PAT O'BRIEN - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 292189

PAT O'BRIEN
10½x13½ close-up, from the collection of Warner Bros. executive "Doc" Salomon
Photograph inscribed and signed: "To Franklin/Very Best Wishes/Pat O'Brien". B/w, 10½x13½. Photo: Elmer Fryer. The easy-going but tough-looking Irish-American character PAT O'BRIEN (1899-1983), who frequently portrayed a priest or a policeman played some memorable roles, including the title role in Knute Rockne, All-American (1940), in which he delivers the famous "win one for the Gipper" speech in honor of the recently deceased George Gipp (played by Ronald Reagan, of course). He made a memorable comic gangster in Some Like It Hot (1959). O'Brien was paired with his friend Jimmy Cagney in nine films, from Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) to Ragtime (1981). (O'Brien and Cagney were part of an informal group of actors friends, dubbed "the Irish Mafia" by the newspapers, including Spencer Tracy among others. Though not inscribed to him, this piece is from the collection of A. M. "Doc" Salomon, a friend of studio mogul Jack Warner, who rose to head the London branch of Warner Bros. studios Salomon compiled an extensive collection of celebrity autographs during his nearly 30 years with the studio. A V-1 rocket demolished his London studio in July 1944 and killed Salomon, but his photo collection miraculously survived. Minor surface damages near top edge and bottom left corner. Fine condition.