Highly scarce vintage 5x7-inch sepia-tone bust portrait, signed and inscribed in black fountain pen in the 1930s.  In good condition, with gentle corner wear and some gentle silvering, invisible when the photo is viewed head-on.  William Austin, stately character actor of the silent and early talkie eras, was typically cast as monocled, upper-crust Brits.  He is remembered by horror, sci-fi and fantasy fans as Sylvester Wadsworth in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929) and The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930), with Warner Oland; the Gryphon in Alice in Wonderland (1933); Alfred the butler in the 1943 "Batman" serial; Detective Gannett in the horror classic The Return of the Vampire (1944), opposite Bela Lugosi; and Barbaby the chauffeur in The Ghost Goes Wild (1947).  His countless credits in classic films of other genres included It (1927), Duck Soup (1927) with Laurel and Hardy, High Society (1932), The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Imitation of Life (1934), The Garden Murder Case (1936), Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), Charley's Aunt (1941), and National Velvet (1944).

• Tweet