Extremely rare vintage signature in blue fountain pen on a 3x5-inch tan card, dating to the 1960s.  In good condition, with just a hint of toning, and ideal for matting with a favorite photograph.  Slender, striking Elizabeth Hartman earned an Oscar nomination for her very first film role, as the blind, abused White girl who falls in love with compassionate Sidney Poitier in A Patch of Blue (1965).  She went on to display astounding versatility and sensitivity in The Group (1966), You're a Big Boy Now (1966) and The Beguiled (1971), but, by the early 1970s, was succumbing to acute depression and insecurities which rendered her a complete recluse.  Nothing had been heard of the actress until 1987, when it was reported that she had thrown herself out of a fifth-floor apartment window.  Divorced for three years at the time of her death, it was learned that she had been an outpatient at a psychiatric hospital in Pittsburgh and had called her doctor earlier that fateful day, informing him that she was despondent.  A sad, sad end to an extremely bright and beautiful talent.

• Tweet