Scarce and heavenly vintage 8x10-inch black and white portrait, boldly signed and inscribed in green ballpoint pen in the early 1960s. In good condition, with minor handling dings. Exotic Ina Balin snatched from the Broadway stage by producer Carlo Ponti, who cast her in The Black Orchid (1958), opposite his wife, Sophia Loren. Snagging a special "International Star of Tomorrow" Golden Globe for this early work, she went on to portray an assortment of Jewish, Italian, Mexican, Spanish, and Greek young women in the lackluster big screen version of her stage triumph Compulsion (1959), inexplicably cast in an uncredited role; the Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward soaper From the Terrace (1960); the John Wayne film The Comancherros (1961); Jerry Lewis' The Patsy (1964); The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Charro! (1969) with Elvis Presley; the cult flick The Projectionist (1971); and The Don Is Dead (1973). Thereafter, save for occasional television appearances, she almost completely abandoned acting to concentrate on humanitarian efforts among children in war-torn Vietnam. Balin died tragically of a rare case of pulmonary hypertension in 1990. She was only 52.  

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