William D. Alexander

William D. Alexander (1916 – November 19, 1991) was an American film producer and director known for producing The Fight Never Ends (1948), Souls of Sin (1949), and Jackpot (1975).

William D. Alexander was born on August 21, 1916, in Shelbina, Missouri, and raised in Colorado.

Alexander was athletically inclined and played football in high school and was a gymnast in college, Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado.) 

Early years

After finishing his education, in 1941, Alexander moved to Washington D.C. where he worked with the National Youth Administration, a federal agency led by the well-known Black-rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. 

In December of 1941, the United States entered World War II and Alexander secured worked with the Office of War Information, making films/press releases/newsreels concerning African-American soldiers and sailors. Because of the ongoing war, veteran filmmakers were teamed with novices. Alexander worked with a Hollywood veteran by the name of Emmanuel Glucksman, and another novice African-American producer and journalist Claude Barnett. The team produced more than 250 newsreels, which were released under the title All-American News. Alexander co-produced, narrated, and did man-on-the-street interviews for over forty newsreels. Scenes depicted everyday acts such as the daughter of famed boxing legend Joe Louis playing the piano, as well as writer Ann Petry receiving a $2,400 prize for her novel The Street. The newsreels also featured footage of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division. By his own estimation, these newsreels reached over nine hundred Black theaters nationwide.

Later years

After the war, in around 1945, Alexander moved to New York City, where he founded the Associated Film Producers of Negro Motion Pictures. He also founded another film production company, Alexander Productions.

In 1946, he made his production debut with a musical short titled Adventure with Henri Woode. The same year, he produced two more musical shorts, Vanities and That Man of Mine. Also in 1946, he produced Jivin' in Be-Bop, a musical film in the style of a documentary, featuring 19 musical and dance numbers, by many notable musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, Helen Humes, and Ray Brown. His 1946 documentary Call to Duty (narrated by Walter Huston) focused on the history of black Americans in the military.

His feature films during those years were The Highest Tradition and Rhythm in a Riff(which featured Billy Eckstine) whose alternate title was Flicker Up.

In 1947, he made a crime-fighting themed feature film The Fight Never Ends(released 1948). The film was directed by Joseph Lerner, with a cast that included heavy-weight boxing champion Joe Louis, Ruby Dee, and Harrel Tillman. It was one of stage-star Ruby Dee's first movies. The film also had a brief appearance by vocal quartet The Mills Brothers.

His 1949 production Souls of Sin, starring William Greaves and Savannah Churchill, is considered to be the last race movie made by a Black producer.

In 1950, Alexander moved to London and over the next 18 years, he produced a series of highly-praised documentaries concerning the new states emerging from colonialism in Africa. Many of these films were produced at the request of the African states and were used to promote the new states abroad. 

He produced a series of newsreels for the Black audience entitled By-Line. As an independent journalist, he covered the Organization of African Unity’s deliberations on the civil war in Biafra. In 1960, he produced a twelve-part series for the ABC television network on seven newly liberated and African governed states. 

At different times, Alexander served as the official film-maker for Liberia and Ethiopia. In 1960, the American ABC television network broadcast a twelve-part documentary by Alexander concerning the new African states. The 22 African states where Alexander worked during the 1950s and 1960s awarded him various awards.

In addition to his documentaries, he made several feature films, including The Klansman (1974), which was based on a novel by William Bradford Huie and had in its leading cast Richard Burton, O.J. Simpson (his debut), and Lee Marvin. The film was a big-budget movie ($4.5 million), however, failed to impress the audiences.

Alexander was the recipient of prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, and he received a United Nations award for his documentary work.

Alexander died of cancer in the Bronx, New York, in 1991, at the age of 75. 

1995: Alexander was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.