Maria Alba

María del Pilar Margarita Casajuana Martínez (28 December 1905 – 26 October 1999), known professionally as Maria Alba, was a Spanish-American film actress.
Biography.
Signed by the Fox Film Corporation after winning Fox Film contest in Spain, Maria Casajuana came to the United States in 1927 a second cabin class passenger on the S/S "Suffern", which sailed from the Port of Le Havre, France, on 16 April, and arrived at the Port of New York, 26 April 1927.
Originally billed as Maria Casajuana, she appeared in 25 feature films, starting with "Road House" in 1928 and ending with "La morena de mi copla" in 1946. Her most notable appearances (as Maria Alba) were probably as "Saturday" in the 1932 Douglas Fairbanks film "Mr. Robinson Crusoe", and as the exotic "Princess Nadji" in the Bela Lugosi serial "The Return of Chandu". Other Latin actresses working in films, like Lupe Vélez or Dolores del Río, became fluent in English, but Maria Alba spoke English with a thick accent, which limited her casting opportunities.
Publicity materials for "The Return of Chandu", published in 1934, disclosed that Maria Alba's married name was Mrs. David Todd. On July 9, 1950, she married Richard J. Burk; the couple had three children.