Tad Alexander(1922-2012)
- Actor
Over a five-year-period (1930-1934), John Alexander, a cute little boy,
was known as Tad Alexander and acted in a dozen films, alongside big
stars (Will Rogers,
Lionel Barrymore,
John Barrymore and
Ethel Barrymore,
Clark Gable,
Bette Davis and in important roles (the
young King of Sylvania in
Ambassador Bill (1931), the
Czarevitch in
Rasputin and the Empress (1932)), at
least once under the direction of a great director
(King Vidor for
The Stranger's Return (1933)).
But for all this impressive debut, Tad, for some unknown reason, gave
up acting. He then became a concert artist before joining the Army in
the Second World War where he served as a radar technician. After the
War he worked as an engineer at Lockheed Radioplane, Hughes Aircraft
and TWR. A pretty full life in fact, in which movie acting was only a
short (but not insignificant) parenthesis but of which John Alexander,
then a very old man, was reminded the day his name was added to the
Young Hollywood Hall of Fame. Two years after, he died aged ninety.
