Classic Entertainment Autographs

Cat. #001344: WILLIAM EYTHE

Scarce vintage inscribed signature in black fountain pen on a 4x5-inch tan autograph album page, acquired in-person in the 1940s. In good condition for its age. Handsome World War II-era actor William Eythe was one of the best of Hollywood's so-called "victory bunch"-- an assortment of draft-proof male performers who were assigned plum roles that would have normally gone to top leading men, who were unavailable, due to military service. He was superb as the conscience-stricken son of a lynch mob leader in The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), and equally memorable in films like Song of Bernadette (1944), Wilson (1944), Wing and a Prayer (1944), and The House on 92nd Street (1946). Alas, once the war ended, he couldn't hold his own against Tyrone Power, James Stewart and other returning stars, and he gradually abandoned Hollywood to concentrate on theater work. He died tragically of hepatitis at the age of 38 and autographed material is quite elusive in any format.