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A regular "good guy" and "bad guy" presence in sagebrush sagas and two-fisted film action during the early 1950s, brawny, blond-haired Alexander Livingston Nicol Jr. was born in 1916 in Ossining, New York, the son of a prison warden there at Sing Sing, and his wife, the matron of a detention center. Alex developed an early interest in acting and originally trained at the Fagin School of Dramatic Art. On the professional stage from 1938, he soon found work as an apprentice to 'Maurice Evans .
Children: sons Alexander L. Nicol III and Eric; daughter Lisa.
Gave a particular striking performance in The Man from Laramie in which he played a heavyweight "mamas boy." In it he hogtied and dragged James Stewart through a fire, burned his covered wagons, shot his mules and shot him point blank in the hand.
Broke his original contract with Universal in 1952 after only a couple of years because he felt no growth and freelanced for a time. Ironically, he returned frequently to film at Universal and at a much larger fee than he was getting when a contract player there.
Alex was born in 1916, but took off three years when he began his contract at Universal in 1950 because he was starting out there older than some of the other people under contract. Those reports that list his year of birth as 1919 are incorrect.
Was part of the original cast of Rodgers and Hammersteins hit Broadway musical "South Pacific" when it debuted in April of 1949. In the ensemble playing one of the marines, a short time later he successfully auditioned to replace Ralph Meeker as the sailor Mannion in the hit comedy play "Mister Roberts" and left the musical. Also the understudy to the plays star Henry Fonda , Alex never got to go on in the title role as Fonda never missed a performance.
