Rather uncommon vintage 5x7-inch sepia-tone matte-finish bust portrait, boldly signed and inscribed in black fountain pen to inveterate collector Joe Walsh in the early 1940s. In very fine condition. Pretty Nancy Coleman was a young powerhouse of an actress whose Hollywood assignments nearly always seemed beneath her talents. After making her bones on the radio and Broadway stage, she was signed to a contract by Warner Brothers. Among her early screen assignments was the thankless task of playing Anne, the least interesting of the Bronte sisters, in Devotion (1943), but she went on to stronger work as the neurotic Louise Gordon in Kings Row (1942), the tragic mistress of Nazi Helmut Dantine in Edge of Darkness (1943) and the put-upon wife of Polish count Paul Henreid in In Our Time (1944). In the late 1940s, she abandoned Hollywood to marry Warner Brothers' publicist, Whitney Bolton, making unexpected return appearances in Man From Tangier (1953), Slaves (1968) and the horror flick Where Evil Dwells (1985).

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