--- name: "Alexander Knox" canonical: "https://film.one/person/alexander-knox" roles: ["Actor"] born: "16 January 1907" died: "25 April 1995" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 72 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-20T03:54:34.982903+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Alexander Knox Actor. Born 16 January 1907 in Strathroy, Ontario, Canada. Died 25 April 1995. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 16 January 1907, Strathroy, Ontario, Canada - **Died:** 25 April 1995 - **Active:** 1944–1979 - **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 3 acting, 1 other - **Golden Globes:** 1 Golden Globe (1 won) - **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1940s 61 (1), 1960s 65 (2), 1970s 88 (1) - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 1 of 1 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Action 1, Mystery 1, War 1, War & Politics 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $52m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Knox, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q545858, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0461594/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/40529 ## Fi1m on Alexander Knox > Alexander Knox spent his career as the reasonable man at the table: the president, the priest, the spymaster who has read the file. He was precise, dry and easy to believe, and he deserved more films that let him be wrong. Alexander Knox at a desk. Alexander Knox at a lectern. Alexander Knox at the back of a train, telling a crowd something it does not want to hear in a voice that never rises. That is a good deal of *Wilson* (1944), and it is a fair picture of what he did for the rest of his career: the reasonable man at the table, the one who has read the papers and is waiting for everybody else to catch up. He had a clear, level voice made for speeches and a face that looked as though it had already thought the matter through. Directors cast him as presidents, priests and men of principle for decades. He came to it from the stage, in Boston from 1929 and then in England in the 1930s, where he worked with the Old Vic and turned up in early films, *The Four Feathers* (1939) among them. The war sent him back across the Atlantic. His Hollywood debut was *The Sea Wolf* (1941), opposite Edward G. Robinson, and three years later Darryl F. Zanuck put him at the centre of *Wilson*, 154 minutes of Technicolor and brass bands. It made his name and fixed his type. He settled in Britain for good and worked there as a character actor into the mid-1980s: Father Godwin in *The Vikings* (1958), two films for Joseph Losey including *The Damned* (1963), and Control in the BBC's *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* (1979). *Wilson* is the performance we have written up, and we liked him a good deal more than the film. Henry King, directing Lamar Trotti's script, has decided before the first scene that the president was never wrong, which leaves Knox with a man to play and no faults to play him with. So he keeps everything small: a raised eyebrow at a party boss, a hand on Ellen's arm, a schoolmaster's patience with a room that has not done the reading. During the League speeches we found ourselves watching his hands, because the speeches went on and the hands were doing the acting. We were bored by the second half and then annoyed at being bored, and none of the annoyance was his. The real Wilson was stubborn to the point of ruin. Knox could plainly have played that man. Nobody asked him to. That is the shape of the career. Sincerity and reserve got him the lead in a monument, and then got him cast as the same fellow, in smaller rooms, for the next forty years. We have not reviewed the later parts, so we will only say that a le Carré spymaster and a Joseph Losey picture are where a man with that voice belongs, and that he got there late. Start with *Wilson*, and watch him rather than the parade. Then look for him at the edges of British films and television, usually behind a desk, usually the only person in the scene who has read the file. ## Biography Alexander Knox (1907–1995) was a Canadian actor and writer. Born in Strathroy, Ontario, he graduated from the University of Western Ontario and began his stage career in Boston before joining the Old Vic company in England. He later worked in Hollywood and, following difficulties during the McCarthy era, spent much of his later career in Britain. He is best known for playing Woodrow Wilson in the 1944 biopic *Wilson*, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Other notable film and television roles include *The Sea Wolf* (1941), *The Vikings* (1958), *The Longest Day* (1962), *Khartoum* (1966), *Accident* (1967), *You Only Live Twice* (1967) and *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* (1979). Knox also wrote plays and adventure novels. He was married to actress Doris Nolan from 1944 until his death. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nytimes.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) ### Performed in (3) — the average rests on these - *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* (1979), Fi1m 88, as Control — [page](https://film.one/tv/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-1979.md) - *The Longest Day* (1962), Fi1m 68, as Maj. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith — [page](https://film.one/film/the-longest-day.md) - *Wilson* (1944), Fi1m 61, as Woodrow Wilson — [page](https://film.one/film/wilson.