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Alexander Woollcott | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Woollcott in 1939, photographed by Carl Van Vechten | |
| Born | January 19, 1887 Colts Neck Township, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | January 23, 1943 (aged 56) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Hamilton College, New York |
| Occupation | |
| Alma mater | Hamilton College |
| Relatives | William W. Woollcott (brother) |
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American drama critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio personality.
Woollcott was the inspiration for two fictional characters. The first was Sheridan Whiteside, the caustic but charming main character in the play The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939) by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart,[1] later made into a film in 1942. The second was the snobbish, vitriolic columnist Waldo Lydecker in the novel Laura, later made into a film in 1944. Woollcott was convinced he was the inspiration for his friend Rex Stout's brilliant, eccentric detective Nero Wolfe, an idea that Stout denied.[2]
- ^ Oscar Levant, The Unimportance of Being Oscar, Pocket Books 1969 (reprint of G.P. Putnam 1968), p. 81. ISBN 0-671-77104-3.
- ^ McAleer, John, Rex Stout: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977, ISBN 0-316-55340-9 page 247. "'In September 1935 Woollcott phoned Rex and invited him to dinner at the Lambs' Club. Until then the two men had never met. Woollcott wanted to meet Rex because he had just read The League of Frightened Men and was convinced the character of Wolfe was modeled on himself.' Woollcott refused to accept Stout's denials, and as their friendship grew he settled into the legend."