Alexander Knox

Alexander Knox (16 January 1907 – 25 April 1995) was a Canadian actor and writer. He appeared in over 100 film, television, and theatrical productions over a career spanning from the 1920’s until the late 1980’s. He was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for his performance as American President Woodrow Wilson in the 1944 film Wilson. However, his career in the United States was hampered by McCarthyism, and he spent the rest of his career in the United Kingdom.
Knox portrayed Control in the 1979 BBC miniseries adaptation of John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He acted in such films as Europe '51, The Vikings, The Longest Day, The Damned, and Modesty Blaise. He often worked with director Joseph Losey, a fellow American blacklistee living in the UK.
Aside from his acting career, Knox was also an author, writing adventure novels set in the Great Lakes area during the 19th century as well as plays and detective novels.
Life and career
Knox was born in Strathroy, Ontario, where his father was the minister of the Presbyterian Church. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to perform on stage with the Boston Repertory Theatre. After the company folded following the stock market crash of 1929, Knox returned to London, Ontario, where, for the next two years, he worked as a reporter for The London Advertiser before moving to London, England, where, during the 1930s, he appeared in several films. He also appeared in various roles at the Old Vic such as the Judge in George Bernard Shaw's Geneva. Canadian novelist Robertson Davies described his performance thus: "To this role he brought a dignity which did much to heighten the effect of the famous court-scene which makes up the third act...". . In 1939, at the Malvern Festival, he acted in Shaw's In Good King Charles's Golden Days. His own play Old Master was also staged. He starred opposite Jessica Tandy in the 1940 Broadway production of Jupiter Laughs and as Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Then in 1944, he was chosen by Darryl F. Zanuck to star in Wilson (1944), the biographical film about American President Woodrow Wilson, for which he won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. However, during the McCarthy Era, his liberal views and work with the Committee for the First Amendment hurt his career, but he was not blacklisted, and he returned to Britain.
Knox had major roles in The Sea Wolf (1941), None Shall Escape (1944), Over 21 (1945), Sister Kenny (1946), Man In The Saddle (1951), Paula (1952), Europa '51 (1952), and The Vikings (1958), as well as supporting roles late in his career, such as in The Damned (1963), Modesty Blaise (1966), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Joshua Then and Now (1985; his last film role) and the miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
He depicted Governor Hudson Inverest in "The Latin Touch", the second episode of the first season of The Saint in 1962.
Writing
He wrote several adventure novels: Bride of Quietness (1933), Night of the White Bear (1971), The Enemy I Kill (1972; republished as Totem Dream in 1973), Raider's Moon, and The Kidnapped Surgeon. He also wrote plays and at least three detective novels under a pseudonym before 1945.
Personal life
Knox was married to American actress Doris Nolan (1916–1998) from 1944 until his death in 1995. They starred together in the 1949 Broadway play The Closing Door, which Knox also wrote. They had a son Andrew Joseph Knox (born 1947; died by suicide in 1987) who became an actor and appeared in Doctor on the Go, and who was married to Imogen Hassall.
Knox died in Berwick-upon-Tweed from bone cancer on April 25, 1995.
