Film Star Autograph Portrait Series

Film stars have always had a great appeal for autograph collectors from the pioneers of Silent Movies to the Hollywood Legends of the Golden Age of the 1930s to 1950s and through to the celebrity A-list stars of the present day. Publishers sometimes printed autographs on postcards of the stars. A typical example is the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, published in Great Britain in the 1950s by L.D. LTD, in London.


British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series by L.D. LTD., London, no. 53.

English actor Sir Alec Guinness (1914-2000) was one of the most versatile and subtle actors of his time, in the cinema and on television no less than on the stage. He was master of disguise in several of the classic Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and he is probably even better known for playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983).


British postcard by L.D. LTD., London, in the Film Star Autograph Portrait series, no. 55. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation LTD.

Tall, dark, and charming English actor Terence Morgan (1921-2005) played many attractive villains and criminals in British films. But he is probably best remembered for his starring role in the TV historical adventure series Sir Francis Drake (1961-1962), about the first Englishman to sail around the world. After this success, parts started to dry up as Morgan was no longer seen as ‘the bad guy’.


British postcard by L.D LTD., London in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, no. 57. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

Tall and dashing Anthony Steel (1920-2001) was one of Britain’s most popular matinee idols during the early 1950s. He also was the stiff-upper-lipped star of many distinguished British war films and made more than 60 film appearances between 1948 and 1980. In the 1980s his once brilliant career collapsed into poverty and destitution.


British postcard by L.D. LTD., London in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, no. 60. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

Glamorous English actress Joan Collins (1933) is one of the great survivors of the cinema. She began in the early 1950s as a starlet of the British film. 20th Century Fox brought her to Hollywood as their answer to Elizabeth Taylor. In the 1970s she was the ‘Queen of the B-pictures’, but in the 1980s Joan became the highest-paid TV star, thanks to Dynasty.


British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series by L.D. Ltd., London, no. 64. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

Joan Rice (1930-1997) was a pert, dark-haired leading lady, who enjoyed a brief flurry of popularity in British films of the early- to mid-1950s. She is probably best known as Maid Marian to Richard Todd's Robin Hood in Disney's The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) and as Dalabo in His Majesty O'Keefe (1954) with Burt Lancaster.


British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, no. 65, by L.D. Ltd., London. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

British Flora Robson (1902-1984) was one of the half-dozen finest dramatic actresses of her generation. Her range extended from queens to murderesses and she was particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity. Her best-known film role was that of Queen Elizabeth I in both Fire Over England (1937) and The Sea Hawk (1940). However, her career was a constant struggle to achieve the roles worthy of her talents.


British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait series by L.D. LTD., London, no. 66. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Publicity still for The Seekers (Ken Annakin, 1954).

Husky voiced Glynis Johns (1923) is a retired Welsh stage and film actress, dancer, pianist and singer. She is best known for her film roles as a mermaid in the British comedy Miranda (1948) and as suffragette mother Winifred Banks in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964). On Broadway, she created the role of Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony Award.


British postcard by L.D. Ltd., London in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, no. 72. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Publicity still for Personal Affair (Anthony Pelissier, 1953).

Leo Genn (1905-1978) was a refined British stage and film actor - and barrister. Known for his relaxed charm and his deep black velvet voice, he also had success in Hollywood classics like Quo Vadis (1951) and Moby Dick (1956).


British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series by L.D. Ltd, London, no. 88. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

American film actress June Haver (1926-2005) was a popular alternative to the musical film stars Betty Grable and Alice Faye in several musicals of the 1940s. Haver's second husband was the actor Fred MacMurray, whom she married after she retired from show business.


British postcard by L.D. LTD., London, in the Film Star Autograph Portrait series, no. 96. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation LTD. Publicity still for The Seekers (Ken Annakin, 1954).

Square-jawed, craggy-looking Jack Hawkins (1910-1973) was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. One of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s, he often played coolly efficient military officers in such films as The Cruel Sea (1953), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).


British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, by L.D. LTD., London, no. 122. Photo: M.G.M. Stewart Granger in Young Bess (George Sidney, 1953).

English actor Stewart Granger (1913-1993) made over 60 films but is mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was quoted: “I've never done a film I'm proud of”. Tall, dark, dignified, and handsome, Granger became England's top box office star in the 1940s which attracted Hollywood's attention.


British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series by L.D. Ltd., London, no. 133. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Sombrero (Norman Foster, 1953).

Before she was 20, Pier Angeli (1932-1971) had starred with Vittorio de Sica in two Italian box office hits and was discovered by Hollywood. There she won a Golden Globe, had an affair with James Dean, and died before she was 40.


British postcard by L.D. Ltd., London in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, no. 138. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Lili (1953).

French film actress and dancer Leslie Caron (1931) was one of the most famous Hollywood stars in the 1950s. She is best known for the waif-like gamines in musical films like Gigi (1958), Lili (1953), and An American in Paris (1951). Since the 1960s she’s also working in European cinema.


British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by L.D. Ltd., London, no. 165. Photo: Universal-International.

Beautiful blonde American actress and former model Lori Nelson (1933-2020) started acting at the age of 2 and she was Miss Encino at age 17. Nelson played the lead in several Universal films of the 1950s and is best known for her roles in B-films like the 3D fantasy Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Day the World Ended (1955). After several years at Universal, she freelanced in films and TV.


British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by L.D. LTD., London, no. 172. Photo: Universal-International.

Alluring French leading lady Corinne Calvet (1925-2001) made a big splash in Hollywood in the early 1950s with her sultry looks and her highly publicised legal battles.