Hollywood film posters for likes of James Bond fetch over £60k

The family of a cinema projectionist who saved Hollywood posters for 40 years has auctioned off his collection for more than £60,000.

Robin Langford kept around 100 artworks from the films he showed, featuring stars including Clint Eastwood, Audrey Hepburn and Raquel Welch.

The collection was expected to fetch about £35,000 when it went under the hammer at Ewbank’s auction house in Woking, Surrey, on Thursday.

Lots include 60s and 70s British Quad posters – the large, 30x40in (76x102cm) display sheets put up outside cinemas to attract audiences – such as for the first James Bond film, Dr No, in 1962.

The Bond poster sold for £16,900 – beating its estimated price of between £5,000 and £8,000.

A Dr No poster sold for £15,000 at an auction in Buckinghamshire in 2019.

Posters for other 60s Bond films From Russia With Love and Thunderball were also auctioned.

Langford, born in 1939, helped out at his local cinema, The Ritz in Bristol, on evenings and weekends after leaving school.

He later joined the Army, where he helped show films for his fellow troops while based in Malta. On his return he went on to work in multiple cinemas in his home city.