January 2

Ross Alexander commits suicide in Los Angeles, 1937. As a teen, he appeared in a number of Broadway productions before interest from Hollywood pulled him westward. Paramount handled him first, putting him in The Wiser Sex (1932), a film that audiences largely ignored. He got a second chance at Warner Bros. and acted in Depression-era musicals like Flirtation Walk (1934) and flimsy comedies like Going Highbrow (1935). Bigger breaks came with the roles of Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) and Jeremy Pitt, opposite Errol Flynn (above), in Captain Blood (1935). A closeted gay man, Alexander entered a marriage of convenience to Aleta Friele, a troubled young actress who, a few months after the wedding, killed herself with a rifle in outside their Hollywood Hills home. The actor immediately entered a second marriage with actress Anne Nagel, but persistent depression, major debt and a career slump drove him to turn a gun on himself at his Encino ranch home. Alexander was 29 years old. His final film—Ready, Willing and Able (1937), starring Ruby Keeler—was released after his death.