Pretty vintage 8x10-inch black and white portrait in her prime, boldly signed and inscribed in blue felt-tip pen in the 1980s. In good condition. Charming Eve Arden was the silver screen's foremost "second banana," typecast, from Stage Door (1937) onward, as the all-knowing, witheringly sarcastic "best friend" who seldom got the leading man, but always got the best lines. Her film roles in the 1940s ranged from such typical assignments as sophisticated magazine editor "Stonewall" Jackson in Cover Girl (1944) to the more atypical role of athletic Russian sniper Natalia Moskoroff in The Doughgirls (1944). In 1945, she earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Joan Crawford's sardonic, but sympathetic business partner in Mildred Pierce. Three years later, she starred on the popular radio situation comedy "Our Miss Brooks" (1948), and audiences so adored long-suffering, but ebullient high school teacher Connie Brooks that a sitcom of the same name was launched in 1952, lasting for four seasons. Arden went on to memorable character roles in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) and, perhaps most notably, Grease (1978), hilarious as the no-nonsense Principal McGee.

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