I'm watching her on 'Dallas' as Clayton Farlow's sister. Why did she not have a bigger career in primetime soaps? She chews the scenery and is so charismatic.
Alexis Smith
by Anonymous | reply 122 | September 17, 2023 5:22 AM |
"Jessie" always seemed drunk, and was clearly in love with her brother. Smith was more Flamingo Road than Dallas.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 2, 2022 12:15 PM |
Alexis Smith - lavender marriage to fellow homosexual Craig Stevens that lasted nearly 50 years, until she died. Long-term lover of Rita Mae Brown.
I'm more interested in who her hubby was fucking. He was a hot daddy. Another matinee idol hunk from Henry Willson's stable.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 2, 2022 12:24 PM |
She sure was a beauty in her younger days.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 2, 2022 5:37 PM |
Tell us more! Dot. Know about these two
by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 2, 2022 5:59 PM |
Was she more of a Lucy or Jessie in her private life?
by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 2, 2022 6:41 PM |
FOLLIES!!!!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 2, 2022 6:44 PM |
R4 Here's some more information. It's interesting that there's virtually nothing known about Craig Stevens' dalliances. He must have been incredibly discreet.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | February 2, 2022 7:27 PM |
I always thought Sigourney Weaver had an Alexis Smith quality.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | February 2, 2022 7:32 PM |
R7 Steve probably only hired male hookers and never fucked around with any showbiz folk.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | February 2, 2022 7:42 PM |
Steve must have been super discreet, because I don't even think Scotty Bowers fucked around with him, and Scotty Bowers fucked around with EVERYBODY in Hollywood back then,
by Anonymous | reply 10 | February 2, 2022 7:43 PM |
One of my favorite episodes is when her character, the crazy and brother-obsessed Lady Jessica Farlow Montford, kidnapped her sister-in-law Miss Ellie and forced her into the trunk of her car. Then when she was holding Miss Ellie hostage in a motel room, she was surrounded with cops, and the chief of police had to address her over the bullhorn somewhat quaintly (given the situation) as "Lady Montford": "LADY MONTFORD, WE DON'T WANT TO START SHOOTING! PLEASE COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"
by Anonymous | reply 11 | February 2, 2022 7:49 PM |
R11, several years ago, I taught a class about TV genres and focused on 'soaps and serials.' When I talked about prime time soaps and Dallas, I randomly showed this episode because I remembered your long-ago post (I'm sure it was you) about the sheer campiness of that moment. And yes, 'LADY MONTFORD!' got a huge laugh because I'd mentioned reading someone's commentary on it online.
Campiest moment on Dallas and a real scream. Glad you're still around!
by Anonymous | reply 12 | February 2, 2022 8:05 PM |
Thanks, bitches. I have to seek out these episodes now.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | February 2, 2022 9:20 PM |
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is one of her only film roles. She should have gotten an Oscar nomination for it.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | February 2, 2022 9:32 PM |
So tall she had to wear flats in her Warner Bros heyday in the 1940s (like Ingrid Bergman).
by Anonymous | reply 15 | February 2, 2022 9:52 PM |
Spot on R1; Alexis and Jesse were more Flamingo Road; but boy did she have a devious run on Dallas. She shared a wicked moment or two with JR; NEITHER Of them wanted Miss Ellie and Clayton to wed.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | February 2, 2022 10:03 PM |
R14, she had over 50 film roles.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | February 3, 2022 1:08 AM |
Thanks for all the comments. I'm now watching the ep where JR checks himself in to the sanitarium to get Jessie (Alexis Smith) to sign a document worth $200 million worth of company shares to him. She's not chewing the scenery so much in the sanitarium, but they also make it clear that all the patients (including JR) are being heavily medicated. BTW, this is the very end of S13 of 'Dallas'.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | February 3, 2022 2:59 PM |
Alex Smith is on TCM right now in the 1952 noir "The Turning Point." She looks quite dykey in it.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | February 6, 2022 3:03 PM |
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in anything other than Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane. First saw that when I was a kid and she scared the hell out of me
by Anonymous | reply 22 | February 6, 2022 3:09 PM |
[quote]Long-term lover of Rita Mae Brown.
Nobody is long term anything with Rita Mae Brown.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | February 6, 2022 3:13 PM |
She was so great on DALLAS that it's a pity that he made her a raging psycho and had to write her off. She'd have made a superb long-term villainess.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | February 6, 2022 3:19 PM |
A picture of Alexis in should be included in this thread. There's a very gay one out there of Alexis and Lena Horne kissing Bobby Short, but I couldn't find it.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | February 6, 2022 3:20 PM |
She looked very chic in The Constant Nymph.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | February 6, 2022 4:58 PM |
She was utterly sublime in FOLLIES (saw her twice!) and hilarious in that otherwise banal revival of THE WOMEN, in which she played the same role as Roz Russell in the classic film but found her own unique and elegant route into Sylvia Fowler.
