Jack Hawkins Autograph Page Mounted

John Edward Hawkins, CBE (14 September 1910 – 18 July 1973) was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. One of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s, he was best known for his portrayal of military men.  Hawkins became a star with the release of three successful films in which he played stern but sympathetic authority figures: Angels One Five (1951), as an RAF officer during the war; The Planter’s Wife (1952), as a rubber planter combating communists in the Malayan Emergency (with Claudette Colbert); and Mandy (1952), the headmaster of a school for the deaf. All films ranked among the top ten most popular films at the British box office in 1952 and British exhibitors voted him the fourth most popular British star at the local box office.  Hawkins got his wish when he received a Hollywood offer to play a pharaoh for Howard Hawks in Land of the Pharaohs (1955).  In December 1965, Hawkins was diagnosed with throat cancer. His entire larynx was removed in January 1966. In March of that year he appeared at a royal screening of Born Free attended by the Queen and received a standing ovation.. In May 1973, Hawkins had an experimental operation on his throat to insert an artificial voicebox. He started haemorrhaging and was admitted to St Stephen’s Hospital, He died on 18 July 1973, of a secondary haemorrhage. He was 62.