-
Alexander Bruce Bielaski
Alexander Bruce Bielaski (1883 - 1964)
FBI Director. He served as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from April 30, 1912 to February 10, 1919. After leaving the Bureau he went into law and later as a prohibition agent operating a decoy speakeasy in New York City. In 1929 he became President of the National Board of Fire […]
-
Alexander Buckley
Alexander Buckley (1891 - 1918)
Alexander Buckley was born on 22 July 1891 to James and Julia Buckley at Gulargambone, New South Wales, Australia. One of four children, he was home schooled on his parents’ property Homebush during his childhood. After completing his schooling, he worked on the family farm with his father. Buckley enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on […]
-
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)
Artist. A prolific sculptor, he is best known for inventing the kinetic sculptures called mobiles. The first American abstract sculptor to achieve international acclaim, he is considered one of the great pioneers of his time. Born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia) into a family of artists, both his father Alexander Stirling Calder and […]
-
Alexander Cameron Rutherford
Alexander Cameron Rutherford (1857 - 1941)
1st Premier of Alberta. A member of the Alberta Liberal Party, he served in this position from September 1905 until May 1910. Born in Osgoode Township, Ontario, Canada, his parents emigrated from Scotland and operated a dairy farm. Following his local education, he attended the Canadian Literary Institute in Woodstock, Ontario, graduating in 1876, and […]
-
Alexander Carr
Alexander Carr (1878 - 1946)
Circus, Vaudeville and Theatre Actor. He is best remembered for his role as ‘Perlmutter’ in a trio of “Potash and Perlmutter” films in the 1920s. Carr acted in 15 films and wrote the play “April Fool” in 1926. (bio by: TLS)
-
Alexander Chambers
Alexander Chambers (1832 - 1888)
Alexander Chambers (August 23, 1832 – January 2, 1888) was a US Army officer, who became a general during the American Civil War. Chambers was born in Cattaraugus, New York. He graduated from West Point with the class of 1853 (which also included John Schofield and Philip Sheridan), and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He […]
-
Alexander Courage
Alexander Courage (1919 - 2008)
Alexander Courage began as an orchestrator and arranger at MGM studios, which included work in such films as the 1951 Show Boat (“Life Upon the Wicked Stage” number), The Band Wagon (“I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan”), Gigi (the can-can for the entrance of patrons at Maxim’s), and the barn raising dance from […]
-
Alexander Dallas Bache
Alexander Dallas Bache (1806 - 1867)
Graduated West Point in 1825 at the top of his class. Professor of natural philosophy and chemistry University of Pennsylvania. Appointed Superintendent of the Coast Survey by Pres. Tyler in 1843, a position he held until 1861. Bache introduced many new and innovative ideas into the Coast Survey including the involvement of many of the […]
-
Alexander Drevin
Alexander Drevin (1889 - 1938)
Artist. A leading Russian avant-garde painter before and after the 1917 Revolution. His style has been characterized as “primitivist” in its rough handling of paint and emotional objectivity, especially in his portraits. He refused to compromise his art under Stalinism and died in the political purges of the late 1930s. Alexander Davidovich Drevin was born […]
-
Alexander Engel
Alexander Engel (1902 - 1968)
Actor. After his movie premiere in “Hasenklein kann nichts dafür” (1932) he appeared in over 70 movies including: “Das Kalte Herz” (The Cold Heart, 1950), “A Time to Love and a Time to Die” (1958), “Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse” (In the Steel Cabinet of Dr. Mabuse, 1961), “Der Henker von London” (The Mad Executioners, […]
-
Alexander Frank
Alexander Frank (1970 - 1939)
Actor. In films in the 1910s to 1920s, his work includes directing “A Suspicious Wife”(1914), writing the scenario for “The Trail of the Cigarette” (1920),and acting in “The Wall Street Mystery”(1920). On stage, some of the original productions he appeared in were “Richard Savage” (1901), “Man and His Angel” (1906), “I Pagliacci” (1908), “In the […]
-
Alexander Gardner
Alexander Gardner (1821 - 1882)
Civil War Photographer. He was born in Paisley, Scotland, and was reared in poverty, and left school at 14 to work as a jeweler’s apprentice. To further his education, he took evening classes at the Glasgow Athenaeum, studying astronomy, optics, physics and chemistry. At 21 he joined the Glasgow Sentinel as a reporter. By the […]
-
Alexander Godunov
Alexander Godunov (1949 - 1995)
Dancer, Actor. Born Aleksandr Borisovich Godunov, son of Boris Godunov and Lidia Nicholaevna Studentova on Sakhalin Island, USSR. He began studying dance at the age of nine at the Riga State Ballet School and at 17 he joined Igor Moiseyev’s Young Ballet. He joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1971 as its youngest principal dancer. He […]
-
Alexander Granach
Alexander Granach (1893 - 1945)
Actor. Born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ukraine, he established himself as a leading figure of the flourishing theater and film industry of the Weimar-era in post-war Germany. He appeared in over 50 films over the coarse of his career such as “Nosferatu” (1922), “The Last Fort” (1929), “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939), “Joan of […]
-
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (1812 - 1882)
