Cat. #0031212: GILBERT ROLAND

Handsome 8x10-inch black and white portrait in his prime, boldly signed and inscribed in blue ballpoint pen in his later years. Dashing, athletic Mexico-born leading man began his career doing bit work in two horror and sci-fi favorites: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) with Lon Chaney, Sr. and The Lost World (1925). He quickly blossomed into an in-demand matinee idol of the Latin lover type, memorable as Armand Duval in Camille (1926). With the advent of talkies, he landed the title role in the Cisco Kid (1946-1947) film series, and was excellent in complex character roles, some heroic and some utterly despicable, in We Were Strangers (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952), Thunder Bay (1953), Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).