Cat. #00159142011: LEONID KINSKEY

Uncommon vintage black fountain pen signature on a 2x6-inch yellow album page, acquired in-person in the 1940s. Some blotchiness to the writing and a minor stain to the upper right-hand corner, well away from the autograph; otherwise, in good condition for its age. Victor Borge has signed in black fountain pen on the verso. 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.