Classic Entertainment Autographs

Cat. #00104021: BONAR COLLEANO

Highly scarce blue ballpoint pen signature on an irregular clip from a tan autograph album page, acquired in-person in the 1950s. In good condition, beyond the unusual dimensions. Good-looking circus acrobat and music hall performer Bonar Colleano entered the movies in Great Britain in 1944, playing Joe Friselli in The Way To The Stars. The film established his screen persona as the stereotypical brash, wisecracking, gum-chewing "Yank", and attracted a massive female fan base to boot. He went on to play caricatured Americans in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948), Once a Jolly Swagman (1949), and the sci-fi flick Doomsday for Dyson (1958) before his tragic death in a road accident at the age of 34. His devastated widow, Susan Shaw, subsequently drank herself to death. Colleano's autograph is extremely rare in any format and this is just the fourth example we've encountered in three decades.