Vintage original 5 x 7 in. double-weight color-tinted "fan photo" of motion picture actor MILTON SILLS.
This example is color-tinted featuring beautiful pastel colors and features a facsimile of his signature. It is in fine+ condition as shown.
"Fan photos" were mailed by the studios to the fans upon request, usually for the price of $0.25.
*"Milton George Gustavus Sills (January 12, 1882 – September 15, 1930) was an American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century. In 1914, Sills made his film debut in the big-budget drama The Pit for the World Film Company and was signed to a contract with film producer William A. Brady. Sills made three more films for the company, including The Deep Purple opposite Clara Kimball Young.
By the early 1920s, Sills had achieved matinee idol status and was working for various film studios, including Metro Pictures, Famous Players-Lasky, and Pathé Exchange. In 1923 he was Colleen Moore's leading man in the very successful Flaming Youth, but his biggest box office success was The Sea Hawk (1924), the top-grossing film of that year. in 1925, Sills and his wife, Doris Kenyon, starred in The Unguarded Hour for First National Pictures. In 1926 he wrote the screenplay for Men of Steel, also starring in it along with Kenyon.
Sills had begun to make the transition to sound pictures as early as 1928 with the part-talking The Barker. His final appearance was in the title role of The Sea Wolf (1930), a performance called "incisive" by The New York Times.
He was a founding member in 1913 of Actors' Equity. On May 11, 1927, he was among the original 36 individuals in the film industry to found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Sills also wrote a book, published posthumously in 1932: "Values: A Philosophy of Human Needs – Six Dialogues on Subjects from Reality to Immortality," co-edited by Ernest Holmes.
Sills died of a heart attack in 1930 while playing tennis with his wife at his Brentwood home at the age of 48. He was interred at Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Chicago. In December 1930, Photoplay published a poem found among his personal effects."
*(source: Wikipedia)
3RB