Exceptionally rare vintage 4.25 x 6.5-inch matte-finish black and white portrait as Falstaff from a stage production in Shakespeare's hometown in 1964, boldly signed-- twice!-- in blue ink at the time of the play. In good condition. Burly, exuberant British character actor Hugh Griffith abandoned a banking career to enter films in 1940s, memorable as a mixed bag of eccentrics, exotic madmen and deliciously wicked villains in adventure, comedy, history, and horror flicks like So Evil My Love (1948), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Beggar's Opera (1953), The Sleeping Tiger (1954), The Merry Christmas (1955), The Good Companions (1957), Lucky Jim (1957), Exodus (1960), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Oliver! (1968), The Cry of the Banshee (1970), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), The Canterbury Tales (1972), Luther (1974), and Legend of the Werewolf (1975).  For his portrayal of Sheik Ilderim in Ben-Hur (1959), Griffith won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and he was nominated a second time for the role of Squire Western in Tom Jones (1963). His last performance was in the Sherlock Holmes film The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1978.

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