sponge diver Mike Petrakis in the epic Beneath the 12-Mile Reef.
Roland played Dom Pedro II, the emperor of Brazil, in a 1963 episode, “A Kingdom for a Horse”, of the syndicated western television series Death Valley Days. In the story line, Dom Pedro in 1876 gets off his train to stretch his legs and is stranded near San Francisco, California. He comes across a widow (Patricia Huston) with a son (Butch Patrick) and a daughter (Andrea Darvi). The woman doubts his story, but her daughter is charmed by his wit and wisdom.
His last film appearance was in the 1982 western Barbarosa.
Personal Life
with Constance Bennett in After Tonight (1933)
Roland was married to actress Constance Bennett from 1941 to 1946. He had appeared with Bennett as the romantic lead in After Tonight, a 1933 World War I drama. His second marriage, to Guillermina Cantú in 1954, lasted until his death forty years later.
Death
Gilbert Roland died of cancer in Beverly Hills, California, in 1994, aged 88. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.
Award Nominations
Roland was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award, for his roles in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964). For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Gilbert Roland has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6730 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography – Features:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
The Lost World (1925)
The Lady Who Lied (1925)
The Midshipman (1925)
The Lawful Cheater (1925)
The Plastic Age (1925)
The Campus Flirt (1926)
The Blonde Saint (1926)
Camille (1926)
Rose of the Golden West (1927)
The Love Mart (1927)
The Dove (1927)
The Woman Disputed (1928)
La Possession (1929)
New York Nights (1929)
Méphisto (1930)
Men of the North (1930) (Spanish and French version also filmed)
Resurrección (1931) (Spanish version of Resurrection)
The Passionate Plumber (1932)
Hombres de mi vida (1932) (Spanish version of Men in Her Life)
The Woman in Room 13 (1932)
Life Begins (1932)
No Living Witness (1932)
A Parisian Romance (1932)
Call Her Savage (1932)
She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Our Betters (1933)
The Romantic Widow (1933)
Gigolettes of Paris (1933)
Tarnished Youth (1933) (UK version of Gigolettes of Paris)
After Tonight (1933)
Una Viuda Romantica (1933)
Yo, tú y ella (1933)
Elinor Norton (1934)
Mystery Woman (1935)
Juliet Buys a Baby (1935)
Ladies Love Danger (1935)
La Vida Bohemia (1937)
Midnight Taxi (1937)
The Last Train from Madrid (1937)
Thunder Trail (1937)
Gateway (1938)
Juarez (1939)
Isle of Destiny (1940)
Gambling on the High Seas (1940)
The Sea Hawk (1940)
Rangers of Fortune (1940)
Angels with Broken Wings (1941)
My Life with Caroline (1941)
Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen (1942)
Isle of Missing Men (1942)
The Desert Hawk (1944)
Captain Kidd (1945)
The Gay Cavalier (1946)
South of Monterey (1946)
Beauty and the Bandit (1946)
Riding the California Trail (1947)
The Other Love (1947)
High Conquest (1947)
Robin Hood of Monterey (1947)
King of the Bandits (1947)
Pirates of Monterey (1947)
The Dude Goes West (1948)
The Rebellion of the Ghosts (1949)
We Were Strangers (1949)
Malaya (1949)
The Torch (1950)
Crisis (1950)
The Furies (1950)
The Bullfighter and the Lady (1951)
The Mark of the Renegade (1951)
Ten Tall Men (1951)
My Six Convicts (1952)
Glory Alley (1952)
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
Apache War Smoke (1952)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Thunder Bay (1953)
The Diamond Queen (1953)
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)
The French Line (1954)
The Racers (1955)
Underwater! (1955)
That Lady (1955)
The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)
Bandido (1956)
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Three Violent People (1957)
The Midnight Story (1957)
The Last of the Fast Guns (1958)
Catch Me If You Can (1959) (unreleased)
The Wild and the Innocent (1959)
The Big Circus (1959)
El Bandido & Adios El Cuchillo – 1959 “Zorro” Walt Disney Productions
Guns of the Timberland (1960)
Samar (1962)
Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
The Reward (1965)
The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966)
Any Gun Can Play (1967)
The Ruthless Four (1968)
God Was in the West, Too, at One Time (1968)
Johnny Hamlet (1968)
Sartana Does Not Forgive (1968)
The Christian Licorice Store (1971)
Running Wild (1973)
Treasure of Tayopa (1974)
The Pacific Connection (1974)
Islands in the Stream (1977)
The Black Pearl (1977)
The Sacketts (1979 TV Movie)
Caboblanco (1980)
Barbarosa (1982)
