Friday, June 20, 2008

Can You Hear the Drums, Fernando?



It may surprise many of you that Argentine-born Fernando Lamas, perhaps the ne plus ultra of Hollywood's suave Latin Lovers, has quite a background in musical comedy. His first film for MGM was the Jane Powell vehicle Rich, Young and Pretty (1951), and, in fact, the majority of his films during the 1950's were minor yet lavishly-produced musicals, including The Merry Widow (1952), Dangerous When Wet (1953), Rose Marie (1954) and The Girl Rush (1955). Lamas even co-starred opposite Ethel Merman (!) in the notorious Broadway flop, Happy Hunting (1958).

Of course, it's as a devastatingly handsome heartthrob that we remember Fernando Lamas today, and he played the part off-screen to the hilt. After making his initial splash in Hollywood, he famously romanced his Merry Widow co-star, Lana Turner...


...and in the wake of their acrimonious split, married Arlene Dahl (who had just divorced Lex Barker, who then married Lana Turner...got all that?).



Despite being one of the most glorious-looking couples ever joined in unholy Hollywood matrimony (and producing the yummy Lorenzo Lamas), the Lamas-Dahl union eventually crumbled -- perhaps they spent too much time arguing over who was the prettiest. Lamas rebounded by marrying Esther Williams -- who, with all due respect to the lady, was quite a downgrade from Turner and Dahl in the looks department, and was all but finished in movies by the time she married Lamas. Ever the gallant gentleman, Lamas poo-poohed any talk that he had forced his new bride to abandon her career: "She was all washed up when I married her!"



Lamas and Williams were married until his death in 1982, at age 67, from pancreatic cancer. He may never have reached the pinnacle of stardom in Hollywood, but Fernando Lamas became practically synonymous with a kind of male beauty and panache, the likes of which we'll never see again. Don't cry for him, Argentina -- the truth is, celluloid gods will never leave you.

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