Exceptionally rare vintage inscribed blue fountain pen signature in Spanish on a roughly 3 x 4.5-inch portion of a grey album page, acquired in-person in the late 1940s or early 1950s: "Para Roy / Carisamente / Pedro Armendariz." In fine condition, with uneven trimming to the edges. Note that the image of the star shown here alongside the scan of the autograph is not included. A major star in his native Mexico since 1935, versatile character actor Pedro Armendariz came to the attention of North American audiences in 1947, with his sensitive portrayal of a man ruined by greed in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Pearl. Thereafter, he was active on both sides of the border, starring in La Perla (1947) and two John Ford classics, The Fugitive (1947) and Three Godfathers (1948), both alongside John Wayne. In 1956, the two actors were reteamed for the idiotic, overblown epic The Conqueror, shot on location in Utah, not far from an atomic bomb testing site. The two stars went on to develop cancer, alongside fellow cast members Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Richard Boone, and Dick Powell. Unwilling to suffer the disease, Armendariz shot himself at age 51, just after portraying witty Turkish spy Karim Bey in the James Bond classic From Russia with Love (1963).

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