Cat. #00033622: LUIS ALBERNI

Rare vintage 8x10-inch black and white portrait, boldly signed in black fountain pen and dated 1935 in Hollywood, California. In good condition, with a few minor handling dings and one faint surface crease. Short, elfish Spanish-born character actor Luis Alberni began his career as a dramatic stage performer, but when he caught audience members struggling to stifle laughter during a performance of "Hamlet," he realized he was better-suited for comedy. After relocating to Hollywood in 1915, he played a mixed bag of excitable Italian and Spanish waiters, janitors, stagehands, and shop proprietors in films the John Barrymore horror gems Svengali (1931) and The Mad Genius (1935); The Sphinx (1933); Flying Down to Rio (1933); The Black Cat (1934) with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; The Count of Monte Cristo (1934); Roberta (1935); The Gay Deception (1935); Madame X (1937); Easy Living (1937); The Lady Eve (1941); Road to Zanzibar (1941); A Bell for Adano (1945); John Ford's remake of What Price Glory? (1952); and The Ten Commandments (1956).