Classic, handsome vintage 8x10-inch black and white glossy portrait in his prime, boldly signed and inscribed in brown marker in the 1970s.  In good condition.  A vital, virile, exciting Broadway performer, Preston was once called, "the best American actor, with a voice like golden thunder" by none other than Richard Burton.  In the late 1930s, he became a steady, dependable performer in Hollywood films like Union Pacific (1939), Beau Geste (1939), Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and Wild Harvest (1947), but wouldn't break through to lead roles until the 1960s, in the wake of his Tony-winning role as ebullient con-artist Harold Hill in Broadway's "The Music Man" (1957).  Preston repeated the role in the 1962 screen version, then returned to the stage for "I Do! I Do!" (1967), snagging a second Tony, and Jerry Herman's moving "Mack and Mabel" (1974).  In 1982, Preston was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Julie Andrews' gay friend Toddie in Blake Edwards' Victor/Victoria (1982), one of his last film appearances before his death of lung cancer in 1987.

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