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Anthony Ross

American actor (1909-1955)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ4773380
Source-derived summary

Anthony Ross (born Rosenthal, February 23, 1909 – October 26, 1955) was an American character actor whose career extended to Broadway stage, television and film.

Born in New York City, Ross was the son of Charles M. Rosenthal and Cora S. Rosenthal; he had his name changed legally. He was a graduate of Brown University and, while living in France, continued his studies at the Sorbonne and the University of Nancy. He may be best remembered for being the first to play the character of the "Gentleman Caller" in the original 1944 production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.

Ross made his Broadway debut in Whistling in the Dark (1932). He also appeared on Broadway as Leo in The Greatest Show on Earth (1938), and as a fictionalized version of Harold Ross, the founding editor of The New Yorker, in the 1950 Wolcott Gibbs comedy Season in the Sun.

Ross appeared in 20th Century Fox films including Kiss of Death (1947) and The Gunfighter (1950); in the Warner Bros. courtroom drama Perfect Strangers (1950) the Nicholas Ray-directed film noir On Dangerous Ground (1952) and in the popular serial Mysterious Island (1951). He also appeared as the "Producer" in The Country Girl, both the movie and the Broadway production as well as the "Professor" in the Broadway production of Bus Stop.

He appeared in many television productions, including the 1954 CBS series The Telltale Clue in which he starred as police captain Richard Hale.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Anthony Ross” as american actor (1909-1955). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Anthony, Ross and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1909, 1955, 1944, 1932—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1909-02-23. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Anthony, Ross and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Anthony Ross”, the useful work is to connect “american actor (1909-1955)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4773380. VIAF identifies the subject as 66028719. The Library of Congress control number is no90006719. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1955, 1944 and 1932.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Anthony Ross”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Anthony Ross primary sources, Anthony Ross archive and Anthony research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Anthony Ross” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.