There's a sweet episode of the tv show THIS IS YOUR LIFE which featured Alexis and was shot when FOLLIES played L.A. One of her friends offering a tribute is FOLLIES costume designer and uber-dyke Florence Klotz. Look for it on youtube or perhaps someone clever here will link it.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | February 6, 2022 5:25 PM |
People like her always fascinate me. She was in the studio system for years and never did much of note and no one knew what to do with her. In middle age, when most actresses careers have all dried up, she hits the stage and finally shows everyone what she was capable of. How do studios miss this talent for years?
I remember seeing a clip of Bette Davis talking about seeing Alexis in Follies and having the same reaction. Where was all this talent for all these years?
by Anonymous | reply 28 | February 6, 2022 8:53 PM |
A frosty presence and was the theatre equivalent of a one hit wonder. Not that she didn't try over and over again but she never had another stage hit. Follies wasn't a BO hit so as much as people tried, she was not well known to the public.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 6, 2022 9:04 PM |
It is an interesting career arc. She didn't have many good roles in Hollywood, and maybe her acting talent deepened as she got older.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | February 6, 2022 9:44 PM |
Isn't she in the series Archive 81 on Netflix right now?
by Anonymous | reply 31 | February 6, 2022 10:40 PM |
Alexis Smith played a married (to Kirk Douglas) heiress who pays to have sex with Melina Mercouri (!) in Once is Not Enough, 1975. Yes, it's from the Jacqueline Susann novel. That's Alexis on the right:
by Anonymous | reply 32 | February 6, 2022 10:48 PM |
She's been dead for 30 years, R31.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | February 6, 2022 10:50 PM |
She was a fat bitch
she kept stealing cows off of the South 40
and barbequing them in the field
by Anonymous | reply 34 | February 6, 2022 10:53 PM |
The second Alexis Smith stepped on stage at the Winter Garden, her legacy was immortalized as Mrs. Benjamin Stone and I think audiences found it difficult to see her as anyone else thereafter. The Loveland red dress was seared into our national consciousness and there was no turning back.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | February 6, 2022 10:57 PM |
r35: Mary!
by Anonymous | reply 36 | February 6, 2022 10:59 PM |
R35 David Ehrenstein is back!
by Anonymous | reply 37 | February 6, 2022 10:59 PM |
If Alexis was indeed gay then appearing as a lesbian (including a sex scene with Melina Mercouri - I remember it well!) in Once Is Not Enough was quite daring in its time, no?
by Anonymous | reply 38 | February 6, 2022 10:59 PM |
[quote] People like her always fascinate me. She was in the studio system for years and never did much of note and no one knew what to do with her.
I think she was the one who said she only got roles at Warner Brothers after they had first been turned down by Bette Davis and then Ida Lupino, and by then anything good was pretty much taken.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | February 6, 2022 11:01 PM |
r12, that must have been me!
But even if it were not, it would delight me no end that someone besides the two of us (and now your students!) remembers how hilarious that moment was.
Bless you for finding it and showing it to your class!
by Anonymous | reply 40 | February 6, 2022 11:03 PM |
Yes, R38, but everyone knew it before because of the book. Who would see that shitty movie unless they read the book? Besides having a long marriage, people/press would never inquire about an older woman's sexuality then. In 1975, being in your mid-50s was ancient.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | February 6, 2022 11:10 PM |
[quote]She was in the studio system for years and never did much of note and no one knew what to do with her. In middle age, when most actresses careers have all dried up, she hits the stage and finally shows everyone what she was capable of. How do studios miss this talent for years?
I've often wondered that myself!
by Anonymous | reply 42 | February 6, 2022 11:39 PM |
The year's most stunning new personality...
by Anonymous | reply 43 | February 6, 2022 11:47 PM |
Alexis and Nanette Fabray were classmates at Hollywood High School.
They used to compete for roles in the school plays.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | February 7, 2022 12:59 AM |
Her last film role was in Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" in 1993.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | February 7, 2022 1:03 AM |
Here she is being interviewed about her role on "Dallas".
by Anonymous | reply 47 | February 7, 2022 1:08 AM |
There's an interesting FaceBook page devoted to FOLLIES and over time there have been many comments about how dowdy Alexis Smith looked at the beginning of rehearsals, with photos as proof (her personal wardrobe was not unlike Maude's). Apparently, at age 50 she had to be re-taught to dress and behave like the glamorous leading lady she was, or so say some of the FB members who were actors or staff on the original production.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | February 7, 2022 3:34 AM |
Alexis is wearing the same dress she wore in the PBS Musicals special.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | February 7, 2022 4:13 PM |
R51 - I'm astounded that Buster Crabbe ever did theater work!
by Anonymous | reply 52 | February 8, 2022 3:55 AM |
The one and only Lana Turner was offered a pivotal role in Once Is Not Enough. But when she discovered that it included a lesbian scene she confronted the producer and told him that under no circumstances would she be playing anything of a lesbian nature. She was probably shocked when she was let go from the movie - and Alexis Smith got the role. No lesbian scenes for Lana!!
by Anonymous | reply 53 | February 8, 2022 4:25 AM |
That is a very peculiar hairstyle.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | February 8, 2022 11:00 AM |
HBO Max just added "The Horn Blows at Midnight".
Surprised to see that Alexis received above the title billing with Jack Benny as early as 1945.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | February 8, 2022 11:04 AM |
Alexis Smith died of brain cancer in Los Angeles on June 9, 1993, the day after her 72nd birthday. She had no children; her sole survivor was her husband of 49 years, actor Craig Stevens. Smith's final film, The Age of Innocence (1993), was released shortly after her death. Her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | February 8, 2022 11:10 AM |
Rita Mae Brown's dedication to Alexis for her novel "Rubyfruit Jungle".
Dedicated to ALEXIS SMITH
Actress, Wit, Beauty, Cook, Kindheart, Irreverent Observer of Political Phenomena, Etc. If I were to list her outstanding qualities, you, dear reader, would be exhausted before you get to page one. So let me just say the abovementioned woman took the time to give me a playful push in the direction of my typewriter. Of course, after you read the book, you may wish that she had pushed me in front of something moving faster than a typewriter.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | February 8, 2022 11:20 AM |
R54 That took a helluva lotta curlers.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | February 8, 2022 11:50 AM |
I always confused her with the lady who fell down the elevator shaft on LA Law, Diana Maldaur
by Anonymous | reply 60 | February 8, 2022 12:10 PM |
Where 50-something Alexis even met late 20-something Rita Mae Brown is very confusing.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | February 8, 2022 2:12 PM |
R62, She's not an "actress".
by Anonymous | reply 63 | February 8, 2022 2:40 PM |
Where did I state she was, r63?
by Anonymous | reply 64 | February 8, 2022 2:50 PM |
Rita saw "Follies" in 1971 and said she "fell in love with Alexis" and wrote her a fan letter. Alexis replied to the letter and they met. Rita said she was "warm, wise, and direct. I have never felt such lust in my life as I felt for that gorgeous creature. She bore it with good humor. Wearisome as my crush must have been for her and her husband, Craig Stevens, she nudged me along. She never loved me but she saw a flash of talent. That was better than carnal love."
When Stevens died, he left most of his and Smith's estate to a charity that adapts public spaces to make them accessible for people with disabilities.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | February 8, 2022 7:41 PM |
^ I'm sure Alexis responded like that to every fan letter ;)
by Anonymous | reply 66 | February 8, 2022 7:48 PM |
All I got was a signed 8 X 10, r66.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | February 8, 2022 7:54 PM |
[quote]Besides having a long marriage, people/press would never inquire about an older woman's sexuality then. In 1975, being in your mid-50s was ancient.
Very true. In the 1970s people in their 50s looked like they were in their 70s. People in their 70s looked like they were 100. People looked and acted SO much older back then, it was a totally different time.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | February 8, 2022 9:59 PM |
Did Henry Willson represent any truly straight actors?
by Anonymous | reply 69 | February 8, 2022 10:22 PM |
R48, Some of the mosr devoted members of that site, who knew Alexis personally, admit that her marriage to Stevens was lavender.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | February 8, 2022 10:25 PM |
Hmmm.....I'm an avid follower of that Facebook FOLLIES page and I can't remember even one of Alexis' actual acquaintances commenting on the falsity of her marriage to Craig Stevens, r70. I think of it as a more "polite" space. But if someone did make such a claim on FB, I wonder if you couldn't tell us here who told on Alexis?
And don't worry....DL is an anonymous chat board, you're protected.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | February 8, 2022 11:34 PM |
R71, I believe it was the gentleman who moderates the FB site and knew Alexis personally who posted that the Stevens'marriage was "lavender".
I wasn't looking for it, it just appeared as a comment. To be fair, subsequent posters found it inappropriate.
