Cris Alexander

Cris Alexander, born Alan Smith on January 14, 1920, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was an American actor, singer, dancer, designer, and photographer whose Broadway career spanned from 1944 to 1960. He adopted the name Christopher as a teenager, considering it more distinguished, and later dropped the "h" at the suggestion of a spiritualist, settling on the name Cris. After studying at the University of Oklahoma while working as a radio announcer in Oklahoma City, he relocated to New York City in 1938 to train at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art, where he also opened a photo studio.

Alexander made his Broadway debut in 1944 as Chip, a naive sailor, in the original cast of Leonard Bernstein's On the Town. In that production he performed the duet "Come Up to My Place" alongside Nancy Walker, who played the role of Hildy. Two years later he returned to Broadway in the comedy Present Laughter, appearing opposite Clifton Webb.

In 1953, Alexander was cast in Wonderful Town, a second Bernstein musical, this time alongside Rosalind Russell. He played Frank Lippencott, a drugstore manager, and performed the comic number "Conversation Piece," remaining with the production for its entire run. He subsequently appeared with Russell again in the comedy Auntie Mame, taking on multiple roles in the original Broadway production. He reprised one of those roles, store manager Mr. Loomis, in the 1958 film adaptation of Auntie Mame. That same year he also appeared as Frank Lippencott in a television production of Wonderful Town. Alexander's final acting credit was Lanford Wilson's 1966 play The Madness of Lady Bright. He remained connected to the theater in other capacities, creating projection slides for the 1970 Richard Rodgers production Two by Two. He also appeared as Raphael in the 1969 film The Littlest Angel. His Broadway credits additionally include Finian's Rainbow.

Alongside his stage and screen work, Alexander maintained a substantial career as a photographer. He became chief photographer at Andy Warhol's Interview magazine and served as the official photographer for the New York City Ballet, building a reputation for portraits of celebrities and performers, many of them personal friends. He contributed more than 150 photographs to Patrick Dennis's best-selling mock biography Little Me, which chronicled the fictional actress Belle Poitrine and became a camp classic. Alexander also wrote the novel's preface and included photographs of his partner, New York City Ballet dancer Shaun O'Brien. He contributed photographs to a second Dennis title, First Lady: My Thirty Days at the White House, which centered on the wife of a fictional robber baron president.

Alexander and O'Brien began their relationship in the 1940s, a partnership that lasted nearly six decades. The couple retired to upstate New York in 1993 and married in 2011 after same-sex marriage became legal in New York State. Alexander died in Saratoga Springs on March 7, 2012.