Sir George Alexander (19 June 185815 March 1918), born George Alexander Gibb Samson, was an English stage actor, theatre producer and theatre manager. After acting on stage as an amateur he turned professional in 1879 and, over the next eleven years, he gained experience with leading producers and actor-managers, including Tom Robertson, Henry Irving and Madge and W. H. Kendal.
During this time, Alexander became interested in theatre management. In 1890 he took a lease on a London theatre and began producing on his own account. The following year, he moved to the St James's Theatre, where he remained, acting and producing, for the rest of his career. Among the most successful of the new plays he presented were Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A. W. Pinero's The Second Mrs Tanqueray (1893) and Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).
Alexander followed Robertson and the Kendals in preferring a naturalistic style of writing and acting to the extravagantly theatrical manner favoured by some earlier actor-managers. He built around him a company of fine actors, many of whom were or later became leading figures in the profession, including Henry Ainley, Arthur Bourchier, Constance Collier, Julia Neilson, Fred Terry and Marion Terry. As an actor, Alexander's range was limited, and he did not attempt the great heroic roles or play much tragedy. His genre was naturalistic, and rarely very profound, comedy and drama, in which he was a recognised leader.
Life and career Early years Alexander was born in Reading, Berkshire, the eldest son of William Murray Samson (c. 1827–1892), a Scottish commercial traveller, and his first wife, Mary Ann Hine, née Longman.Wearing, J. P. Alexander, Sir George (real name George Alexander Gibb Samson) (1858–1918)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 February 2019 He was educated at private schools in Clifton, Bristol, and at Ealing, London, and then at Stirling High School, which he left when he was fifteen. His father was strongly opposed to the theatre and intended a commercial career for his eldest son. Alexander was apprenticed as a clerk to a drapery firm in the City of London.
In his spare time Alexander began acting in amateur theatricals. On at least two occasions he appeared in amateur performances at the St James's Theatre, with which he was later to be professionally associated. In September 1879, aged 21, he abandoned commerce and became a professional actor, joining a repertory company at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham."Alexander, Sir George, (19 June 1858–16 March 1918), actor and manager, St James's Theatre", Who's Who & Who Was Who, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 February 2019 Feeling the name "Samson" too redolent of scripture for an actor he adopted the stage name of George Alexander. After several roles in Nottingham he joined Tom Robertson's touring company for the 1879–1880 season, playing juvenile leads. He quickly began to attract favourable notices. The Era found his performances "all that could be desired" and "entitled to warm praise"."Provincial Theatricals", The Era, 21 March 1880, p. 9 and 9 May 1880, p. 8
In April 1881 Alexander made his London, though not yet his West End, debut at the Standard Theatre, Shoreditch, as Freddy Butterscotch in Robert Reece's The Guv'nor, which he had already played in the provinces, winning excellent notices; in an early indication of his flair for publicity, he took advertising space in The Era to reprint the most laudatory."Advertisements & Notices", The Era, 5 March 1881, p. 15 While he was playing the role in Birmingham, Henry Irving saw a performance and engaged him to play Caleb Deecie, the blind man, in a revival of the comedy The Two Roses at the Lyceum Theatre in London."A Chat with Mr. Geo. Alexander", The Era, 26 September 1891, p. 7 In the next production, Irving cast him as Paris in Romeo and Juliet."Death of Sir George Alexander", The Times, 16 March 1918, p. 8
West End, 1880s In August 1882 Alexander married Florence Jane Théleur (1857/8–1946), daughter of a French ballet master. They had no children. Florence shared with her husband not only his theatrical concerns but also his wider interest in public affairs. Later, after he became an actor-manager, she was a key figure in maintaining the company spirit and retaining the loyalty of actors and authors."Lady Alexander", The Times, 21 October 1946, p. 7
During the 1880s Alexander broadened his theatrical experiences, mostly, but not exclusively, in London. At the Court Theatre in late 1882 he took over from Johnston Forbes-Robertson the role of the hero in the comedy The Parvenu."Theatrical Gossip", The Era, 4 November 1882, p. 8 He played Shakespearian roles (Orlando, Romeo, Guiderius and Benedick) with Ellen Wallis's company."Miss Wallis's Matinee", The Era, 31 March 1883, p. 4 He joined the Kendals' company at the St James's, where his parts included de Riel in B.C. Stephenson's Impulse (1883) and Octave in Arthur Wing Pinero's The Ironmaster (1884)."Drama", The Athenaeum, 22 September 1883, p. 380; and "St. James's Theatre", The Standard, 18 April 1884, p. 3
In July 1884 Alexander rejoined Irving's company. The theatre historian J. P. Wearing writes that Alexander received "invaluable training from the acknowledged master of the profession", although Irving was not an easy man to work for:
With Irving, Alexander visited the US twice, during the decade, in American tours (1884–1885 and 1887–1888). In Irving's company he progressed in a series of important supporting roles, such as Shakespeare's Orsino, Laertes, Bassanio and Macduff."The Drama In America", The Era, 29 November 1884, p. 17, and 13 December 1885, p. 15 In January 1886, having originally been cast as Valentin in W. G. Wills's Faust, he was promoted to the title role opposite Irving's Mephistopheles."Theatrical Gossip", The Era, 14 November 1885, p. 8 Alexander played the part for 384 performances.
