Alexander Asro

American actor

Alexander Asro (also: Aleksander Azro; 10 February 1888 – January 1963) was a film and theatre actor. He was a member of the Vilna Troupe and appeared in several comedic films in the United States.

Born in Vilna, in the Russian Empire (today Vilnius, Lithuania), Asro attended a traditional Jewish elementary school (cheder), and early on gave 'circus' performances for other children together with his friend Jacob Lubotsky, the brother of Sonia Alomis (born Lubotsky), Asro's future wife. He later joined the dramatic circles of the Jewish Labor Bund, making his first public appearance at the age of 13, in the role of Yehuda in the Biblical play Mechirat Yosef (The Sale of Joseph), in a production by older tradesmen. In this way he came to the attention of the actor Yehoshua Bertonov, who brought him into a group doing Russian vaudeville; he also participated in guest performances of Jacob Ben Ami. he was at first an "extra", and then advanced to small roles. He subsequently spent three quarters of a year studying in the law department at the Kiev commercial school (Handelsschule), then served for a year in the Russian military; after his discharge from the military he returned to Vilna. he was active in a literary dramatic circle that had formed in Vilna, including Noah Nachbush, Chaim Shneur, Sonia Alomis, Rachel Dora Rivkina, and Frieda Blumental; the group worked with Peretz Hirschbein, whose plays they performed and who was in Vilna at the time, and they traveled into the Lithuanian provinces giving performances. They were among the larger group of actors who subsequently formed the association called Fareyn fun yidishe dramatishe artisten (FADA; Union of Yiddish dramatic artists). Asro worked on organizing the first performance; by chance, the local circus owner was willing to have the group use the circus as a venue, since he feared it would otherwise be requisitioned by the military. Aspiring to a purely literary Yiddish theater, and the 1953 Broadway revival.