by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
In America since childhood, Hollywood's only Romanian cowboy star was born John Belascu and hailed from Bucharest. After a few seasons of summer stock, Belascu was given a genre-inspired surname and launched as the Stunt Cowboy in a series of Universal two-reel Westerns released between 1927 and 1929. The handsome Bob Curwood may have been on the verge of major Western stardom, but a trace of a Middle-European accent proved a handicap in talkies and he left acting to become a production supervisor. Reported to be a Nazi sympathizer, Curwood returned to Europe in the late '30s.
