Alexander Kirkland

William Alexander Kirkland (September 15, 1901, Mexico City, Mexico – circa 1986)[1][2] was a leading man in Hollywood during the early sound era, as well as a notable stage actor who starred in productions of the Group Theatre in New York.

Alexander Kirkland
Born
William Alexander Kirkland

(1901-09-15)September 15, 1901
Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Diedcirca 1986
United States
OccupationActor, screenwriter
Years active1929–1957
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1942; div. 1944)​

Phyllis Adams Jenkins
​
​
(m. 1944; div. 1950)​

Greta Jacqueline "Jackie" Baldridge
​
​
(m. 1959; died 1972)​

Biography

Kirkland was born on September 15, 1901, in Mexico City, the son of Robert Gowland Kirkland and Charlotte Megan. He was the grandson of rear admiral William Alexander Kirkland and Consuela Gowland.[3]

Kirkland attended the Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut, and the University of Virginia.[4] He later attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and while in Philadelphia he began his acting career at the Hedgerow Theatre in Media, Pennsylvania.[5] His first play on Broadway was The Devil to Pay.[4]

He was also a freelance writer and contributed stories to popular national magazines of the time. In the late 1920s Kirkland moved to Hollywood and starred as leading man to Tallulah Bankhead in Tarnished Lady (1931).[6] Other credits include Charlie Chan's Chance (1932),[7] Social Register (1934)[8] A Face In The Crowd (1957),[9] A Passport to Hell and Devil's Lottery.[10]

Alexander Kirkland and Margaret Barker in the Group Theatre's Broadway production of Men in White (1933)

In the 1930s he was associated with the Group Theatre (New York), founded by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg.[11]

On radio, Kirkland played David Brewster in the soap opera Big Sister in the early 1940s,[12] Curt Lansing in John's Other Wife,[13] and Russell Barrington in Society Girl in that same era.[14]

He toured as one of the Yale Puppeteers and then worked with the troupe at the Turnabout Theatre in Los Angeles, which operated from 1941 to 1956. His friend and theater colleague Forman Brown used him as the model for one of his characters in the early gay romance novel Better Angel (1933).[15]

He married entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee in 1942. Carl Van Doren introduced them.[4] They separated after three months[16] and finally were divorced in 1944. Their son Eric was later recognized as the son of director Otto Preminger.[17]

From 1944 to 1950, he was married to socialite, actress, and TV producer Phyllis Adams (1923-2004), whom he had a story before Lee, and they had one daughter, Alexandra "Sandy" Marsh, who committed suicide falling down from the Park Belvedere 28th floor in 1987.[4] Adams later remarried, in 1955, to art director George Jenkins.[10]

In the 1950s Kirkland owned an art gallery in Palm Beach, Florida, and in 1945 he purchased Villa del Sarmiento, an oceanfront Palm Beach estate.[10]

In 1959 he married Greta Hunter-Thompson Baldridge, a former Ziegfeld Follies girl, widow of a co-heir of the National Steel Corporation. They lived in Palm Beach, Fairfield, Connecticut and Cuernavaca, Mexico. Greta died in 1972 in Mexico City.

After the death of his third wife, Kirkland was connected to British actress Margot Grahame.[18]

Little is known about his later years, but there have been no sources indicating his death, save from a source on IMDB, claiming his death sometime in the 1980s. At the time of his death, Kirkland was living in Cuernavaca and his daughter said he had wasted all his money.[10]

Broadway credits

Filmography

This filmography is believed to be complete.

Year Title Role Notes
1931 Tarnished Lady DeWitt Taylor
Surrender Major Dietrich Reichendorf
1932 Charlie Chan's Chance John R. Douglas
Devil's Lottery Stephen Alden
Almost Married Louis Capristi / Charles Pringle
A Passport to Hell Lt. Erich von Sydow
Strange Interlude Sam Evans
1933 Black Beauty Henry Cameron
Bondage Dr. Nelson
Humanity Bill MacDonald
1934 The Social Register Charlie Breene
1947 13 Rue Madeleine uncredited
1957 A Face in the Crowd Jim Collier

References
  1. New York Magazine profile, October 19, 1987
  2. Profile, New York Magazine, September 14, 1987.
  3. "Consuela Gowland Kirkland - 17 Feb 1909, Wed • Page 3". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: 3. 1909. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  4. Frankel, Noralee (2010). Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 9780199754335. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  5. Witham, B. (2013). A Sustainable Theatre: Jasper Deeter at Hedgerow. Springer. p. 38. ISBN 9781137121851. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  6. Vermilye, Jerry (1982). The Films of the Thirties. Citadel Press. p. 56. ISBN 9780806509716. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  7. Berlin, Howard M. (2001). Charlie Chan's Words of Wisdom. Wildside Press LLC. p. 20. ISBN 9781587154690. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  8. Films in Review, Volume 16. Then and There Media, LCC. 1965. p. 90. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  9. Eagan, Daniel (2009). America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 528. ISBN 9781441116475. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  10. "14 Sep 1987". New York Magazine: 44. 1987. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  11. Dawson, Gary Fisher (1999). Documentary Theatre in the United States: An Historical Survey and Analysis of Its Content, Form, and Stagecraft. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 70. ISBN 9780313304491. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  12. "What Do You Want to Know?" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 13 (4): 56. February 1940. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  13. "Thursday's Highlights" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 14 (2): 48. June 1940. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  14. "Thursday's Highlights" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 13 (5): 50. March 1940. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  15. Slide, Anthony (2003). Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works From the First Half of the Twentieth Century. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press. p. 128. ISBN 9781560234142.
  16. Morrisroe, Patricia (September 14, 1987). "'Too Much Money, Too Much Time': The Life and Death of Sandy Marsh". New York Magazine. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  17. Hirsch, Foster (2011). Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 194. ISBN 9780307489210. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  18. "09 Nov 1974, Sat • Page 26". The News-Item: 26. 1974. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  19. "Men in White". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2017-07-12.
  20. "Gold Eagle Guy". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2017-07-12.
  21. "Till the Day I Die". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2017-07-12.
  22. "Weep for the Virgins". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2017-07-12.
  23. "The Case of Clyde Griffiths". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  24. "Browse My Day Columns | Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project | The George Washington University". erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-07.
  • Profile, broadway.cas.sc.edu; accessed July 26, 2015.
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