Rare Charlies Chaplin film posters were among the highlights in an auction at Bonhams in London last week entitled 'Richard Attenborough: A Life Both Sides of the Camera'. Attenborough, who died last year, was a well-known British actor and director whose career in the film industry spanned 65 years.
He starred in films including Brighton Rock ( 1947), The Great Escape (1963) and Jurassic Park (1993).
As a director, he won two Academy Awards for Gandhi in 1983. He served as president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts; was made CBE in 1967, knighted in 1976 and raised to the peerage as Baron Attenborough of Richmond upon Thames in 1993.
The auction included his collection of memorabilia. Valued at £10,000 – £15,000, posters for the Charlie Chaplin films The Kid (1921) and A Dog's Life (1918) sold for £37,500 (€52,300) and 32,500 respectively.
A wooden clapperboard used during the production of Gandhi, sold for £15,000, more than seven times its estimate (£2,000 – £3,000). A caricature of Oscar Wilde by Max Beerbohm, sold for £27,500 (£5,000 – £7,000).
Jon Baddeley, managing director of Bonhams, Knightsbridge attributed the "fierce bidding" to the "affection and respect in which Lord Attenborough was held by people in Britain and around the world".