Complete filmography
The Ringer (1931) (uncredited)
Rembrandt (1936) as Ludwick's Assistant (uncredited)
The Tiger (1936 TV movie) as American Liaison Officer
Everyman (1937 TV movie) as Everyman
Polly (1937 TV movie) as Cawwawkee
Deirdre (1938 TV movie) as Naisi
The Gaunt Stranger (1938) as Dr. Lomond
The Four Feathers (1939) (uncredited)
Cheer Boys Cheer (1939) as Saunders
The Sea Wolf (1941) as Humphrey Van Weyden
This Above All (1942) as Rector
Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) as German Captain
None Shall Escape (1944) as Wilhelm Grimm
Wilson (1944) as Woodrow Wilson
Over 21 (1945) as Max W. Wharton
Sister Kenny (1946) as Dr. McDonnell
The Judge Steps Out (1948) as Judge Thomas Bailey
The Sign of the Ram (1949) as Mallory St. Aubyn
Tokyo Joe (1949) as Mark Landis
I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (1951) as Tom Salter
Two of a Kind (1951) as Vincent Mailer
Saturday's Hero (1951) as Professor Megroth
The Son of Dr. Jekyll (1951) as Dr. Curtis Lanyon
Man in the Saddle (1951) as Will Isham
Paula (1952) as Dr. Clifford Frazer
Europa '51 (1952) as George Girard
The Sleeping Tiger (1954) as Dr. Cilve Esmond
The Divided Heart (1954) as The Chief Justice
The Night My Number Came Up (1955) as Owen Robertson
Alias John Preston (1955) as Dr. Peter Walton
Reach for the Sky (1956) as Mr. Joyce
High Tide at Noon (1957) as Stephen MacKenzie
Hidden Fear (1957) as Hartman
Davy (1958) as Sir Giles
Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958) as Chandler Brisson
The Vikings (1958) as Father Godwin
Intent to Kill (1958) as Dr. McNeil
Passionate Summer (1958) as Leonard Pawley
The Two-Headed Spy (1958) as Gestapo Leader Müller
Operation Amsterdam (1959) as Walter Keyser
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) as Petrie
Oscar Wilde (1960) as Sir Edward Clarke
Crack in the Mirror (1960) as President
The Share Out (1962) as Col. Calderwood
The Longest Day (1962) as Maj. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith
The Damned (1963) as Bernard
In the Cool of the Day (1963) as Frederick Bonner
Man in the Middle (1964) as Col. Burton
Woman of Straw (1964) as Detective Inspector
Crack in the World (1965) as Sir Charles Eggerston
Mister Moses (1965) as Rev. Anderson
The Psychopath (1966) as Frank Saville
Modesty Blaise (1966) as Minister
Khartoum (1966) as Sir Evelyn Baring
Accident (1967) as University Provost
The 25th Hour (1967) as D.A.
Bikini Paradise (1967) as Commissioner Lighton
You Only Live Twice (1967) as American President (uncredited)
How I Won the War (1967) as American General
Villa Rides (1968) as President Madero
Shalako (1968) as Henry Clarke
Fräulein Doktor (1969) as Gen. Peronne
Run a Crooked Mile (1969 TV movie) as Sir Howard Nettleton
Skullduggery (1970) as Buffington
When We Dead Awaken (1970 TV movie) as Rubek
Puppet on a Chain (1971) as Colonel De Graaf
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) as The American Ambassador
Truman at Potsdam (1976 TV movie) as Henry L. Stimson
Holocaust 2000 (1977) as Meyer
Churchill and the Generals (1979 TV movie) as Henry Stimson - Secretary of War
Suez 1956 (1979 TV movie) as John Foster Dulles
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979 TV mini-series) as Control - Chief of Circus
Cry of the Innocent (1980 TV movie) as Thornton Donegin
Gorky Park (1983) as General
Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues (1984 TV movie) as Mr. Gilman
The Last Place on Earth (1985 TV serial as Sir Clements Markham
Joshua Then and Now (1985) as Senator Hornby
Selected stage roles
Smoky Cell by Edgar Wallace (1930)
Jupiter Laughs by A.J. Cronin (1944)
Return to Tyassi by Benn Levy (1950)
References
Notes
External links
1907 births
1995 deaths
Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Canadian male stage actors
Canadian male film actors
Canadian male novelists
Canadian expatriate male actors in the United States
Canadian expatriate male actors in the United Kingdom
Hollywood blacklist
People from Strathroy-Caradoc
Deaths from bone cancer
Deaths from cancer in England
University of Western Ontario alumni
20th-century Canadian male actors
20th-century Canadian novelists
20th-century Canadian male writers