Rather uncommon vintage inscribed fountain pen signature on a 3x5-inch tan card, acquired in-person by inveterate collector Joe Forrest in the early 1950s and decorated with a small magazine image.  In good condition.  Hardcase leading man Howard Duff first gained fame on the radio, where, among several other assignments, he was cast as Dashiell Hammett's two-fisted private eye Sam Spade. He made so vivid an impression in the role that, when cast in his first film Brute Force (1947), he was billed in the credits as "radio's Sam Spade."  After memorable work in The Naked City (1948), Illegal Entry (1949) and The Life of Riley (1949), Duff's burgeoning film career came to a screeching halt due to the Hollywood Blacklist.  Duff's no-nonsense image was softened into sitcom buffoonery when he was cast in T.V.'s "Mr. Adams and Eve" (1957-1958), opposite real-life wife Ida Lupino, and he accepted a recurring role as the villainous Cabala on "Batman" (1966).  In the 1970s, Howard Duff returned to filmmaking as a character actor, scoring critical successes with his roles as an eternally inebriated relative in Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978) and as Dustin Hoffman's attorney in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

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