Guy Rolfe Ivanhoe Film Actor Large Antique Hand Signed Photo

CHAU4674  This is a large antique 9" x 7" hand signed photo for historic actor Guy Rolfe who has personally autographed the souvenir where the signature rests perfectly accompanying his portrait. This is mildly aged and shows a light ripple with regular handling also some milder handling that must be allowed graded vg minus but a very early autograph of this actor that has had a wealth of major film roles mostly the villain throughout an incredible career.

Before turning to acting at the age of 24 he was a professional boxer and racing driver, making his stage debut in Ireland in 1935.After the Second World War he was in films like Hungry Hill and Odd Man Out, which in turn led to larger roles in movies such as Uncle Silas (1947), Easy Money (1948) and in particular Ken Annakin's Broken Journey (1948), where he played the pilot of an aeroplane that crashes in the Alps. He then graduated to leading man status in Terence Fisher's Portrait from Life (1948), as a British army officer who helps an Austrian professor track down his missing daughter. 1949 saw perhaps his best role, that of safe cracker turned spy Philippe Lodocq in Robert Hamer's The Spider and the Fly. 

He was cast as a British Army major dying of tuberculosis for the film Trio (1950), but actually contracted the disease and had to be replaced by Michael Rennie. He recovered his health in less than a year, but his time away from the screen hurt his career, and he starred in less prestigious B movies such as Home to Danger (1951) and Operation Diplomat (1953), as well as the Hammer films Yesterday's Enemy and The Stranglers of Bombay (both 1959). This period also saw him play anumber of Hollywood roles, such as Prince John in Ivanhoe (1952), Ned Seymour in Young Bess (1953), Caiaphas in King of Kings (1961) and Prince Grigory in Taras Bulba (1962). One of his most famous parts was the title role in William Castle's cult horror film Mr. Sardonicus (1961), which several decades later led director Stuart Gordon to cast him in his horror film Dolls (1987).

The 1990s saw him continue in a similar vein when he appeared in five films of the Puppet Master series as AndrÔøΩ Toulon. His television credits include Thriller, Armchair Theatre, The Saint, The Avengers, The Champions, Department S, The Troubleshooters, Space: 1999, Secret Army, The Widow of Bath and Kessler