Background
Alexander was born Alexander Ross Smith in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Maud Adelle (Cohen) and Alexander Ross Smith.
Alexander was born Alexander Ross Smith in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Maud Adelle (Cohen) and Alexander Ross Smith.
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 Brothers
Alexander was better suited to the Warner Brothers 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). The marriage ended the following year when Freel committed suicide on December 7, 1935.
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.
lieutenant 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 Brothers 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. With his professional and personal lives in disarray and deeply in debt, Alexander shot himself in the head in the barn behind his home.
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.