Scarce, quite early 5x7-inch sepia-tone portrait, boldly signed with his name alone in blue fountain pen in the early 1930s. In good condition, with some gentle silvering in spots, generally invisible when the photo is viewed head-on. Eminent English stage and film actor Claude Rains, so unforgettable in classic films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1942), Now Voyager (1942), Mr. Skeffington (1944), and Notorious (1946), is especially revered by horror buffs for his portrayals of the titular mad scientist in The Invisible Man (1933), John Jasper in Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), Sir John Talbot in The Wolf Man (1941), and the disfigured Erique— sporting excellent make-up by Jack P. Pierce!— in Arthur Lubin’s 1943 remake of The Phantom of the Opera.

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