Actor-manager
Alexander had been nurturing managerial ambitions for some time, and in 1890 he secured a lease of the Avenue Theatre. At the time, he was contractually obliged to remain in the cast of a long-running melodrama called London Day by Day at the Adelphi Theatre, and so was unable to appear in his own first production as a manager. This turned out to be a stroke of good fortune, because the play he mounted as a fill-in until he was able to act in his own productions was a farce, Dr Bill, which was immensely successful, running for seven months and making Alexander financially secure. During the run his Aldephi contract expired and he joined the cast of Dr Bill. When it closed he appeared in the play with which he had planned to open, Alphonse Daudet's Struggle for Life. It was well reviewed but was a box-office failure, and he later commented that if he had been free to open in it at the start of his managerial career, that career would have been in jeopardy. As it was, he was able to carry on even when his manager absconded with the theatre's cash box.Mason, p. 210 At the end of his lease of the Avenue, Alexander obtained that of the St James's, to which he moved in November 1890, and remained there for the rest of his life.
Alexander had the theatre newly decorated and electric lighting installed. He opened with a double bill of comedies, Sunlight and Shadow and The Gay Lothario."George Alexander and the St. James's Theatre", The Era, 24 June 1899, p. 13 He followed this with The Idler, by Haddon Chambers, a serious drama. It had already been a success in America and ran at the St James's through most of the remainder of the season, which concluded with a costume drama, Moliere, by Walter Frith, in which The Era considered that "Mr Alexander was not only good, but at certain moments great".
When Alexander took over the St James's he had only eleven years' professional experience in the theatre, but Wearing and the chronicler of the theatre A. E. W. Mason both note that he had already reached a firm and enduring managerial policy.Mason, p. 2 He sought to engage the best actors for his company: unlike some star actor-managers he did not wish to be supported by actors whose inferior talent would make the star look better. He did not, in fact, wish to be seen as the star, and regarded himself as a team player. In addition to maintaining a London company, Alexander frequently assembled touring companies to play his successes in the provinces. Among those he engaged for his companies were Arthur Bourchier, Lilian Braithwaite, Constance Collier, Kate Cutler, Julia Neilson, Godfrey Tearle, Fred Terry and Marion Terry.Parker, pp. 97, 103, 187, 225, 887 and 898
Like W. S. Gilbert, the Kendals and Bernard Shaw, Alexander was in favour of the naturalistic style of writing and acting propounded by Robertson.Durbach, Errol. "Remembering Tom Robertson (1829-1871)", Educational Theatre Journal, October 1972), pp. 284–288 Other features of his management noted by Wearing were his continual support of British playwrights; his concern for his employees; and his care to avoid alienating his key clientele, the fashionable society audience. The writer Hesketh Pearson commented that Alexander catered to the tastes and foibles of London Society in its theatre-going just as the Savoy Hotel catered to them in restaurant-going.Pearson, p. 74
Within a year of taking over the St James's, Alexander began a mutually beneficial professional association with Oscar Wilde, whose Lady Windermere's Fan he presented in February 1892. As with many other of his playwrights, Alexander offered practical advice for making the play more stageable. His most important contribution to this play was to convince the reluctant Wilde that the most effective way of revealing the key plot point – that Mrs Erlynne is Lady Windermere's mother – would be to do so by degrees rather than in one melodramatic stroke in the final act.Raby, p. 144
Alexander's diplomatic skills enabled him to get on well with even the most temperamental authors and actors, but he was more comfortable with less volatile colleagues. One such was Pinero, whose play The Second Mrs Tanqueray Alexander presented in May 1893. Like Lady Windermere's Fan it featured "a woman with a past", but unlike Wilde's play it ended in tragedy. It was thought daring at the time, but Alexander knew his audiences and kept to what Pearson called his "safe path of correct riskiness". It ran for 227 performances in its first production and was later much revived.Mason, p. 63 The title role was first played by Mrs Patrick Campbell, who made her name in the part. His acting style contrasted sharply with hers: she was extrovert and bold, whereas Alexander was understated and subtle. A contemporary profile commented that his range did not extend to parts requiring great dramatic power or tragic passion: "He is graceful in all that he does, but with an everyday humanity, the graceful, charming, well-bred, nicely-toned humanity proper to the drawing-rooms of Culture".Bright, Addison. "George Alexander", The Theatre, May 1892, p. 240