Are you claiming their marriage wasn't? Seriously?
by Anonymous | reply 73 | February 9, 2022 1:41 AM |
That Alexis Smith's marriage was lavender is so old that it's was printed in several books published in the 1990s.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | February 9, 2022 1:45 AM |
I think the length of their marriage attests to it being a solid one...regardless of its color.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | February 9, 2022 2:46 AM |
The gent who runs the Follies FB site is Charlie Seidenberg who does theatrical PR. He never knew Alexis or Craig Stevens.
Really, has no one here ever known a childless decades-long, apparently happy couple who were both straight people? I mean maybe they were both gay....but where's the evidence after all these years?
by Anonymous | reply 77 | February 9, 2022 4:03 AM |
Alexis was a DYKE.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | February 9, 2022 4:10 AM |
R77, Why don't you go to the FB site and find the exchanges by scrolling, like I did? They're not very difficult to locate.
Several members participated in the discussion, including at least one who did, in fact, know Alexis personally.
The fact that Craig came from Henry Willson's stable gave rise to the speculation and it grew from there.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | February 9, 2022 4:58 AM |
R77, "evidence" tells me you're a troll.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | February 9, 2022 1:26 PM |
How does "evidence" make r77 a troll, r80?
by Anonymous | reply 81 | February 9, 2022 4:05 PM |
I saw this camp movie at the Castro theatre with hundreds of inebriated gays decades after its release. The lines coming from the audience were better than the script by far.
Alexis, I hope that paycheck was worth it
by Anonymous | reply 84 | February 11, 2022 6:51 PM |
R84, Brenda Vaccaro received an Oscar nomination.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | February 11, 2022 7:17 PM |
I saw her as Margo in a summer stock production of Applause. She was really good
by Anonymous | reply 86 | February 11, 2022 7:28 PM |
Actors would give their eye teeth to be cast in a Jackie Susann movie, r84. I saw it in the theater. I don't remember it even being bad enough to be good. It and The Love Machine never came close to attaining the cult status of Dolls.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | February 11, 2022 8:03 PM |
they probably wrote the role of Lady Jesse Monteford as short term before Smith was cast; ;but I agree; they should have kept her.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | February 12, 2022 5:42 AM |
I'd forgotten about this. I got it at the swap meet some time ago.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | February 13, 2022 4:34 AM |
Lady Jessica Montford!
by Anonymous | reply 91 | February 13, 2022 4:38 AM |
I'm surprised to learn she was an LA native. She seemed to me to have an East Coast countenance about her.
by Anonymous | reply 92 | February 13, 2022 8:25 AM |
R92, Actually, Alexis was born in Canada.
"Smith was born in Penticton, British Columbia, to Gladys Mabel Fitz-Simmons (a Canadian) and Alexander Smith (a Scot). Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was about a year old. Her parents both became naturalized U.S. citizens in 1939, through which she derived her United States citizenship.
Smith grew up in Los Angeles, attending Hollywood High School along with other future talents, including actress Nanette Fabray."
by Anonymous | reply 93 | February 13, 2022 11:05 AM |
FUN TRIVIA = Alexis Smith real life husband Craig Stevens was also on Dallas...He appeared in two episodes (one of which was the final episode Jock was in). Video = TV interview with some queen named Skippy Lowe. A lot of it was about Alexis.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | February 13, 2022 12:29 PM |
Alexis is gorgeous in the Bogart film Conflict (1945) where he has the hots for her but she is unaware.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | February 13, 2022 1:11 PM |
[quote]with some queen named Skippy Lowe
That's not *some* queen named Skippy Lowe, r94, that's *the* queen named Skippy Lowe!
by Anonymous | reply 96 | February 13, 2022 2:56 PM |
R96, the queen's name is Skip E. Lowe, or perhaps, was since she's long dead. As is well known, he was the basis of Jiminy Glick. Short originally named the character Skip E. High until Lowe threatened to sue so he retooled him. He did a public access show in LA that's now being seen on YT where he got these ridiculous famous has been stars to appear.
