PAT O'BRIEN - AUTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: FRANK DEFORD - HFSID 59330

PAT O'BRIEN and FRANK DEFORD
The actor and award-winning sportswriter signed opposite sides of this slip of paper.
Signatures: "Pat/O'Brien" and, on verso, inscribed signature: "To Dora/Best ever -/Frank Deford", 5¾x4½. At upper right margin, Deford has written: "Sept 29, 1971". Names of signers written (unknown hand) at lower left margins of each side, O'Brien's signature is dated: "'72". Easy-going but tough-looking Irish-American character actor Pat O'Brien (1899-1983), who frequently portrayed a priest or a policeman, had memorable roles in such films as Angels With Dirty Faces, Boy Meets Girl, Knute Rockne, All American (title role) and The Fighting 69th. In the year he signed this autograph, O'Brien appeared in two made-for-TV movies, Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol and Adventures of Nick Carter, and made a guest appearance on the TV series, Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law. Frank Deford (1938-2017) was former Editor-in-Chief of The National, a sports weekly, and a columnist for Sports Illustrated as well as being a screenwriter. He was a correspondent on the HBO series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a commentator for National Public Radio. Deford won the U.S. Sports writer of the Year award six times and is in the Sportswriters Hall of Fame. In 1998 he won an Emmy Award for his work as a writer during the Seoul Olympics and in 2003 won the Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism. Deford is an accomplished novelist who has written several books such as Everybody's All-American (1981) and An American Summer: A Novel (2002). Binding holes at blank right edge. Slight show through of writing. Fine condition.