Esther Estrella

Svelte brunette Esther Estrella deserves a footnote to Hollywood history just because of how she got into pictures. The story goes that she haunted the casting offices -- along with countless other hopefuls waiting for their big break -- when a director called out to her to board a bus for immediate location shooting. The picture was The Light of Western Stars (1940), an old-fashioned horse opera starring Victor Jory. It took a fortnight after the film had been completed for director Lesley Selander to notice that he'd picked the wrong actress. By that time, producer Harry Sherman had seen the rushes and was happy with the result. So happy, that he picked Esther to play the romantic lead in his next (and arguably best) Hopalong Cassidy opus, Ranger Guns West (1940). In truth, Esther's career only spanned a couple of years and never amounted to more than decorative south-of-the-border señoritas in B-westerns or uncredited bit parts in major studio productions like Blood and Sand (1941) and Aloma of the South Seas (1941). She finished her brief fling with the movies the way she had begun: opposite William Boyd and directed by Selander (in one of the lesser Hopalong entries, Undercover Man (1942)), then quietly faded from the scene.