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Speaking
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ALEXANDER WOOLLCOTT Alexander
Humphreys Woollcott (January
19, 1887 – January
23, 1943) was an American critic
and commentator for The
New Yorker magazine, and a member of the Algonquin
Round Table. He was the
inspiration for Sheridan Whiteside, the main character in the play The
Man Who Came to Dinner by George
S. Kaufman and Moss Hart,[1]
and for the far less likable character Waldo Lydecker in the classic film Laura.
He claimed to be the inspiration for Rex Stout's
brilliant detective Nero Wolfe, but Stout
discounted this. Woollcott's
review of the Marx Brothers' Broadway
debut, I'll Say She Is, helped
highlight the renaissance of the group's career and started a life-long
friendship with Harpo
Marx. Two of Harpo's adopted sons are named William (Bill) Woollcott
Marx and Alexander Marx after him.
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