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Up for sale a RARE! "The Girl from Maxim's" Eric Portman Hand Written Letter.
ES-9666
Eric Harold Portman (13
July 1901 – 7 December 1969) was an English stage and film actor. He is
probably best remembered for his roles in several films for Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburger during the 1940s. He started work in 1922 as a
salesman in the menswear department at the Marshall & Snelgrove department store
in Leeds
and acted in the amateur Halifax Light Opera Society. He made his professional
stage debut in 1924 with Henry Baynton's company.[1] In 1924, Robert Courtneidge's
Shakespearian company arrived in Halifax. Portman joined the company as a
'passenger' and appeared in their production of Richard II at the
Victoria Hall, Sunderland which led to Courtneidge giving him a contract.
Portman made his West End debut at the Savoy Theatre in London, in September
1924, as Antipholous of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors. He was engaged
by Lilian Baylis
for the Old Vic
Company. In 1928, Portman played Romeo at the rebuilt Old Vic. He became a
successful theatre actor. In 1933, Portman was in Diplomacy at the
Prince's Theatre with Gerald du Maurier and Basil
Rathbone. In the 1930s, he began appearing in films, starting with
an uncredited bit in The Girl from Maxim's (1933) directed
by Alexander Korda. In 1935, he appeared in four
films, including Maria Marten or Murder in the Red
Barn with Tod Slaughter. He also made Hyde Park Corner with Gordon Harker
and directed by Sinclair Hill; Old Roses
and Abdul the Damned. In 1936 Portman had a
stage hit playing Lord Byron in Bitter Harvest. After Hearts of Humanity
(1936), he played Giuliano de' Medici in Hill's The Cardinal (1936). Portman made
another film with Tod Slaughter, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936),
and was in Moonlight Sonata (1937). He went to
the US and played in Madame Bovary on Broadway for the Theatre Guild of
America. He also had a small role in The Prince and the Pauper
(1937), but disliked Hollywood and did not stay long. He was back on Broadway
in I Have Been Here Before by J. B.
Priestley. Portman's last London stage show was Jeannie. In
the semi-autobiographical play Dinner with Ribbentrop by screenwriter Norman Hudis,
a former personal assistant to Portman, Hudis relates a claim made often by
Portman that in 1937, before the start of the Second World
War, he had had dinner in London with Joachim von Ribbentrop (then the German
Ambassador to Britain).
Portman claimed that Ribbentrop had told him that "when Germany wins the
war, Portman would be installed as the greatest English star in the New
Europe" at a purpose-built film studio in Berlin. In 1941 he had his first important
film role playing a Nazi on the run Hirth in Powell and Pressburger's 49th Parallel, which was a big hit in
the US and Britain. Portman was established as a star and signed a long term
contract with Gainsborough Pictures. Portman was in Powell and
Pressburger's follow up, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
(1942), which reworked the story of The 49th Parallel to be about Allied
pilots in occupied Holland. He played a Belgian resistance leader in Uncensored
(1942) from director Anthony Asquith, and a German pilot in Squadron
Leader X (1943) with director Lance Comfort.
Portman was a sailor in Asquith's We Dive at
Dawn (1943) and a factory supervisor in Millions Like
Us (1943) from Launder and Gilliat. He was in another war story
in Comfort's Escape to Danger (1943), then was back with
Powell and Pressburger for A Canterbury Tale
(1944). Portman had the lead in Great Day (1945) with Flora Robson
and in the expensive colonial epic Men of Two
Worlds (1946). In 1945, exhibitors voted him the 10th most
popular star at the British box office.[7] He maintained that ranking the
following year.