Lawyer and jurist. Born in Philadelphia, he came to St. Louis in 1835 and began a career in law that lasted for nearly fifty years. Among his contemporaries in the legal field were Edward Bates, Hamilton Gamble and Henry Geyer. The latter two were participants in the Dred Scott trials.Hamilton was first appointed a judge […]
-
Alexander Hesler
Alexander Hesler (1823 - 1895)
Daguerreotypist/Photographer. Hesler’s family left Canada in 1835 and removed to Vermont where he attended school. By the time he turned twenty he moved to Racine, Wisconsin and began working in a hardware store. He realized that his main interest was in photography so he moved to Buffalo, New York where he received his training and […]
-
Alexander Jackson Davis
Alexander Jackson Davis (1803 - 1892)
Architect. Recognized as the premier architect of mid-19th Century America, Davis was instrumental in popularizing the Greek Revival style which characterized the nation’s public buildings and private houses from the Federal Period to the outbreak of the Civil War. His many works include the old New York Customs House, the state capitols of Illinois, Ohio, […]
-
Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr
Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr (1820 - 1892)
Alexander Cartwright led the establishment of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club (after the Knickerbocker Fire Engine Company) in 1842. The Knickerbockers played a brand of bat-and-ball game often called “town ball” or “round ball,” but in New York more usually “base ball,” somewhat similar to but not identical to the English sport of rounders, on […]
-
Alexander Keith
Alexander Keith (1795 - 1873)
He was the founder of Alexander Keith’s Brewery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was born at Halkirk, Caithness Highland, Scotland and at the age of 17, his father sent him to an uncle in northern England to learn the brewery business. Around 1817 he relocated to Halifax where he became the sole brewer and […]
-
Alexander Knox
Alexander Knox (1907 - 1995)
Knox was born in Strathroy, Ontario and graduated from the University of Western Ontario. He later moved to Boston, Massachusetts to perform on the 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 […]
-
Alexander Majors
Alexander Majors (1814 - 1900)
In 1848 Alexander Majors started hauling overland freight on the Santa Fe Trail. On his first trip, he set a new time record of 92 days for the 1564-mile (2500 km) round trip. Eventually he employed 4,000 men, including a 15-year-old lad named Billy Cody, later known as Buffalo Bill. Cody became one of his […]
-
Alexander Mendelssohn
Alexander Mendelssohn (1798 - 1871)
Financier. As head of the Berlin-based Mendelssohn & Co. from 1848 until his death, he built it into Germany’s most important private bank of the late 19th Century. The son of the firm’s founder, Joseph Mendelssohn, he was born in Berlin into a distinguished family. His grandfather was German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and his cousins […]
-
Alexander Milne Calder
Alexander Milne Calder (1846 - 1923)
Sculptor. The son of a stone-cutter, he studied carving at the Royal Institute of Arts in Edinburgh and also in Paris and in London, where he later worked on the carving of the Albert Memorial. In 1868 he went to Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins. In […]
-
Alexander Munn
Alexander Munn (1970 - 1812)
Noted Canadian Shipbuilder. A native of Irvine (Scotland), he sailed in May of 1793 to the city of Québec and eventually opened a shipyard at the Anse-des-Mères in the Cap-Blanc borough of this city. He became one of the biggest shipbuilders of the British Empire. His remains lie beside those of his wife, Agnes Galloway, […]
-
Alexander Oparin
Alexander Oparin (1894 - 1980)
Alexander Oparin outlined a way he thought that basic organic chemicals might have formed into microscopic localized systems, from which primitive living things could have developed. He cited work done by de Jong on coacervates and research by others, including himself, into organic chemicals which, in solution, might spontaneously form droplets and layers. Oparin suggested […]
-
Alexander Pantages
Alexander Pantages (1970 - 1936)
Theatrical Entrepreneur. He was born Pericles Pantages on the Greek island of Andros. He came to the United States in the late 1890s, living in San Francisco before moving to the Yukon Territory during the Klondike gold rush. While there, he operated a vaudeville and burlesque theatre. In 1902 he moved to Seattle, Washington where […]
-
Alexander Peter Stewart
Alexander Peter Stewart (1821 - 1908)
Civil War Confederate General. Called “Old Straight”, he was a redhead who lacked the fiery temperament popularly associated with that hue and was instead an effective, if quiet and unassuming, leader who served in all the campaigns of the Army of Tennessee, then went on to one of the more distinguished post-war careers. Raised in […]
-
Alexander Polk Donaghho
Alexander Polk Donaghho (1829 - 1970)
Alexander Polk Donaghho was a successful potter in Fredricktown, PA, for about 15 years, starting in 1855. By 1870, A.P. Donaghho moved to Parkersburg, WV, where he started the A.P. Donaghho Pottery Company. His company was on 14 acres near Bull Creek, which was known as “Pottery Junction” by the locals. Products produced by him […]
-
Alexander Pollock Moore
Alexander Pollock Moore (1867 - 1930)
Pittsburgh newspaper publisher who was married to actress Lillian Russell.
-
Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko
Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (1887 - 1964)
Artist. He was an innovator in translating the elements of cubist painting into a sculptural form. Family links: Spouse: Angelica Archipenko (1883 – 1957)* *Calculated relationship