Classic Entertainment Autographs

Cat. #001322321: DOUGLASS DUMBRILLE

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Rare vintage black fountain pen signature on a 4x6-inch tan autograph album page, acquired in-person by inveterate collectors Rose and Irene Gellar in the late 1940s and decorated with a Players Directory image. In good condition, with gentle toning in spots. Veteran character actor Douglass Dumbrille excelled at playing deliciously vile villains, complete with beady eyes, tidy mustache, prominent hook nose, and melodious speaking voice. Seen everywhere, both billed and unbilled, he played sheriffs who went bad in westerns, red-herring suspects or victims who deserved their fate in murder mysteries and corrupters of the legal system in political dramas. He harassed sea captain Gary Cooper in His Women (1931), mocked Marion Davies with his leering moneybags in Blondie of the Follies (1932), bedeviled Pat O'Brien as a cruel-minded chain gang warden in Laughter in Hell (1933), played the unctuous love patsy of Barbara Stanwyck in Baby Face (1933), hunted down James Cagney in Lady Killer (1933), swindled Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy in Broadway Bill (1934), and submitted old pal Cooper and Franchot Tone to brutal fingernail removal torture in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935). Dumbrille was also a great pompous foil in comedy slapstick, harassing the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, and even Jeanette MacDonald. His handful of contributions to the horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres included Air Hawks (1935), Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939), Jungle Woman (1944), The Catman of Paris (1946), and classic episodes of T.V.'s "The Twilight Zone" (1964) and "Batman" (1966).