Ross Alexander
Ross Alexander | |
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Ross Alexander in the trailer for Shipmates Forever (1935)
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Born | Alexander Ross Smith July 27, 1907 Brooklyn, New York, United States |
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Los Angeles, California, United States |
Cause of death | Suicide by gunshot |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1920–1937 |
Spouse(s) | Aleta Freel (1934–1935) Anne Nagel (1936–1937) |
Ross Alexander (July 27, 1907 – January 2, 1937) was an American stage and film actor.
Life and career
Alexander was born Alexander Ross Smith in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Maud Adelle (Cohen) and Alexander Ross Smith.[1] Alexander began his acting career in Broadway productions during the 1920s. By 1926, he was regarded as a promising leading man with good looks and an easy and charming style and began appearing in more substantial roles. He was signed to a film contract by Paramount Pictures, but his film debut in The Wiser Sex (1932) was not a success, and so he returned to Broadway. In 1934, he was signed to another film contract, this time by Warner Bros.
Alexander was better suited to the Warner Bros. style of film, and the studio persevered with him, gradually increasing the stature of his roles commensurate with his growing popularity with film audiences. His biggest successes of the period were A Midsummer Night's Dream and Captain Blood (both 1935). He married actress Aleta Freel in 1934. The marriage ended the following year when Freel committed suicide on December 7, 1935.[2]
Alexander soon after married another actress, Anne Nagel, with whom he had appeared in the films China Clipper and Here Comes Carter (both 1936). In 1936 he starred in an underrated Warner comedy that was well written as a business venture type of film, Hot Money. It was a defining role in his persona as a glamorous, wore-clothes-well leading man, not in the usual Warner gangster mold of rough-hewn stars like Edward G. Robinson or Paul Muni. Warner Bros. had decided by this time that Alexander's potential as an actor was limited and that his personal problems did not allow him to focus completely on his career. Although they continued casting him in films, the importance of his roles was greatly diminished.
Death
With his professional and personal lives in disarray and deeply in debt, Alexander shot himself in the head in the barn behind his home. It has been reported that Alexander used the same gun his wife Aleta Freel shot herself with 13 months earlier.[3] Other sources, however, claim that, while both used .22 caliber bullets, Ross used a pistol, while Aleta used a rifle. His final film, Ready, Willing and Able, was released posthumously.
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1932 | The Wiser Sex | Jimmy O'Neill | |
1934 | Social Register | Lester Trout | |
1934 | Gentlemen Are Born | Tom Martin | |
1934 | Flirtation Walk | Oskie | |
1935 | Maybe It's Love | Rims O'Neil | |
1935 | Going Highbrow | Harley Marsh | |
1935 | We're in the Money | C. Richard Courtney, aka Carter | |
1935 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Demetrius | |
1935 | Shipmates Forever | Lafayette "Sparks" Brown | |
1935 | Captain Blood | Jeremy Pitt | |
1936 | Boulder Dam | Rusty Noonan | |
1936 | Brides Are Like That | Bill McAllister | |
1936 | I Married a Doctor | Erik Valborg | |
1936 | Hot Money | Chick Randall | |
1936 | China Clipper | Tom Collins | |
1936 | Here Comes Carter | Kent Carter | Alternative title: The Voice of Scandal |
1937 | Ready, Willing, and Able | Barry Granville | Released posthumously |
Further reading
- Appleton, Wisconsin Post Crescent, Anne Nagel's Death Revives Old Mystery, August 29, 1966, Page 11.
References
- ↑ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2243
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links
- Ross Alexander at AllMovie
- Ross Alexander at Find a Grave
- Ross Alexander at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Ross Alexander at the Internet Movie Database
- Use dmy dates from October 2013
- Articles with hCards
- 1907 births
- 1937 deaths
- 20th-century American male actors
- American male film actors
- American male stage actors
- Broadway theatre people
- Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
- Male actors from Los Angeles, California
- Male actors from New York City
- Male actors who committed suicide
- Suicides by firearm in California
- People from Brooklyn