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Combat!
Starring:
Directed By:
Fernando Lamas had started acting back in his home country Argentina with a supporting role in the 1942 Spanish-language comedy-drama film ‘En el último piso’. In the following years, he continued to appear in supporting roles in more Argentine films such as ‘Stella’ (1943), ‘Frontera Sur’ (1943), ‘Villa rica del Espíritu Santo’ (1945), ‘Navidad de los pobres’ (1947), ‘Evasión’ (1947), ‘El tango vuelve a París’ (1948), and ‘Historia de una mala mujer’ (1948). He had his first lead role opposite Mecha Ortiz in the drama film ‘La Rubia Mireya’ (1948) and went on to play major roles in films such as ‘De padre desconocido’ (1949), ‘Vidalita’ (1949) and ‘La historia del tango’ (1949), apart from appearing in small roles in movies like ‘Corrientes, calle de ensueños’ (1949) and ‘La otra y yo’ (1950). He was already the third biggest star in Argentina when he appeared in his first English-language American film ‘The Avengers’ (1950), which opened the gates of Hollywood for him.
After signing a contract with MGM, Fernando Lamas appeared primarily in "Latin Lover" roles in films like the musical ‘Rich, Young and Pretty’ (1951) and the comedy ‘The Law and the Lady’ (1952). He continued to romance Hollywood leading ladies including Lana Turner in the operetta ‘The Merry Widow’ (1952) and Elizabeth Taylor in the romantic drama ‘The Girl Who Had Everything’ (1952). In 1953, he was top billed for his starring role in the period costume drama ‘Sangaree’ and delivered a huge hit with the musical comedy ‘Dangerous When Wet’ (1953) opposite his future wife Esther Williams. The following year, Lamas starred in the adventure films ‘The Diamond Queen’ and ‘Lost Treasure of the Amazon’, played a supporting role in a remake of the musical film ‘Rose Marie’, and debuted on television in an episode of the anthology series ‘Lux Video Theatre’. Following another lead role opposite Rosalind Russell in the musical comedy film ‘The Girl Rush’ (1955), he co-starred with Ethel Merman in his sole Broadway venture, the 1956 musical ‘Happy Hunting’, which earned him a nomination for the ‘Tony Award’. He focused primarily on television for the rest of the decade and appeared in guest roles on series such as ‘The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour’, ‘Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre’, ‘Climax!’, ‘Pursuit’, ‘Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre’ and ‘Shirley Temple's Storybook’. He returned to the big screen for a co-starring role in the 1960 film adaptation of ‘The Lost World’.
Fernando Lamas, who moved to Europe with his then wife Esther Williams, directed and cast themselves in the lead in the Spanish film ‘Magic Fountain’ (1963), which was filmed in 1961 and was never released in the US. In the meantime, he starred in lead roles in the Italian films ‘Duello nella Sila’ (1962), and ‘D'Artagnan contro i tre moschettieri’ (1963). He helped in writing but did not star in the 1965 West-German-Spanish-Italian western film ‘Die Hölle von Manitoba’. After his return to the US, he again started to appear on television extensively during the second half of the decade and had guest roles in series such as ‘Burke's Law’, ‘The Virginian’, ‘Laredo’, ‘Combat!’, ‘The Red Skelton Hour’, ‘The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.’, ‘Hondo’, ‘The High Chaparral’, ‘Tarzan’, ‘Then Came Bronson’, ‘It Takes a Thief’, and ‘Mission: Impossible’. Between 1965 and 1967, he was a series regular as playboy Ramon de Vega on the drama series ‘Run For Your Life’, a couple episodes of which he also directed. He further appeared as a supporting cast in the pilot of the 1967 action-adventure series ‘Valley of Mystery’, which eventually got cancelled, and acted in the TV movie ‘The Lonely Profession’ (1969). His few film credits during this period included his second directorial, the crime-drama film ‘The Violent Ones’ (1967), as well as ‘Kill a Dragon’ (1967) and ‘100 Rifles’ (1969).
Fernando Lamas subsequently started to direct on television more consistently and has series such as ‘The Bold Ones: The Lawyers’, ‘Mannix’, ‘Alias Smith and Jones’, ‘S.W.A.T.’, ‘The Rookies’, ‘Jigsaw John’, ‘Starsky and Hutch’, ‘The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries’, ‘Switch’, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, ‘Secrets of Midland Heights’, ‘Flamingo Road’, ‘Code Red’ and ‘Bret Maverick’ under his belt. He further directed several episodes of the sitcom ‘House Calls’ in 1981-82. His acting roles in the last decade of his career were in series like ‘The Name of the Game’, ‘Dan August’, ‘Alias Smith and Jones’, ‘Bearcats!’, ‘Mod Squad’, ‘Night Gallery’, McCloud’, ‘Bronk’, ‘Switch’, ‘Quincy M.E.’, ‘Charlie's Angels’, ‘Police Woman’, ‘The Love Boat’, ‘How the West Was Won’, ‘House Calls’ and ‘The Dream Merchants’. He was also an uncredited guest performer in two episodes of ‘Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In’ in 1971. He had a major role in the telefilm ‘Murder on Flight 502’ (1975) and acted in the mystery comedy film ‘The Cheap Detective’ (1978), apart from making a brief cameo appearance in the comedy film ‘Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood’ (1976). He became a producer for the 1979 telefilm ‘Samurai’.
