RICHARD ALEXANDER
November 19th, 1902 -- August 9th, 1989

Above: A publicity portrait of Richard Alexander, a giant among henchmen in a double sense.

Many of the great serial henchmen were on the huge side, among them the sinister Dick Curtis and the more good-humored Glenn Strange. But probably the largest and most hulking of them all was Richard "Dick" Alexander, who began playing cliffhanger heavies in the 1930's. Despite his size, he was not unwieldy or slow in the least, as the heroes he clashed with discovered, and his physical powers were often complemented by a generous measure of mental cunning. The talented Alexander, though he played some of the most memorable serial henchmen of the thirties, is probably best known as Prince Barin in the Flash Gordon serials; in either the good guy or bad guy mold he was thoroughly convincing.

Richard Alexander was born in Dallas, Texas; his background later lent credibility to the many Western heavies he played. He arrived in Hollywood in the mid-twenties, and his first role seems to have been as an extra in 1926's OLD IRONSIDES. He made the transition to sound with ease, and played important roles in some of the most famous early sound films, including ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and LAW AND ORDER. For the most part, however, he was relegated to smaller, often uncredited, roles, and his first serial, Mascot's LAW OF THE WILD in 1935, gave him only a modest role--though his character the one who set the plot in motion. Dick was Lou Salters, a treacherous ranch hand who worked for hero Bob Custer, and who conceived the idea of stealing Custer's prize horse Rex and training it for racing. Alexander won a race with the stolen horse, but was murdered by his partner Edmund Cobb when the two thieves quarreled over their loot. Custer was blamed for Alexander's death, and the rest of the serial dealt with his attempt to clear himself and save Rex from the clutches of racetrack tout Richard Cramer. Dick was out of the serial pretty quick, but his skullduggery had been essential in getting things rolling.

Above: Bob Custer (left) tussles with Richard Alexander in LAW OF THE WILD (Mascot, 1934).

Alexander returned for two more Mascots in 1935: THE MIRACLE RIDER and THE FIGHTING MARINES. In the former he was a nasty buffalo hunter who figured in the first chapter's historical prologue, but in the latter (Mascot's last serial before merging with Monogram to form Republic) he had a bigger role as Ivan, one of the piratical henchmen of the mysterious Tiger Shark. Alexander, Stanley Blystone, Frank Glendon, and many other Mascot regulars carried out the Shark's orders from a secret island base, but the villains' setup was threatened when a young Marine (George J. Lewis) discovered their hideout. Lewis was held prisoner by Alexander and the others till fellow Marines Grant Withers and Adrian Morris rescued him. The Tiger Shark, desperate to keep his hideout a secret, murdered Lewis, but this only made Withers and Morris more determined to track down the villain. Alexander played a prominent part in the action on the Tiger Shark's island until he began to mouth rebellious sentiments against his boss; he attempted to win the other henchmen over to his side but was punished for his temerity when the Tiger Shark killed him in Chapter Nine. Unfortunately, the Tiger Shark killed him by strangling him; to believe that Alexander could be throttled by a villain half his size was really too impossible, even for serial audiences.

Above: Richard Alexander (far left) leads a party of henchmen in the photo inset on this lobby card for THE FIGHTING MARINES (Mascot, 1935). The other bad guys are, from left to right, Jim Corey, Warner Richmond, Donald Reed, and Max Wagner.

Some casting director at Universal then had an unusual but inspired idea, and cast the hitherto villainous Dick in the heroic part of Prince Barin in FLASH GORDON (Universal, 1936). Barin was the rightful ruler of the planet Mongo, but his father had been killed and his throne usurped by Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton), an evil tyrant bent on conquering the Earth. Earthmen Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) and Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon) arrived to combat Ming, and Barin aided them in their struggle, as did Thun, ruler of the Lion Men (James Pierce). In the end, the allies dethroned Ming; Flash, Zarkov, and heroine Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) returned to earth; and Barin won his throne and the hand of Ming's daughter Aura (Priscilla Lawson). FLASH GORDON was a mega-hit, the most popular serial ever released; its fantasy blew people away, and, while many critics thought the whole idea too wild, Alexander took his role completely seriously, making several helpful suggestions as to Barin's characterization and costume. His enormous size and stern bearing, used to sinister effect in his villainous parts, helped him to make Barin seem “every inch a king” (or prince).

Above: Buster Crabbe (seated), Richard Alexander, and Priscilla Lawson in FLASH GORDON (Universal, 1936).

From FLASH GORDON, one of the most popular serials of all time, Alexander went to one of the least popular (at least today) serials of all time. THE CLUTCHING HAND (Stage and Screen, 1936) featured Dick in a relatively small but noticeable role: Olaf, the tough first mate on a shady vessel that was involved in the machinations of the serial's villain, the Clutching Hand. While CLUTCHING HAND has few fans, there are some that enjoy it, but a larger majority seems to have had their minds boggled by its incredibly complicated plot.

