Alexander Woollcott

Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American drama critic for The New York Times and the New York Herald, critic and commentator for <a href="/facts/The_New_Yorker/2RfeBrsR">The New Yorker</a> magazine, a member of the <a href="/facts/Algonquin_Round_Table/Pesysd7c">Algonquin Round Table</a>, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio personality.
Woollcott was the inspiration for two fictional characters. The first was Sheridan Whiteside, the caustic but charming main character in the play <a href="/facts/The_Man_Who_Came_to_Dinner/MVhgovtb">The Man Who Came to Dinner</a> (1939) by <a href="/facts/George_S._Kaufman/VgU6Wa7M">George S. Kaufman</a> and <a href="/facts/Moss_Hart/eVHrKTCV">Moss Hart</a>, later made into a <a href="/facts/The_Man_Who_Came_to_Dinner_(1942_film)/qosUAlx4">film</a> in 1942. The second was the snobbish, vitriolic columnist Waldo Lydecker in the novel <a href="/facts/Laura_(novel)/3hkouHRY">Laura</a>, later made into a <a href="/facts/Laura_(1944_film)/MUY91FMM">film</a> in 1944. Woollcott was convinced he was the inspiration for his friend <a href="/facts/Rex_Stout/EEl0pWwf">Rex Stout's</a> brilliant, eccentric detective <a href="/facts/Nero_Wolfe/93cADs9o">Nero Wolfe</a>, an idea that Stout denied.

Alexander Woollcott open-in-new

Alexander Woollcott