Alexander Kirkland

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

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.

Kirkland attended the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut and the University of Virginia. His first play on Broadway was The Devil to Pay.

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

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

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 novel Better Angel (1933).

Kirkland was engaged to actress Margaret Barker, but a planned wedding in 1942 never came to fruition. He married entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee in 1942. Carl Van Doren introduced them. They separated after three months and finally were divorced in 1944. Their son Erik later was recognized as the son of director Otto Preminger.

From 1944 to 1950, he was married to socialite, actress, and TV producer Phyllis Adams (1923-2004), and they had one daughter, Alexandra "Sandy" Marsh, who committed suicide falling from the Park Belvedere 28th floor in 1987.

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.

At the time of his death, Kirkland was living in Cuernavaca, and his daughter said he had wasted all of his money. He died in Alimodian, Iloilo, Philippines. Gold Eagle Guy (1934) Till the Day I Die (1935) Weep for the Virgins (1935) The Case of Clyde Griffiths (1936) Many Mansions (1937)

Filmography This filmography is believed to be complete. Year Title Role Notes1931 Tarnished Lady DeWitt Taylor Surrender Major Dietrich Reichendorf1932 Charlie Chan's Chance John R. Douglas Devil's Lottery Stephen Alden Almost Married Louis Capristi / Charles Pringle Strange Interlude Sam Evans A Passport to Hell Lt. Erich von Sydow1933 Humanity Bill MacDonald Black Beauty Henry Cameron Bondage Dr. Nelson 1934 The Social Register Charlie Breene 1947 13 Rue Madeleine Briefing Officer Uncredited 1957 A Face in the Crowd Jim Collier