Role Film actor Name Ross Alexander | Years active 1920–1937 Occupation Actor | |
Full Name Alexander Ross Smith Marriage location East Orange, New Jersey, United States Movies Captain Blood, A Midsummer Night's Dr, China Clipper, Ready - Willing - and Able, Shipmates Forever Similar People Aleta Freel, Anne Nagel, Beverly Roberts, Ray Enright, William Dieterle | ||
Cause of death Suicide by gunshot | ||
Joan blondell passionate kiss with ross alexander
Ross Alexander (July 27, 1907 – January 2, 1937) was an American stage and film actor.
Contents
- Joan blondell passionate kiss with ross alexander
- Lee Dixon Ross Alexander in their Underwear 1937
- Early years
- Stage
- Film
- Personal life
- Death
- Filmography
- References
Lee Dixon & Ross Alexander in their Underwear, 1937
Early years
Alexander was born Alexander Ross Smith in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Maud Adelle (Cohen) and Alexander Ross Smith. His father was a leather merchant. Alexander grew up in Rochester, where his family moved soon after he was born. When he was 17, he went to New York City and studied acting at the Packard Theatrical Agency.
Stage
Alexander began his acting career with the Henry Jewett Players in Boston, debuting in Enter Madame. 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. His Broadway credits include The Party's Over (1932), Honeymoon (1932), The Stork Is Dead (1932), After Tomorrow (1931), That's Gratitude (1930), Let Us Be Gay (1928), The Ladder (1926), and Enter Madame (1920).
Film
Alexander 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).
In 1936 he starred in 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.
His final film, Ready, Willing and Able, was released posthumously.
Personal life
Alexander married actress Aleta Freel on February 28, 1934, in East Orange, New Jersey. The marriage ended the following year when Freel committed suicide on December 7, 1935. On September 17, 1936, he married another actress, Anne Nagel, with whom he had appeared in the films China Clipper and Here Comes Carter (both 1936).
Death
With his professional and personal life 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. Other sources claim that Ross used a pistol, while Aleta used a rifle.