Uncommon vintage signature in black fountain pen on a 4x6-inch pink autograph album page, acquired in-person by inveterate collector Edward Gelman in 1973.  In good condition.  Originally billed under her rather fitting birth name of Violet Pretty, the English-born beauty queen played "nice girl" types during a seven-year stint with the Rank Organization in the 1950s and 1960s.  After changing her name to Anne Heywood, she found further fame and stirred considerable controversy playing highly troubled, flawed women, as in husband Raymond Stross' The Very Edge (1963), the lesbian dramas The Fox (1967) and The Nun and the Devil (1973), and Love Under the Elms (1975).  Her handful of contributions to the horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres include The Brain (1962), The Assassin and the Telephone (1972), Ring of Darkness (1979), and What Waits Below (1985).

• Tweet