Exceptionally rare vintage 4.75 x 8.75-inch magazine portrait, boldly signed in green fountain pen for an inveterate actress and autograph collector in the 1910s. Two gentle folds; otherwise, in good condition, trimmed so that it has three borders around the image. Prolific film actor, director and screenwriter Francis Ford, who was the elder brother of John Ford, appeared in nearly 500 silent and early talkie classics, more often than not cast as ruthless, unsavory men of authority. Despite his tremendously varied career, his signature is most heavily sought by fans of the horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery genres, particularly for his role as Hans in James Whale's Frankenstein (1931)-- the villager who carries dead Maria into town, declaring, "She's drowned... She was MURDERED!" He was also memorable in the Sherlock Holmes flick A Study in Scarlet (1914), The Mysterious Leopard Lady (1914), The Craving (1918), Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933), Charlie Chan's Courage (1934), Charlie Chan's Secret (1936), Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936), The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942), The Climax (1944), and Hangover Square (1945). This is just the fifth example of Ford's autograph we have ever encountered.

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