GILBERT ROLAND BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Gilbert Roland was born on December 11th, 1905 in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico with the birth name Luis Antonio Damaso de Alonso.  His original career intentions were to follow in his father's footsteps and become a bullfighter.  However, when his family relocated to the United States he became interested in acting.  He never completed his education and actually stopped school after the seventh grade.   
 
Roland was lucky enough to get a role as an extra in his first film and after that experience he realized how much he enjoyed working in the industry.  He knew he needed to change his name to sound more American so he chose his new stage name by taking the names of his favorite actors, John Gilbert and Ruth Roland and putting them together. 
 
His first major screen role was in the film, "The Plastic Age" (1925) with Clara Bow.  Majority of his roles were as the romantic lead and Latin lover.  He had a very strong masculine voice and roles were readily available to him.  During World War II, he briefly braked from acting to serve in the U.S. Army Air Force.
 
As his career progressed into the 1940's, film critics began to take even more notice of him and praised his acting skills.  He was getting more supporting character roles in a variety of films such as, "We Were Strangers" (1949) also starring Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendariz, Ramon Novarro, Morris Ankrum and Wally Cassell, "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) starring alongside Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Leo G. Carroll and Gloria Grahame and "Thunder Bay" (1953) starring with James Stewart, Joanne Dru, Dan Duryea, Jay C. Flippen and Harry Morgan. 

He is still remembered by one of the more popular characters he played on a series known as, "The Cisco Kid".  Some of his other more well known roles were in, "The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima" starring with Sherry Jackson, Susan Whitney, Sammy Ogg, Frank Silvera and Jay Novello and in 1953 he starred in an epic relief called, "Beneath The 12-Mile Reef" along with Terry Moore, Peter Graves, J. Carrol Naish, Robert Wagner, Richard Boone and Harry Carey Jr. 
 
Gilbert Roland's final film role was in 1982 on, "Western Barbarosa".  Gilbert Roland married twice during his lifetime, first to Constance Bennett from 1941 through 1945.  His second marriage was to Guillermina Cantu from 1954 through 1994 when he passed away.  He had two children with his first wife, Lorinda and Gyl Roland.
 
Gilbert Roland passed away on May 15th, 1994 at the age of eighty eight in Beverly Hills, California from cancer.  Roland was nominated two times for a Golden Globe Award for his roles in, "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) and again for John Ford's, "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964) starring an ensemble cast including Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, James Stewart, Ricardo Montalban, Dolores del Rio, Edward G. Robinson, Karl Malden, Sal Mineo, Arthur Kennedy, John Carradine, Victor Jory, Mike Mazurki, George O'Brien and Patrick Wayne.  He was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the Motion Picture Industry.  His remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.
 

Filmography

1982   Barbarosa 
1980   Hart to Hart 
1980   Cabo Blanco 
1979   The Sacketts 
1977   The Black Pearl
1977   Islands in the Stream 
1975   The Deadly Tower
1974   The Mark of Zorro
1974   Barnaby Jones
1974   The Pacific Connection 
1973   Kung Fu 
1973   Running Wild 
1973   Incident on a Dark Street
1972   Medical Center
1972   McCloud
1972   Rod Serling's Night Gallery
1971   The Christian Licorice Store
1971   The Boy and the Turtle
1971   The High Chaparral 
1969   The F.B.I.
1968   Sartana Does Not Forgive 
1968   God Was in the West, Too, at One Time 
1968   Land's End
1968   Johnny Hamlet 
1968   The Ruthless Four 
1967   Any Gun Can Play 
1967   Garrison's Gorillas 
1964-1967  The Fugitive
1966   The Poppy Is Also a Flower
1965   Bonanza
1965   The Reward
1965   Combat! 
1964   Cheyenne Autumn
1963   Gunsmoke 
1963   The Greatest Show on Earth 
1963   Death Valley Days 
1963   The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962   Samar 
1962   Frontier Circus 
1962   The Dick Powell Theatre  
1960   Zorro 
1960   The Chevy Show  
1960   Guns of the Timberland 
1959   Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
1959   The Big Circus
1959   The Wild and the Innocent 
1959   Catch Me If You Can 
1958   The Last of the Fast Guns
1958   Wagon Train  
1957   Schlitz Playhouse
1957   The Midnight Story 
1957   Playhouse 90
1956   Three Violent People 
1956   Around the World in Eighty Days 
1956   Bandido 
1955   Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre 
1955   The Treasure of Pancho Villa
1955   That Lady
1955   Underwater! 
1955   The Racers 
1954   The Ford Television Theatre
1953   The French Line
1953   Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
1953   The Diamond Queen 
1953   Thunder Bay 
1952   The Bad and the Beautiful 
1952   Apache War Smoke 
1952   The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima 
1952   Glory Alley 
1952   My Six Convicts 
1951   Ten Tall Men
1951   Mark of the Renegade 
1951   Bullfighter and the Lady 
1950   The Furies
1950   Crisis
1950   The Torch
1949   Malaya
1949   We Were Strangers
1949   La rebelión de los fantasmas
1948   The Dude Goes West 
1947   Pirates of Monterey
1947   King of the Bandits
1947   Robin Hood of Monterey
1947   High Conquest  
1947   The Other Love 
1947   Riding the California Trail
1946   Beauty and the Bandit 
1946   South of Monterey 
1946   The Gay Cavalier 
1945   Captain Kidd 
1944   The Desert Hawk
1942   Isle of Missing Men  
1942   Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen 
1941   My Life with Caroline
1941   Angels with Broken Wings
1940   Rangers of Fortune
1940   The Sea Hawk 
1940   Gambling on the High Seas
1940   Isle of Destiny 
1939   Juarez 
1938   Gateway 
1938   La vida bohemia
1937   Thunder Trail 
1937   The Last Train from Madrid 
1937   Midnight Taxi 
1935   Ladies Love Danger 
1935   Julieta compra un hijo 
1935   Mystery Woman 
1934   Elinor Norton 
1933   Yo, tú y ella 
1933   After Tonight 
1933   Gigolettes of Paris 
1933   Una viuda romántica 
1933   Our Betters
1933   She Done Him Wrong
1932   Call Her Savage 
1932   A Parisian Romance 
1932   No Living Witness 
1932   Life Begins
1932   The Woman in Room 13 
1932   Hombres de mi vida 
1932   The Passionate Plumber
1931   Resurrección
1930   Monsieur Le Fox
1930   Men of the North 
1929   New York Nights 
1929   La Possession 
1928   The Woman Disputed 
1927   The Dove 
1927   The Love Mart
1927   Rose of the Golden West 
1926   I Camille 
1926   The Campus Flirt
1925   The Plastic Age
1925   The Lawful Cheater 
1925   The Lady Who Lied
1925   The Spaniard 
1925   The Lost World 
1923   The Hunchback of Notre Dame