Nifty vintage 3.25 x 5.5-inch borderless black and white costume portrait, boldly signed in black fountain pen in the 1930s. In fine condition for its age, with faint silvering to the edges, invisible when the photo is viewed head-on. Charmingly eccentric British character actor Robert Morley tended to be cast in jovial or pompous comedic roles. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his stage debut in London in 1929, in the title role of "Oscar Wilde," which he would reprise on Broadway in 1938. He remained in the States to appear in the Hollywood film Marie Antoinette, portraying the feeble-minded Louis XVI opposite Norma Shearer, a performance which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod. He went on to appear in many films on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Ghost of Berkeley Square (1947); The African Queen (1951); Gilbert and Sullivan (1953); Beat the Devil (1953); Around the World in Eighty Days (1956); Oscar Wilde (1960); the horror films The Old Dark House (1963), A Study in Terror (1965) and Theatre of Blood (1973); Of Human Bondage (1964); Topkapi (1964); and The Alphabet Murders (1965).

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