Highly scarce vintage 3.5 x 5.5-inch postcard portrait by Studio Virginie of Paris, boldly signed and inscribed in blue fountain pen in the late 1950s.  Just the second signed photo of the actor we've ever encountered, in very good condition, not trimmed as might be suggested by the accompanying scan.  Noted for his elegant, ironic acting style, the magnetic French leading man of the stage and screen was equally adept in comedic and dramatic roles.  He was at his best playing menacing psychopaths, most notably the sadistic, vindictive headmaster in the 1955 horror masterpiece Les Diaboliques.  His performance in Clouzot's classic launched him to stardom and he went on to star in Marie-Octobre (1959), Picnic on the Grass (1959), The Truth (1960) with Brigitte Bardot, Le Deuxième Souffle (1966), Army of Shadows (1969), and a string of spy flicks directed by Georges Lautner, including Le Monocle Noir (1961) and L'Oeil du Monocle (1962).  Meurisse died tragically during an asthma attack at the age of 66.

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