Quite scarce and quite desirable vintage 7.5 x 9.5-inch black and white portrait, boldly signed and inscribed in blue fountain pen around 1918. In fine condition for its age, with minute corner chips, a light diagonal crease to the lower right-hand corner and and heavy silvering in spots. Dubbed "the man you loved to hiss," 6'4," steely-eyed character actor Ernest Torrence was one of the silent and early talkie screens' great villains, memorable alongside Lon Chaney, Sr., in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), and as criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty in the Clive Brook Sherlock Holmes film of 1932. Equally adept at comedy roles, he also portrayed Buster Keaton's father in Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928). He died young, aged only 54.

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