John Alexander

John Alexander was an American actor who worked on stage, in film and on television, and whose Broadway career lasted more than 55 years. He first appeared on Broadway in 1908 and 1909, playing the lead in Elmer Brown, the Only Boy in Town. He was best remembered for Teddy Brewster, a man who believed he was Theodore Roosevelt, in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), a part he had first played on Broadway in 1941. He played the real Roosevelt in Fancy Pants (1950) and played Teddy again in a 1955 television version. His other films included A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Summer Holiday (1948), Winchester '73 (1950) and The Marrying Kind (1952). In the 1950s and early 1960s he appeared on television programs such as The Phil Silvers Show and Car 54, Where Are You? His last stage role was in the Broadway comedy Never Too Late, where he played Mayor Crane from 1962. He died in 1982.