Ross Alexander

Ross Alexander, born Alexander Ross Smith, Jr. on July 27, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York, was an American stage and film actor whose Broadway career spanned from 1920 to 1934. The son of Maud Adelle (née Cohen) and Alexander Ross Smith, he attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn before his family relocated to Rochester, New York, where he continued his education but left before graduating. He later claimed that his high school principal had advised his parents that he was suited for the acting profession. At seventeen, he traveled to New York City and trained at the Packard Theatrical Agency.

Alexander launched his professional stage career with the Henry Jewett Players in Boston, making his debut in Enter Madame. By 1926 he had developed a reputation as a promising leading man, noted for his good looks and an easy, charming presence. His Broadway credits include Enter Madame (1920), The Ladder (1926), Let Us Be Gay (1928), That's Gratitude (1930), After Tomorrow (1931), The Stork Is Dead (1932), Honeymoon (1932), The Party's Over (1932), and Under Glass. His tenure with The Ladder became a notable episode in his stage career: the production's backer, an oilman who had pledged a record-breaking run, kept the show open in spite of audiences that sometimes numbered no more than a dozen, and Alexander remained with the struggling production for nearly two years.

Paramount Pictures signed Alexander to a film contract, and he made his screen debut in The Wiser Sex in 1932. After Paramount declined to renew his option, he returned to Broadway. In 1934, casting director Max Arnow brought him to Warner Bros., where he appeared in Flirtation Walk (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), and Captain Blood (1935). His 1936 film Hot Money reinforced his screen persona as a polished, well-dressed leading man, distinct from the rougher Warner Bros. stars of the era such as Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni. His final film, the Ruby Keeler musical Ready, Willing and Able, was released posthumously, with Alexander receiving sixth billing. Film historian Kenneth Anger wrote that Ronald Reagan was subsequently signed by Warner Bros. in part because of similarities between his radio voice and mannerisms and those of Alexander.

On February 28, 1934, Alexander married actress Aleta Freel in East Orange, New Jersey. Freel died by suicide on December 7, 1935, shooting herself with a .22 rifle. On September 17, 1936, Alexander married actress Anne Nagel, with whom he had appeared in China Clipper and Here Comes Carter, both released that same year. By the close of 1936, despite his continued film work, Alexander had accumulated significant debt. On January 2, 1937, three months after his second marriage, he died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home. He was twenty-nine years old. Alexander is buried in lot 292 of the Sunrise Slope section of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.