FERNANDO LAMAS - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: ESTHER WILLIAMS - HFSID 290873

FERNANDO LAMAS and ESTHER WILLIAMS
5x3½ candid photograph of the Hollywood couple
Photograph signed: "Fernando Lamas" and "Esther Williams Lamas", Color 5x3½. Esther Williams and actor Fernando Lamas were married from 1969 until his death in 1982. Singer/actor Fernando Lamas (1915-1982), an established film star in his native Argentina, starred in many Hollywood films of the 1950s, usually in "Latin lover" roles. He had a fine singing voice, and sometimes employed it in his films. Among his English-language films were The Merry Widow (1952), The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) and The Lost World (1960). He also directed, mostly on TV, including episodes of Falcon Crest, which co-starred his son Lorenzo Lamas. His wives included Lana Turner, Arlene Dahl and Esther Williams. Esther Williams (1921-2013) was a world-renowned swimming champion when she was spotted by an MGM talent scout in an aquacade. Hoping that their new discovery would surpass the popularity of 20th Century-Fox's skating queen Sonja Henie, MGM began grooming Williams for stardom completely refashioning her third film, the modest 1944 Red Skelton comedy Mister Bride, into the Technicolor super spectacular Bathing Beauty. For the next decade she starred in one musical comedy after another, warbling the Oscar-winning tune "Baby It's Cold Outside" in Neptune's Daughter (1949) and trading steps with Gene Kelly in Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1949). As her popularity soared--she was among the top ten box office stars in 1949 and 1950--MGM went out of its way to make her swimming sequences more complex and elaborate with each new picture. Ink note (unknown hand) on verso. Lightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition.