TRIVIA:
He played a king in three different adaptations of fairy tales on the series “Shirley Temple’s Storybook”. They were the only roles he ever played on the series.
|In 1954 NBC created a feature-length (89-minute) motion picture condensation of the TV series, “Victory at Sea” that Alexander Scourby narrated. The original 26 episodes of the 1952-53 series “Victory at Sea” were narrated by Leonard Graves. |He is best known for his film role as the ruthless mob boss Mike Lagana in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) | He recorded 422 audiobooks for the blind which he considered his most important work.| He was one of the founders of New Stages, a Greenwich Village drama company in the 1947-1948 season. During its two-year stay, the company presented such classics as "Blood Wedding" and "The Victors."| He Portrayed various characters in at least four stage versions of "Hamlet" throughout his career - The Player King, Rosencrantz, and Claudius.
VIDEO TRIBUTE
Alexander Scourby
Active - 1950 - 1985 | Born - Nov 13, 1913 in Brooklyn, New York City, NY | Died - Feb 23, 1985 in Newtown, CT | Genres - Drama, History [nf], Spirituality & Philosophy [nf], Crime, Nature | Height: 5’ 10½”
Of Greek parentage, Alexander Scourby hid his natural Brooklynese cadence behind a “stage British” accent in his earliest stage appearance. After an apprenticeship with Eva LeGalliene’s company, Scourby graduated to Broadway with a major role in Leslie Howard’s 1936 production of Hamlet. In radio from 1937, Scourby became one of the busiest and most sought-after voice-over specialists in the business, functioning as narrator on innumerable TV documentaries and as commercial spokesman for a myriad of products (most notably Johnson & Johnson bandages).
In his Broadway and film work, Scourby was frequently cast as a villain, such as the Italian-American gangster boss in Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953). One of his last assignments was as the host of the PBS broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. The resonant voice of Alexander Scourby can still be heard on religious radio stations by virtue of his mid-’60s syndicated series “Alexander Scourby Reads the Scriptures.”
Of Greek parentage, Alexander Scourby hid his natural Brooklynese cadence behind a “stage British” accent in his earliest stage appearance. After an apprenticeship with Eva LeGalliene’s company, Scourby graduated to Broadway with a major role in Leslie Howard’s 1936 production of Hamlet. In radio from 1937, Scourby became one of the busiest and most sought-after voice-over specialists in the business, functioning as narrator on innumerable TV documentaries and as commercial spokesman for a myriad of products (most notably Johnson & Johnson bandages).
In his Broadway and film work, Scourby was frequently cast as a villain, such as the Italian-American gangster boss in Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953). One of his last assignments was as the host of the PBS broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. The resonant voice of Alexander Scourby can still be heard on religious radio stations by virtue of his mid-’60s syndicated series “Alexander Scourby Reads the Scriptures.”