Cat. #00159142012: LEONID KINSKEY

Uncommon vintage typed note to a film critic on a roughly 5x7-inch sheet of tan stationery, neatly signed in black felt-tip pen at a spry 93 in 1996. In good condition. Forced to flee his native St. Petersburg after the Bolshevik revolution, Russian-born character actor Leonid Kinskey entered films in 1932, capitalizing on his dense accent and lean-and-hungry features to play a mixed bag of anarchists, artists, poets, eccentrics, and impresarios. Memorable in the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup (1933), Nothing Sacred (1937), On Yours Toes (1939), and Ball of Fire (1941), his best known appearance was as Sacha, the excitable bartender at Rick's Cafe Americain, in Casablanca (1942). He also had a recurring role as Professor Overbeck on T.V.'s "Batman" in 1967.