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *You Only Live Twice* (1967), Fi1m 62, as Secretary of Defense (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/you-only-live-twice.md) ## Complete filmography (82) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Lovejoy* (1986), series, as Pinder - *Joshua Then and Now* (1985), as Sen. Hornby - *The Last Place on Earth* (1985), series, as Sir Clements Markham - *Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues* (1984), as Mr. Gilman - *Gorky Park* (1983), as General - *The Forgotten Voyage: The Story of Alfred Russel Wallace* (1983), as Thomas Bell - *American Playhouse* (1982), series, as Henry Stimson - *Oppenheimer* (1980), series, as Henry Stimson - *Cry of the Innocent* (1980), as Thornton Donegin - *Churchill and the Generals* (1979), as Henry Stimson - Secretary of War - *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* (1979), series, as Control — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-1979.md) - *Holocaust 2000* (1977), as Meyer - *Truman at Potsdam* (1976), Actor - *Man Above Men* (1973), as The Judge - *Nicholas and Alexandra* (1971), as The American Ambassador - *Play for Today* (1970), series, as The Judge - *Puppet on a Chain* (1970), as Colonel De Graaf - *Skullduggery* (1970), as Buffington - *Run a Crooked Mile* (1969), as Sir Howard Nettleton - *The Betrayal* (1969), as General Peronne - *Shalako* (1968), as Henry Clarke - *Villa Rides* (1968), as President Madero - *How I Won the War* (1967), as American General - *You Only Live Twice* (1967), as Secretary of Defense (uncredited) — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/you-only-live-twice.md) - *Bikini Paradise* (1967), as Commissioner Lighton - *The 25th Hour* (1967), Actor - *Accident* (1967), as Provost - *Khartoum* (1966), as Sir Evelyn Baring - *Modesty Blaise* (1966), as Minister - *The Psychopath* (1966), as Frank Saville - *Mister Moses* (1965), as Rev. Anderson - *Crack in the World* (1965), as Sir Charles Eggerston - *The Hidden Truth* (1964), series, Actor - *Woman of Straw* (1964), as Detective Inspector Lomer - *Man in the Middle* (1964), as Colonel Burton - *Festival* (1963), series, as Edmond Duval - *In the Cool of the Day* (1963), as Frederick Bonner - *The Damned* (1962), as Bernard - *The Saint* (1962), series, as Governor Hudson Inverest - *The Longest Day* (1962), as Maj. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/the-longest-day.md) - *The Share Out* (1962), as Colonel Calderwood - *Oscar Wilde* (1960), as Sir Edgar Clarke - *Crack in the Mirror* (1960), as President - *The Wreck of the Mary Deare* (1959), as Petrie - *Operation Amsterdam* (1959), as Walter Keyser - *The Two-Headed Spy* (1958), as Gestapo Leader Müller - *Storm Over Jamaica* (1958), as Leonard Pawley - *Intent to Kill* (1958), as Dr. McNeil - *The Vikings* (1958), as Father Godwin - *Chase a Crooked Shadow* (1958), as Chandler Bridson - *Davy* (1958), as Sir Giles Manning - *Hidden Fear* (1957), as Hartman - *High Tide at Noon* (1957), as Stephen MacKenzie - *Reach for the Sky* (1956), as Mr. Joyce - *Alias John Preston* (1955), as Dr. Peter Walton - *The Night My Number Came Up* (1955), as Owen Robertson - *The Divided Heart* (1954), as Chief Justice - *Mark Saber* (1954), series, Actor - *One Just Man* (1954), Actor - *The Sleeping Tiger* (1954), as Dr. Clive Esmond - *Europa '51* (1952), as George Girard - *Paula* (1952), as Dr. Clifford Frazer - *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Henry Stimson - *Man in the Saddle* (1951), as Will Isham - *The Son of Dr. Jekyll* (1951), as Dr. Curtis Lanyon - *Two of a Kind* (1951), as Vincent Mailer - *Saturday's Hero* (1951), as Professor Megroth - *I'd Climb the Highest Mountain* (1951), as Tom Salter - *Tokyo Joe* (1949), as Mark Landis - *The Sign of the Ram* (1948), as Mallory St. Aubyn - *The Judge Steps Out* (1947), as Judge Thomas Bailey · Screenplay - *Sister Kenny* (1946), as Dr. McDonnell · Screenplay - *Over 21* (1945), as Max W. Wharton - *Wilson* (1944), as Woodrow Wilson — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/wilson.md) - *None Shall Escape* (1944), as Wilhelm Grimm - *Commandos Strike at Dawn* (1942), as German Captain - *This Above All* (1942), as Rector - *The Sea Wolf* (1941), as Humphrey Van Weyden - *Cheer Boys Cheer* (1939), as Saunders - *The Four Feathers* (1939), as Bit Part - *The Gaunt Stranger* (1938), as Dr Anthony Lomond - *Rembrandt* (1936), as Ludwick’s Assistant (uncredited) ## Gallery - ![Alexander Knox](https://film.one/media/person/286287/gallery-515c131ba367.jpg) Alexander Knox — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Alexander_Knox.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Alexander Knox and Jessica Tandy in the A. J. Cronin's 1940 play Jupiter Laughs](https://film.one/media/person/286287/gallery-83b0545ea0c8.jpg) Alexander Knox and Jessica Tandy in the A. J. Cronin's 1940 play Jupiter Laughs — Playbill, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Alexander_Knox%2C_Jessica_Tandy_Jupiter_Laughs_Playbill_1940.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Alexander Knox](https://film.one/media/person/286287/gallery-e46b2f143ab8.jpg) Alexander Knox — Image via TMDB - ![Alexander Knox](https://film.one/media/person/286287/gallery-aa4810787510.jpg) Alexander Knox — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1945: Best Actor (nominated), for *Wilson* ### Golden Globes — 1 won - 1944: Best Actor in a Leading Role (won), for *Wilson* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/alexander-knox