Woollcott, Alexander, 1887-1943

Woollcott, American critic, member of the Algonquin Round Table, and the inspiration for the character of Sheridan Whiteside in the play The Man Who Came to Dinner by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

American drama critic, journalist, playwright, essayist, and actor.

Epithet: critic

Alexander Humphreys Woollcott became famous in American literary and drama circles as an author, critic, and actor. Woollcott worked for several influential New York magazines and newspapers as well as radio. Woollcott wrote several novels and portrayed himself in Kaufman and Hart's "The Man Who Came to Dinner" (1940), a play based on Woollcott himself.

Alexander Woolcott (1887-1943), the famous theater critic and star of national radio in the early 20th century, became even more noted after a play was written specifically for and about him by his good friends, Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. In "The Man Who Came to Dinner", Sheridan Whiteside, a radio star and writer, insults people and meddles in their love lives. Monty Woolley, a former Yale drama Professor, play Whiteside on Braodway and in the movie version (with Bette Davis). Clifton Webb and Alexander Woollcott played the touring companies. More recently Nathan Lane played the role of Sheridan Whiteside on Broadway. With the help of a family friend, Woollcott attended Hamilton College in upstate New York and graduated in 1909. Woollcott got a job as a reporter for The New York Times covering the sinking of the Titanic. He then got he post he truly coveted: drama critic. He remained with the Times until 1922 when he moved to The New York World and continued as art critic until 1928. It was as a critic that Woollcott drew the public's attention. Anyone who described a play as leaving "a taste of lukewarm parsnip juice," or an actor as "scruplously artificial and ever glacial" would attract notice-as Woollcott did. He became a founding memeber of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of individuals who met regularly for lunch at the Hotel Algonquin in Manhattan. They included Irving Berlin, Harpo Marx, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber.

Author, actor, drama critic, and commentator.

New York dramatic and literary critic.

American journalist and writer.

Journalist and author.

American author, drama critic and radio commentator.

Woollcott was an American author, theatrical actor, drama critic for The New York Times, and a radio commentator, known as "The Town Crier."