CHARLES "DURANGO" STARRETT - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 81380

CHARLES STARRETT
Sepia-toned movie still from 1943's Frontier Fury, with Charles Starrett passing the hat (a cowboy hat, natch) in front of some townies and a suspicious-looking character. Frontier Fury was released two years before Return of the Durango Kid, which kicked off a series of almost 70 Durango Kid movies.
Photograph signed "Charles Starrett". B/w, 10¼x8 overall, 9½x7 image, one surface. Columbia Pictures movie still from Frontier Fury (1943). Starrett starred in Frontier Fury two years before Return of the Durango Kid (1945). It wasn't the first Durango Kid movie that Starrett made; that honor goes to 1940's The Durango Kid. But Return of the Durango Kid kicked off a series of nearly 70 Durange Kid movies starring Starrett as the masked vigilante. Starrett (1903-1986, born in Athol, Massachusetts) is best known for his portrayal of "The Durango Kid" in a string of B-westerns in the 1940s and early 1950s. He spent his college years playing football for Dartmouth, and upon graduation chose acting as his profession. After a few years of stage work and vaudeville, Starrett signed with Paramount in 1930 but never found the breakthrough role he needed to be a star at the studio. In the mid-1930s, Starrett signed a long-term contract with Columbia and starred in a multitude of B westerns for the studio. But his most famous part, as the Durango Kid, was the role that both made and broke his film career. Return of the Durango Kid (1945) kicked off a series of nearly 70 Durango Kid films. But in the early 1950s, as the B-western faded into the horizon, Starrett retired from the screen. He passed away in 1986 at the age of 82. Lightly toned, soiled, creased and bowed. Missing bottom left corner. Light tear in top right corner. Light impressions and scratches on image (not visible head-on). Otherwise in fine condition.