Richard Alexander (actor, 1902)

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Richard "Dick" Alexander (born November 19, 1902 in Dallas , Texas , † August 9, 1989 in Woodland Hills , California ) was an American actor. He made over 300 film and television appearances between 1926 and 1970.

Life

Richard Alexander began his film career while still making silent films in 1926. In the first years of his career he received several better supporting roles, for example as adjutant to Gustav von Seyffertitz in the spy film War in the Dark and as a villain in Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's drama City Girl (1930 ), who blackmailed his brother's mistress and wants to force her to marry him. In 1930, Alexander also played the role of the strong soldier Haie Westhus in the anti-war film In The West Nothing New . At that time, Alexander was considered a potential star by film producers, but these hopes were not fulfilled: From the early 1930s he mostly only played minor supporting roles and major parts he almost only took on in b-westerns and serials . Because of his beefy and tall figure, he was mostly committed to the impersonation of dumb henchmen and criminals for the rest of his career.

The better roles of his further career include the gruff cellmate of Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times (1936) and his appearance as a friendly and distinguished prince in the film series Flash Gordon from the late 1930s. From the 1950s onwards, Alexander also played minor guest roles on emerging US television. He also got to the board of the Screen Actors Guild , where he was supposed to represent the extras and small actors in Hollywood. In total, he was seen in around 290 films before he retired from the film business in 1970. He died of lung disease in 1989 at the age of 86 and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Richard Alexander at Allmovie
  2. ^ Richard Alexander in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved July 28, 2014.