Biography

A prolific painter of the entertainment industry's biggest stars. Beginning in 1919, Vargas painted all the Ziegfield stars including Billy Burke, Marilyn Miller, Paulette Goddard, Eddie Cantor and W. C. Fields. In 1927, he began working for Paramount Pictures, creating the original artwork for Glorifying the American Girl. He was later hired by Twentieth Century Fox to produce pastel portraits of their stars, and commissioned by Hellmann's Mayonnaise to paint movie star portraits to be used in their advertising campaigns. He moved on to Warner Brothers, then to MGM. In October 1940, he began working for Esquire, yet continued to paint movie stars, and produced the poster for Moon Over Miami featuring Betty Grable. During this period he also painted Linda Darnell, Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, and Loretta Young. In 1951 He created a pin-up of Shelley Winters for the RKO movie Behave Yourself. Toward the end of his life he designed the album cover for The Cars' Candy-O, and two more for Bernadette Peters.
- IMDb mini biography by: vangoghsear-2

Son of the well-known photographer Max Vargas, who taught him the use of the airbrush.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 819-820. New York: Charles Scribner's.

Alberto Vargas is mostly known for his pin-up illustrations of women (mostly in swimsuits) for calendars and the magazines Esquire and Playboy.