Entertainer, war hero, Hernandez dies at 91

Wednesday, March 7, 2001 | 10:39 a.m.

Al Hernandez's dancing skills made him a World War II hero, and his hospitality skills made him a fixture at the Sahara hotel's Don the Beachcomber restaurant.

Alfredo Eufronio Guillermo Antonio Ornez de Hernandez, a onetime Hollywood producer and longtime host at Don the Beachcomber, died Thursday of heart failure at University Medical Center. He was 91.

Hernandez, a Las Vegas resident for 40 years, was the father of Hollywood producer Alana Lambros ("Sabrina the Teenage Witch") of Beverly Hills and the grandfather of Hollywood producer Dean Devlin ("Independence Day" and "The Patriot.")

During World War II, Hernandez, a spy who had been half of the popular pre-war dance team of Hernandez and Carmelita, was given a mission in the Philippines to teach a Japanese major how to waltz. Hernandez was to steal his keys to files that contained secret military documents.

As the clumsy Japanese major, who was learning to dance for an upcoming military affair, was led around the floor by the spy, Hernandez gently lifted the officer's keys and slipped them to an operative.

The plans from those files provided key information that helped the Allies in the Oct. 20, 1944, invasion of Leyte, the culmination of the "I shall return" promise of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who later decorated Hernandez with the Legion of Merit.

"As my father was near death last week, the pain he had been in since January went away, and from the happy look on his face it appeared as though he was about to receive a hero's welcome in heaven," Alana Lambros said. "He deserved it."

The Hernandez family is prominent in the Philippines. Al Hernandez was the nephew of Spanish-American War hero Gen. Adriano Hernandez. In the 1940s, Hernandez Park in Leyte was dedicated in Al's honor. The jacket he wore while plotting liberation strategies in the Philippine jungles today hangs in the Hernandez Museum in Iloilo, the town of his birth.

"This past New Year's Eve we were celebrating at the Palace Station and I looked at my husband and, at that moment, I knew it would be the last New Year we would see together," said Maria Hernandez, a former Miss Greece.

She said Hernandez fell ill on Jan. 5 -- their 61st wedding anniversary -- and was in and out of the hospital until his death.

"I am so proud of everything he did," said Maria, who was Carmelita to his Hernandez in the late 1930s. "There are generations of people alive today because of the work he did to help liberate the Philippines."

Hernandez, serving in the U.S. Army's 5217th Commando Reconnaissance Battalion, was a member of the elite Operation: ISRM ("I Shall Return" -- MacArthur). His job included sabotage and setting up secret radio stations to report troop movements.

Hernandez, who also earned two Bronze Stars with a "V" for valor, wrote of his war adventures in his 1961 book "Bahala Na" (Filipino for "Come What May").

Born June 25, 1909, Hernandez was the son of a Spanish lawyer and publisher and led a privileged life, attending the finest schools in the Philippines and in California.

In his '20s, Hernandez went to work in Hollywood as a stage director and film producer. At the outbreak of World War II, he produced military instruction films but later was commissioned as a second lieutenant and was sent to intelligence school.

He was one of the dance sequence producers for the hit 1933 musical motion picture "42nd Street" with Ginger Rogers.

After the war, Hernandez was editor of the monthly Hollywood magazine, "Movie News." Later, while in the Army Reserves, Hernandez became a member of the 6312th Logistical Command at Nellis Air Force Base, where he retired as a major.

In the mid-1960s, Hernandez began a 13-year job at Don the Beachcomber and became a major booster for Las Vegas, supporting its booming era of growth.

Hernandez, though eligible for a final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery, was buried Tuesday at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, with full military honors following services at Palm Mortuary Downtown.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Hernandez is survived by two daughters from his first marriage, Angela Hernandez of Pasadena, Calif., and Pilar Ceveris of Hollywood; and four grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, Alfred Hernandez.