Richard then headed to Republic Pictures for his two greatest henchmen roles. Republic was anxious to hire Alexander in order to capitalize on the success of FLASH GORDON, and once they signed him on, they gave him parts fully worthy of his talent. The first of these was SOS COAST GUARD in 1937, a sea/spy/detective cliffhanger directed by the relative newcomer William Witney. Witney, of course, would go on to become one of the two greatest serial directors of all time (the other being his frequent collaborator, John English), and even as early as COAST GUARD he was showing his talent. Ralph Byrd starred in the serial as Lt. Terry Kent, a Coast Guard officer who got involved in a complex case when mad inventor Boroff (Bela Lugosi), murdered his brother Jim Kent (Thomas Carr). Terry soon found himself trying to stop Boroff from developing a deadly disintegrating gas, and was frequently forced to tangle with Boroff's henchmen, chief among them Richard Alexander as "Thorg." With two strong personalities like Byrd and Lugosi in the key roles, one would have expected the supporting actors to be relegated to the background, but such was not the case with Alexander. Despite the fact that his character was a mute, Alexander imbued him with such menace and presence that he fully held his own with the two stars. A giant whose mind had been mutilated by Boroff's experiments, Thorg did all the hard work for the scientist's organization, including a considerable amount of underwater diving and salvaging; he seemed as graceful and at home in the water as a seal. Alexander even managed to let us feel a little sympathy for Thorg in the last chapter, when Lugosi mercilessly shot him down for allowing the captive Byrd to escape. Thorg tumbled into the water and presumably died, but in the finale, as Boroff was escaping in a speedboat, Alexander climbed out of the sea and demolished himself and the evil inventor with one of the disintegration-gas bombs. The character of Thorg was one of the most memorable and unique of serial henchmen, and Alexander did a great job in bringing him to life.

Above: Richard Alexander, as the massive Thorg in SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937), battles Coast Guard hero Ralph Byrd.

The second of Alexander's Republic henchmen was not as unusual as Thorg, but the part was still an out-of-the-ordinary one. ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1937), marked the first teaming of the above-mentioned great directors, Witney and English, and it starred John Carroll as James Vega, 1930s descendant of the original Zorro. Like his great ancestor, Vega played the part of a fop and wastrel when not disguised as Zorro, and thus threw both villains and good guys off the track when they tried to guess his true identity. Zorro's chief crusade in the serial was to protect the Mexican-American railway line owned jointly by Phillip and Joyce Andrews (Reed Howes and Helen Christian) and his uncle Manuel Vega (Nigel DeBruhlier) from the outlaw henchmen of rival tycoon J. A. Marsden (Noah Beery Sr.). The leader of these ruthless henchmen was Brad Dace, a vicious character who went under the alias of El Lobo. Richard, of course, was cast in this plum part, and became to all intents and purposes the main villain, as Beery never left his office in the course of the cliffhanger's twelve chapters. It was Alexander who led all the offensives against Zorro and the railroad at Beery's orders, and it was Alexander who devised on his own many of the vicious moves against the good guys. The role called for a henchman who looked like he could handle rough work and yet think for himself, and Dick filled the requirements perfectly. It was also Alexander, and not Beery, who confronted Carroll in the last chapter. "The Fox", wounded in the shoulder and without his gun, was about to be shot down by "The Wolf" when Zorro's horse El Rey entered the struggle and promptly stomped Alexander to paste. It was a fittingly grisly end for the murderous evildoer Dick had so skillfully portrayed.

Above, from left to right: An unidentified henchman, Richard Alexander, and Jerry Frank in ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1937).

Above: Richard Alexander, wearing Zorro's costume in order to blacken the name of the masked avenger, brutally strikes down Senor Lerda (Hector Sarno) in ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1937).

Richard's final major serial role was a reprisal of his Prince Barin character in FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (Universal, 1938). Ming (Charles Middleton) had not been killed at the end of the first Gordon serial as everyone had thought, and he had gone to Mars to make an alliance with Martian Queen Azura (Beatrice Roberts) in another attempt to conquer the Earth. Flash, Dale, and Zarkov (Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, and Frank Shannon, also reprising their characters from the first serial) blasted into action against Ming once more, aided by Alexander's Barin, who entered the serial about halfway through, and, after failing to convince the Martians not to link their lot with Ming, joined Flash's party in their war against Ming and Azura. Although Alexander came in at the seven-chapter mark in TRIP TO MARS, once arrived he made a great contribution to the plot, once again assuming a proper kingly bearing and proving of valuable help to Flash in the action scenes, chucking around Azura’s henchmen or savage Martian Forest People with equal ease. TRIP TO MARS was followed by a third Flash serial, FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE in 1940, but Alexander did not play Barin in that one; the role went to the slender, handsome Roland Drew, who was more in keeping with the visual appearance of the comic-strip Barin. Despite this switch, most serial fans tend to remember Dick as the "real" Prince Barin when they discuss the Flash Gordon trilogy.

