Cat. #00041316: LIONEL ATWILL

Scarce signature in thick pencil on a 4x6-inch turquoise autograph album page, acquired in-person in May of 1937. In good condition and nice for matting with a favorite photograph. After performing Ibsen and Shaw on the London stage, distinguished British actor Lionel Atwill relocated to the United States, where he found new work playing aristocratic villains and mad doctors in silent and early talkie films. A Universal Pictures fixture and veritable a titan of the horror and science-fiction genres, he stole every scene as Dr. Xavier in Doctor X (1932), Dr. Von Niemann in The Vampire Bat (1933), Ivan Igor in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), Eric Gordon in Murders in the Zoo (1933), Jerome Breen in The Sphinx (1933), Inspector Neumann in Tod Browning’s Mark of the Vampire (1935), one-armed Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein (1939), Walter Stevens in The Gorilla (1939), Dr. Rigas in Man Made Monster (1941), Dr. Benson in The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942), Dr. Bohmer in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Dr. Fish in The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942), Dr. King in Night Monster (1942), the Mayor of Vasaria in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), and Police Inspector Arnz in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945).  He is also remembered for his appearances in several Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan pictures, most notably as criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943), opposite Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.