Esther Fernández(1918-1999)

As a Paramount Pictures contract player, she made a screen test for the part of Spanish girl María in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). Director Sam Wood was so captivated by her beauty and talent he made two more screen tests with her. Unfortunately, she lost the coveted role to the non-Hispanic actress Ingrid Bergman.

[on how she was cast in Two Years Before the Mast (1946)] He telephoned me, and we made a date and he told me all about the story. I said, please, I wanted to see the script. I said I had worked at Paramount before. He sent for the script and I read it and there was a part for me, all right.