Highly rare vintage 5x8-inch sepia-tone portrait, showing off his handlebar mustache and severe case of convergent strabismus, boldly signed and inscribed in white fountain pen in the late 1920s. In good condition for its age, with some gentle toning to the upper border. Scrawny, cross-eyed silent comic actor Ben Turpin made his bones in vaudeville, burlesque and stock, elevating physical comedy to a sort of art form. His movie career commenced in 1907, when he was hired by Essanay in Chicago as both a utility comedian and janitor. Eight years later, studio chiefs had the clever idea of teaming him with their newest comedian, Charlie Chaplin, and the two proved wildly popular with the public. After two years of brilliant output, Turpin left to work with Mack Sennett, who cast him in two-reel gems like The Daredevil (1924), and features such as A Small Town Idol (1921) and the Valentino spoof The Shriek of Araby (1923). During the talkie era, Turpin increasingly confined himself to bit roles, usually spot gags utilizing his crossed eyes as a punchline, most notably in Ernst Lubitsch's The Love Parade (1929) and Wheeler's and Woolsey's Cracked Nuts (1931). He died in 1940. His autograph is highly uncommon in any format.