8x10 Sepia glossy vintage photograph signed by J. Arthur Rank in blue ink. The upper portion has scattered creasing, otherwise, nice. (1888-1972) Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank was a British industrialist who was head and founder of the Rank Organisation.During the 1940s, the companies Rank controlled produced some of the finest British films of the period, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), Henry V (1944), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), and The Red Shoes (1948). From the 1950s, fewer adventurous film projects were attempted and Rank concentrated on producing solidly commercial ventures, mainly aimed at the family market. These include the popular Norman Wisdom comedies and the Doctor... films. However, some more serious films were produced during this era including Carve Her Name With Pride (1958), A Night to Remember (also 1958) and Victim (1961), as well as a clutch of prestige topics such as the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 and filmed performances by The Royal Ballet.Although his critics claimed that many of the films that he had produced under the name of Rank were not exactly in keeping with his original intention of producing "family-friendly" films (which John Davis had said was company policy) to challenge American competition, he nevertheless kept to his core beliefs. To that end in 1953 he set up the J. Arthur Rank Group Charity to promote Christian belief. The charity later became known as The Rank Foundation. He was a governor of The Peckham Experiment in 1949.In 1957 J. Arthur Rank was raised to the peerage as Baron Rank, of Sutton Scotney in the County of Southampton (Sutton Scotney is a small village between Andover and Winchester in Hampshire).This lot came from the Jim Wiggins collection we purchased in July 2022. Jim Wiggins accumulated the most unique and valuable autograph collection over a period of 70-plus years. He obtained his collection either in person or by writing to persons of fame and notoriety. Comes with a full Letter of Authenticity from Todd Mueller Authentics.