Having lost Rudolph Valentino in a 1924 contract dispute, Paramount Pictures never gave up hope of discovering and nurturing a new "Latin Lover" type. Thus it was that Paramount signed Mexican actor Arturo de Cordova, popular in his native country's films since 1935, to a Hollywood contract in 1943. De Cordova was showcased in the small but memorable role of Augustin in Paramount's For Whom the Bell Tolls, then starred in a handful of subsequent features, the best of which was Frenchman's Creek (1944), in which he co-starred with Joan Fontaine. Returning to Mexico in the late 1940s, De Cordova continued to appear in Latin American films until his premature retirement in the early 1950s. On the whole, Arturo de Cordova's Spanish-language roles were more rewarding than his Hollywood assignments, especially his feverish portrayal of an insane aristocrat in Luis Bunuel's El (1951).
by Hal Erickson
biography
