Hollywood Men on Postage Stamps

Imagine having your image on millions of postage stamps and imagine being alive to witness the stamp being first issued. The famous stars of Hollywood, down through the ages, have been commemorated by several different countries on postage stamps. Most of the Hollywood Legends were gone from this world before their images appeared in stamp form. Posters, magazines and billboards display their images, but only for a time, so the issuing of a commemorative postage stamp is forever, thus ensuring that the star is remembered always. Hollywood legends are generally commemorated, in the first instance, by their country of birth but several of these movie stars are recognized by postal authorities in other countries too.

60 million James Dean stamps were printed by USPS

This James Dean postage stamp is from the Hollywood Legends on postage stamps series from USPS, which has proved to be a massive big selling feature for the US Post gurus. Strange to say but the Hollywood legend James Dean starred in only three movies. Two of them were released after his tragic death in a car accident. His most famous movie was "Rebel Without a Cause" which was released just after he died in 1955. "East of Eden" was released the year before he died and was the film that launched him on the road to greatness. Even non stamp collectors have collected this tiny paper image as a keepsake of a true legend of the big screen. James Dean was the first posthumous Academy Award winner for Best Actor.

This newer Gregory Peck stamp was released in 2011 and, like the stamp above, was issued by the United States postal service. As a modern US stamp it was issued as a forever stamp (one without a price denomination). I like this iconic black and white image of this Hollywood legend. Gregory Peck starred as Atticus Finch in the great movie “To Kill A Mockingbird” in 1962 and the stamp is a still image from this movie for which Peck won his only Oscar.

Altogether, Gregory was nominated 5 times for an Academy Award. Gregory Peck was born in 1916 and died in 2003. The stamp was a long time forthcoming but the USPS will be featuring real live people on its legend series from 2012. It is likely to be a forever stamp.

The above 2 stamps from the USPS are of course of people who are deceased and the rules at USPS only allow them to commemorate people who have died. A change is to take place in 2012 when the US Postal authority will issue it first living legend postage stamp. It is not yet known who that celebrity will be but you can vote for your favorite on Facebook. Some countries that issue postage stamps do not have any qualms about featuring celebrities who are still alive. Australia Post already features living Hollywood greats on the Australian postage stamps. This featured one is of the Academy Award winning “Gladiator” actor Russell Crowe who was nominated for the Academy Award on 3 occasions so far. Australia Post has issues a beautiful set of Hollywood Legend stamps of people still living. The Russell Crowe stamp was one of a set of 4 and the other Aussie Oscar winners featured on postage stamps were Geoffrey Rush and the Hollywood leading ladies Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman. Russell Crowe was also featured on a postage stamp of the Republique du Benin who have issued numerous postage stamps of important people.

Legendary Hollywood all-American hero Gary Cooper featured on postage stamp of US Post. 40 million stamps of the Hollywood legend Gary Cooper were issued of his image taken from his Academy Award-winning movie "High Noon". The Cooper 44-cent postage stamp was issued in 2009 as part of the USPS’s Legends of Hollywood series.

Collecting commemorative stamps

Stamp collectors will be interested to know that these countries issued equally beautiful commemorative stamps of Gary Cooper, they are Cambodia, Maldives, Fujeira, Mali and Republique du Benin (who have issued at least 3 different ones showing Gary Cooper movie stills). Gary Cooper was born in 1901 and died in 1961.

The USPS honored Humphrey Bogart with this postage stamp issued in 1997. The 32-cent commemorative stamp features the tough guy actor Humphrey in a classic image. Humphrey won the Academy Award for "The African Queen" in 1951. Humphrey was also honored on the stamps of Sierra Leone and Congo. Humphrey Bogart was born in 1908 and died in 1989.

Golden Age of Hollywood

Hollywood’s Golden Age produced many fine actors and this hub touches just a few of them. Many commemorative stamps of the greats of Hollywood have been issued and not just by USPS as you will find great stamps of legendary figures from other issuers such as the UK’s Royal Mail, Australia (see above) and Canada Post plus many others too.