Alexis Smith

"Jessie" always seemed drunk, and was clearly in love with her brother. Smith was more Flamingo Road than Dallas.

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.

She sure was a beauty in her younger days.

Tell us more! Dot. Know about these two

Was she more of a Lucy or Jessie in her private life?

FOLLIES!!!!!!!

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.

I always thought Sigourney Weaver had an Alexis Smith quality.

R7 Steve probably only hired male hookers and never fucked around with any showbiz folk.

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,

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!"

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!

Thanks, bitches. I have to seek out these episodes now.

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is one of her only film roles. She should have gotten an Oscar nomination for it.

So tall she had to wear flats in her Warner Bros heyday in the 1940s (like Ingrid Bergman).

Let's have a photo of her!

In later years with hubby Craig Stevens.

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.

R14, she had over 50 film roles.

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'.

Alex Smith is on TCM right now in the 1952 noir "The Turning Point." She looks quite dykey in it.

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

[quote]Long-term lover of Rita Mae Brown.

Nobody is long term anything with Rita Mae Brown.

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.

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.

She looked very chic in The Constant Nymph.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Isn't she in the series Archive 81 on Netflix right now?

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:

She's been dead for 30 years, R31.

She was a fat bitch

she kept stealing cows off of the South 40

and barbequing them in the field

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.

r35: Mary!

R35 David Ehrenstein is back!

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?

[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.

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!

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.

[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!

The year's most stunning new personality...

She's fine, she sends her...regards!

Alexis and Nanette Fabray were classmates at Hollywood High School.

They used to compete for roles in the school plays.

Her last film role was in Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" in 1993.

Here she is being interviewed about her role on "Dallas".

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.

*2* Phyllises *2*

Alexis is wearing the same dress she wore in the PBS Musicals special.

Cover girl...

R51 - I'm astounded that Buster Crabbe ever did theater work!

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!!

Nice bangles...

That is a very peculiar hairstyle.

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.

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.

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.

R54 That took a helluva lotta curlers.

I always confused her with the lady who fell down the elevator shaft on LA Law, Diana Maldaur

Where 50-something Alexis even met late 20-something Rita Mae Brown is very confusing.

Not to be mistaken with...

R62, She's not an "actress".

Where did I state she was, r63?

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.

^ I'm sure Alexis responded like that to every fan letter ;)

All I got was a signed 8 X 10, r66.

[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.

Did Henry Willson represent any truly straight actors?

R48, Some of the mosr devoted members of that site, who knew Alexis personally, admit that her marriage to Stevens was lavender.

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.

Kenn Duncan photo

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?

That Alexis Smith's marriage was lavender is so old that it's was printed in several books published in the 1990s.

I think the length of their marriage attests to it being a solid one...regardless of its color.

I Shot a Prowler

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?

Alexis was a DYKE.

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.

R77, "evidence" tells me you're a troll.

How does "evidence" make r77 a troll, r80?

Love Craig's pinstripes...

On Dick Cavett...

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

R84, Brenda Vaccaro received an Oscar nomination.

I saw her as Margo in a summer stock production of Applause. She was really good

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.

Phyllis is DEAD to me...

they probably wrote the role of Lady Jesse Monteford as short term before Smith was cast; ;but I agree; they should have kept her.

I'd forgotten about this. I got it at the swap meet some time ago.

Lady Jessica Montford!

I'm surprised to learn she was an LA native. She seemed to me to have an East Coast countenance about her.

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."

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.

Alexis is gorgeous in the Bogart film Conflict (1945) where he has the hots for her but she is unaware.

[quote]with some queen named Skippy Lowe

That's not *some* queen named Skippy Lowe, r94, that's *the* queen named Skippy Lowe!

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.

Errol Flynn served as best man at Alexis and Craig's wedding.

The Doughgirls...

She gets nuked, literally, in SPLIT SECOND (53). Which is just desserts, because she plays a total bitch. Who wears a big mink coat.

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.

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.

she is good in a dramatic role in The Sleeping Tiger though having the hots for a gay Dirk Bogarde.

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.

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.

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.

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.

R96 - Skip E. Lowe has great hair.

That weird hairdo didn’t require any curlers, just a lot of bobby pins.

Looks good for a man in his 60s.

[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."

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).

Alexis had a long friendship with Claire Trevor though Claire was married 3 times.

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.

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.

[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?

Speaking of horses, she fell from one making The Young Philadelphians.

“This is Your Life”(1972).

^ Great thanks. Have been wanting to see this.

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.

[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 . . .

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??