A SCRAP of paper signed by a Bournemouth man who delighted worldwide Bond film audiences with his villainy is coming up for auction.

The signature of velvety-voiced Charles Gray, one of this country's finest actors, is set to fetch more than £400 when it goes under the hammer at Christie's in London on February 14.

Gray was born in August, 1928 and grew up at No. 7 Howard Road in Queen's Park, the son of Donald Gray, a Royal Engineers soldier who worked for Bournemouth Council.

The Charles Gray signature is one of three autographs by Bond film actors who played the role of sinister white-cat-stroking arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

The other signatures are from Donald Pleasence and Telly Savalas - Donald taking on the role of the SPECTRE mastermind and megalomaniac in You Only Live Twice (1967) and Telly in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).

Gray's acting career began in the early 1950s, following a stint with Bournemouth's Little Theatre Club while working as an estate agent before a spell in the Royal Navy.

A good friend of actress Ava Gardner, Charles Gray was a pupil at Bournemouth School during the Second World War.

He regularly trod the West End and Broadway stages, as well as appearing in a string of British and international films.

He was one of the few actors to play a goodie and a baddie in two James Bond films.

In You Only Live Twice (1967), he took on the role of Henderson, James Bond's contact in Japan, who was killed just before he could deliver a vital morsel of information to 007. But in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) he played Blofeld.

During his long career, Gray also provided the voice of Jack Hawkins - after the British actor had a cancer operation - and, in 1975, he provided the narration for the film version of the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show.

He died last March at the age of 71. A childhood friend was the Bournemouth photographer John Morley, and Charles Gray's art and music master, Bernard Walker, died two years ago at the age of 97.

The three autographs are among 291 items up for sale from the James Bond films which began with Dr No in 1961.

Other highlights are James Bond's 1965 Aston Martin DB 5 car which is expected to fetch up to £150,000.

There is also the ivory cotton bikini worn by Ursula Andress when she famously walked out of the sea - and caught the imagination of male cinema-goers worldwide - in Dr No.

Other items are ear-rings worn by Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny, and shoes worn by the latest James Bond, Pierce Brosnan.