Above, from left to right: Buster Crabbe, Richard Alexander (both standing), Frank Shannon, and Donald Kerr (both seated) pilot a rocketship into the thick of danger in FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (Universal, 1938).

For some inexplicable reason, Richard, after playing major roles in four hit serials in a row, was mainly relegated to minor cliffhanger parts; possibly this was because he began stepping up his B-western output around this time. He played a bartender in FLAMING FRONTIERS (Universal, 1938) and only got two or three lines in the course of the serial. His part of a thug named Sam Blaine in FLYING G-MEN (Columbia, 1939), was also an inconsequential bit. He did a little better in his next cliffhanger, RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY (Universal, 1941), a classic all-star serial that teamed Dick with fellow greats Roy Barcroft, Jack Rockwell, Ethan Laidlaw, and Lon Chaney Jr. This terrific gang served outlaw Charles Bickford and repeatedly took on the "Riders" of the title, a group of great good guys headed by Dick Foran and including Buck Jones, Noah Beery Jr. Big Boy Williams, Leo Carillo, and Glenn Strange. Alexander was also a member of the henchman "pack" in SEA RAIDERS (Universal, 1941).

THE IRON CLAW (Columbia, 1941), featured Alexander in a single-chapter semi-reprise of his Thorg characterization, playing a gigantic mute henchman of the titular mystery villain. IRON CLAW’s director, James W. Horne, liked to fill his serials with comedic touches, and used Alexander’s size to humorous effect in a fight sequence where the hulking Dick beat up on hero Charles Quigley, sidekick Walter Sande, and police detective James Morton, remaining impervious to their blows until they finally ganged up on him and forced him to the ground. Alexander was then shot when about to write down the true identity of his mysterious boss.

RAIDERS OF GHOST CITY (Universal, 1944), cast Alexander as a member of the title outlaw band, and THE MASTER KEY (Universal, 1945), gave him the small but appropriate role of a nightclub bouncer. Richard's last serials in the forties were THE ROYAL MOUNTED RIDES AGAIN (Universal, 1945), in which he played a minor henchman named Blackie LaRock and was killed in the first chapter by fellow henchman Joe Haworth after being arrested, and JESSE JAMES RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1947). His part in JESSE JAMES was another first-chapter role, a blacksmith named Clem, who helped Jesse (Clayton Moore) identify villain Roy Barcroft's horse as one belonging to the leader of the evil Black Raiders.

Above: Richard Alexander (far left) watches as Clayton Moore (center) beats Roy Barcroft to the draw in JESSE JAMES RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1947).

Dick continued his film work into the 1950s, playing smaller roles after he joined the executive board of the Screen Actors Guild as the representative of movie extras. He appeared by "remote control" in TRADER TOM OF THE CHINA SEAS (Republic, 1954); his footage from SOS COAST GUARD was resurrected and his character was renamed "Gorth", a scrambling of "Thorg." The old footage was cleverly blended with the new, and only someone who had seen COAST GUARD would have known that "Gorth," a mindless henchman who "swam like a seal" (in the words of villain Lyle Talbot) wasn't really there at all! Richard was paid for the reused footage, and, while on the Republic lot to collect his check, made his last serial appearance in Republic's last serial, KING OF THE CARNIVAL (Republic, 1955). It was actually a series of appearances; Alexander, as a circus roustabout, was given no lines, but his job was to drift in and out of scenes periodically and make it seem like he was spying on hero Harry Lauter; in effect, he was one of the suspects for the mystery villain--though not the guilty one.

Above: A roustabout, Fran Bennett, a clown, Harry Lauter, another roustabout, and Richard Alexander (still standing head and shoulders above his co-stars!) stand over the body of Robert Shayne, unmasked as the mystery villain in KING OF THE CARNIVAL (Republic, 1955).

Alexander finally wrapped up his lengthy career in the mid-sixties, his last movies being the Alex Gordon nostalgia piece REQUIEM FOR A GUNFIGHTER and the Blake Edwards slapstick comedy THE GREAT RACE. Towards the end of his long retirement, he entered the Motion Picture Home at Woodland Hills following a severe stroke, and passed away there in 1989.

In a film career that lasted nearly forty years, Richard Alexander was not always prominent, but he was always noticeable if he could help it. And the heyday of that fabulous career was definitely in the thirties, when Dick--as Thorg, Prince Barin, and El Lobo--was both prominent and noticeable. He was one of the great serial henchmen, but he was also more than just a henchman--he was a first class character actor who could fill out and make believable any part he cared to tackle.

Above: Dick lights a cigarette in a moment of well-earned rest from active villainy in ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1937).