Help with portrait painting's artist's name?

I found this in a thrift store yesterday & bought it because of the signature (& $9.99 price) - I couldn't read it and thought "if I buy this & post on antiquers.com, I'm sure someone there will know who it is!
Also last week I noticed several portrait paintings going for a lot of money & when I saw this it reminded me of the others I saw and decided to take a chance!
So, can anyone tell me who the artist was , if they were known?
Thanks all!

 

https://discoveriesinamericanart.co...tos' work is a time,ship line as staff artist.

 

Wow what a great article. So refreshing to have an actual story on the Internet. Now, if only we knew the lady who sat for him.

 

Wow, thank you!
So im not the only one who was drawn to that signature!

 

Congrats J-This guy was really good at glamour portraits. Look-he's got Liz & Dick,Ursula Andress,Belmondo,etc,etc. It's a true historic document of that era (and way better than that 'Rembrandt' !).
*Yes-to know the identity of this long lost socialite.Fame and fortune-'Pride of man...now dust' amigo.

 

The collector, Reiter, is interested in documenting more of Simatos' paintings.
"He also puts out a call to the public, at large, asking for help in identifying the anonymous sitters seen in many portraits. And, when newly discovered portraits arise, Reiter intends to travel to meet the owners and document their acquisitions for his catalogue raisonné."

In the Epilogue (near the bottom of the article) the site editors say: "If you would like to read Reiter’s full essay, please send us an email and we will be pleased to forward it to him for his direct response." So, he might be interested in hearing about your find.

There is a way to send emails here -
https://discoveriesinamericanart.com/contact/

 

Too interesting.

Debora

 

I will send a pic in a email & see what they say - thank you!