I once saw Smith in an old war movie called "The Doughgirls" with Eve Arden playing a Russian soldier. She was attractive but essentially window dressing.
by Anonymous | reply 97 | February 13, 2022 3:35 PM |
Errol Flynn served as best man at Alexis and Craig's wedding.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | February 13, 2022 3:37 PM |
She gets nuked, literally, in SPLIT SECOND (53). Which is just desserts, because she plays a total bitch. Who wears a big mink coat.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | February 13, 2022 6:50 PM |
She's so likeable in that Dick Cavett interview. Certainly not the stereotype of a lesbian. But then, as Katharine Hepburn said in her Cavett interview, an actor's job is to charm.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | August 8, 2023 8:31 PM |
Earlier in her career at Warners, she was basically window dressing, but In some of her later films during the 50s, like Here Comes the Groom and This Happy Feeling, she got to show of her great comic timing.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | August 8, 2023 10:32 PM |
she is good in a dramatic role in The Sleeping Tiger though having the hots for a gay Dirk Bogarde.
by Anonymous | reply 103 | August 8, 2023 10:35 PM |
The scene on Dallas where JR and Lady Jessica are walking the grounds of Southfork, and are in unison against Clayton and Miss Ellie's marriage, is hilarious. I loved that she used the telephone to knock out Donna, after dicing up onions for Miss Ellie's chili.
by Anonymous | reply 104 | August 8, 2023 11:08 PM |
We all know Darwin Porter is a questionable source but he has a funny quote from Paul Newman about Alexis who had a love scene together in The Young Philadelphians. Paul said Alexis was about as interested in me as Eleanor Roosevelt was interested in Jerry Lewis.
by Anonymous | reply 105 | August 11, 2023 5:29 PM |
She has a few great scenes with Jodie Foster in The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane. She plays the nosy bigoted landlady. Her character drives an old Bentley and gets brained by a trap door. The door was build specially for that scene.
by Anonymous | reply 106 | August 12, 2023 6:08 PM |
I refuse to believe Alexis and Craig were gay. Not that there'd be anything wrong with it, but there's absolutely no evidence of it for either of them at all. People refuse to believe couples can be married for 40+ years and never have children.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | August 12, 2023 7:45 PM |
That weird hairdo didn’t require any curlers, just a lot of bobby pins.
by Anonymous | reply 109 | September 16, 2023 8:28 AM |
Looks good for a man in his 60s.
by Anonymous | reply 110 | September 16, 2023 8:36 AM |
[quote]I refuse to believe Alexis and Craig were gay. Not that there'd be anything wrong with it, but there's absolutely no evidence of it for either of them at all. People refuse to believe couples can be married for 40+ years and never have children.
Could this post be any frau-ier? It even includes the obligatory citing of a lack of "evidence."
by Anonymous | reply 111 | September 16, 2023 8:45 AM |
Speaking of lavender marriages, Alexis Smith plays Linda Porter, the wife of Cole Porter, played by Cary Grant, in the laughably fictionalized Porter biography "Night and Day" (1946).
by Anonymous | reply 112 | September 16, 2023 8:48 AM |
Alexis had a long friendship with Claire Trevor though Claire was married 3 times.
by Anonymous | reply 113 | September 16, 2023 8:50 AM |
She had a lot of success on stage for someone who came to it so late.
Besides Follies, she played Miss Mona in the national tour of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which was an 18-month gig with seven sold-out months in L.A. (I'd love to see her version of "Bus From Amarillo" if it's out there.) Platinum flopped, but she got a Tony nomination, and there was Applause and other assorted regional productions.
Her singing got better and better. In this 1990 performance of her big Follies song, she sounds better than she did 20 years earlier.
by Anonymous | reply 114 | September 16, 2023 8:52 AM |
Her cancer was not announced till 1993 which is the year she died but if you look at her in 1990 like with her Dallas return you can see how she lost a lot of weight.
by Anonymous | reply 115 | September 16, 2023 8:58 AM |
[quote[The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is one of her only film roles.
Do you have any other interesting facts about her that you just made up and that are complete horseshit?
by Anonymous | reply 116 | September 16, 2023 9:31 AM |
Speaking of horses, she fell from one making The Young Philadelphians.
by Anonymous | reply 117 | September 16, 2023 9:38 AM |
^ Great thanks. Have been wanting to see this.
by Anonymous | reply 119 | September 16, 2023 1:56 PM |
R119, FOLLIES was the first production to play at the brand new Shubert Theatre in 1972.
It was demolished in 2002 and replaced by an office building.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | September 16, 2023 2:06 PM |
[quote]FOLLIES was the first production to play at the brand new Shubert Theatre in 1972. It was demolished in 2002 and replaced by an office building.
Fine old theater, the Shubert. Full of tradition. Oh, wait . . .
by Anonymous | reply 121 | September 16, 2023 7:50 PM |
That Ralph Edwards was sneaky teasing all the others in the Follies cast to think he was there for them. I like Alexis' immediate reply. He tells her This Is Your Life and she says, Why??
by Anonymous | reply 122 | September 17, 2023 5:22 AM |