ALEXANDER KIRKLAND 1930s Max Munn Autrey 10x8 PORTRAIT Fox

Original Fox 10 inch x 8 inch Black and White Portrait of ALEXANDER KIRKLAND.
Born in 1901 Alexander Kirkland was a theatrical and motion picture actor. He became smitten with theatre as an undergraduate at Princeton. Upon graduation he appeared filling minor roles in "He Who Gets Slapped," and "R.U.R." In the mid-1920s he worked in Detroit playing in and co-managing the Garrick Theatre there.
The great stroke of his early career was founding the Berkshire playhouse at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1928 for the performance of artistic plays during the summer.
In the early 1930s he appeared in a range of films including Tarnished Lady (1931) and Strange Interlude (1932), while producing and acting in Berkshire in the summer. In autumn 1933 he turned again to theatrical work, associating with Lee Strasburg and the Group Theatre in their hit play, "Men in White." He would act in most of the important Group Theatre productions of the mid-1930s. Yet his most important performance in the 1930s may have been in Otto Preminger's revival of "Outward Bound" in 1938, an experiment in unconventional dramaturgy.
In the 1950s he played in television's early drama omnibus programs, and had a final movie role in 1956's A Face in the Crowd
He was married twice, including a stint with Gypsy Rose Lee, but these can be described as exercises in socially acceptable heteronormativity. The truth of his sexual orientation is better revealed in Forman Brown's 1933 gay romance, Better Angel.

Portrait by Max Munn Autrey (1891 - 1971). Autrey born in Dallas, Texas. He was a still photographer on four films including "Modern Times" with Charlie Chaplin. He was mainly a portrait photographer for the Witzel Photography Studio in Downtown Los Angeles between the 1920s and 50s, noted for the glamour styles of the subjects and clientele which graced his work, especially those identified in the realm of motion pictures.

The portrait, on doubleweight paper, is in very good condition with very minor surface marks.