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Ross Alexander (born Alexander Ross Smith; July 27, 1907 – January 2, 1937) was an American stage and film actor.

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Ross Alexander
Ross Alexander in the trailer for Shipmates Forever in 1935
Born	Alexander Ross Smith (1907-07-27)July 27, 1907 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	January 2, 1937(1937-01-02) (aged 29) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1924–1937
Spouse(s)	Aleta Freel (1934–1935, her suicide) Anne Nagel (1936–1937, his suicide)

Early years

Alexander was born Alexander Ross Smith in Brooklyn, New York,[1] the son of Maud Adelle (née Cohen) and Alexander Ross Smith.[2] His maternal great-grandfather Morris Cohen was a Polish Jewish immigrant. His father was a leather merchant.^{[citation needed]}

Ross Alexander was born and raised in Brooklyn until his high school years. He attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn for a while until he and his family moved to upstate Rochester, New York. He attended high school there, but he dropped out before graduating.[3]

When he was 17, he went to New York City and studied acting at the Packard Theatrical Agency.[4]

Stage

Alexander began his acting career with the Henry Jewett Players in Boston, debuting in Enter Madame.[5] 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).[6]

Film

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Alexander was signed to a film contract by Paramount Pictures, and his film debut in The Wiser Sex[7] (1932) was not a success,^{[citation needed]} and so he returned to Broadway. In 1934, he was signed to another studio contract, this time by Warner Bros. His bigger successes from this period were Flirtation Walk (1934), 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, well-dressed and dapper leading man, not in the usual Warner gangster mold of rough-hewn stars such as Edward G. Robinson or Paul Muni.

His final film Ready, Willing and Able, a Ruby Keeler musical, was released posthumously. Supposedly Ronald Reagan was signed by the studio as a replacement for Alexander due to remarked similarities in their radio voices and mannerisms.[8]

Personal life

Alexander married actress Aleta Freel on February 28, 1934, in East Orange, New Jersey.[4] Freel committed suicide on December 7, 1935, shooting herself in the head with a .22 rifle.[9] On September 17, 1936, Alexander married actress Anne Nagel,[10] with whom he had appeared in the films China Clipper and Here Comes Carter (both 1936).[11]

Death

On January 2, 1937, three months after marrying Nagel, with his professional and personal life in disarray and deeply in debt, Alexander shot himself in the head in the barn behind his home. Although it has been reported that Alexander used the same gun with which his first wife Aleta Freel killed herself,[12] he actually shot himself with a .22 pistol (not a rifle). He is buried in lot 292 of the Sunrise Slope section of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.[13]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
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

References

External links

• Ross Alexander at AllMovie
• Ross Alexander at Find a Grave
• Ross Alexander at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ross Alexander at IMDb

На других языках

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- [en] Ross Alexander

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[es] Ross Alexander

Ross Alexander (Alexander Ross Smith: Brooklyn, de Nueva York, 27 de julio de 1907 - Los Ángeles, de California, 2 de enero de 1937) fue un actor estadounidense.

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