Extremely rare vintage 8x10-inch black and white portrait, looking impish as ever in her Hollywood home, boldly signed and inscribed in black fountain pen in 1936, with some shakiness in her handwriting due to her age. In fine condition for its age, with some waviness to the surface, scalloping to the corners, light edgewear, and a minor tear to the left side, neatly repaired on the verso. Formidable British comic actress Alison Skipworth began her career-- believe it or not!-- as a classically beautiful stage actress. As the years went on and her looks withered, she entered films as a character actress, exuding aristocratic hauteur from every pore. She was the ideal foil for Mae West in Night After Night (1932), and W.C. Fields in If I Had a Million (1932) and Tillie and Gus (1933). She had leading assignments as the title character in Madame Racketeer (1932), and opposite Polly Moran in the Republic programmers in Two Wise Maids (1937) and Ladies in Distress (1938). Leaving films in 1938, Skipworth returned to the stage, retiring for good in 1942. She died ten years later at the age of 88.

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