Alexander J. Graves was born on July 23, 1965 to William R. and Alexandra Meyer Graves.  The family lived in Kansas City, Missouri at the time of his birth.  He has one sister, Anne E. Graves, now living in El Dorado, Kansas.  In El Dorado, the Graves family made their home at 1842 Circle Drive.

Graves still remembers back to when he was 11 years old, making his own movies with a Super 8 camera.  His father remembered the time when, for about a year and a half, there was a space vehicle parked in his garage while Alex filmed his young friends acting out science fiction fantasies.

Bill Graves said that his son knew even back then what he was doing; after filming was completed, Alex would scratch the film to make it appear the light sabers in those movies were really firing light.

A self-confessed “Star Wars” fanatic, Graves wanted to tell stories on film ever since he saw the George Lucas classic eighteen times as a teenager in El Dorado.  Though desiring to head straight for California after high school, his parents convinced him to attend the University of Kansas first.

Graves attended the University of Kansas for two years taking film classes for the first time under Chuck Berg, an enthusiastic and articulate professor who inspired the upcoming filmmaker.  He later transferred to study film at the University of Southern California’s film school; he earned his degree there in 1987.

Alex and his wife, Sarah Graves, live in Santa Monica, California, and are the parents of two children, Benjamin and Alexandra.  He holds membership in the Screen Actors Guild.

He continues to work in the television and motion picture fields, inspiring other beginning filmmakers who study his techniques.  Sean Astin, star of such films as Rudy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, when taking on a job directing an episode of The WB network’s series Angel, said “it’s a very specific challenge, directing episodic television, and I was fortunate enough . . . to observe Alex Graves on The West Wing for a week . . . I literally just sat there on the set, watching . . . and trying to get to know the powers-that-be.”


CONNECTION TO BUTLER COUNTY

Alex grew up in El Dorado, Kansas, where he attended local grade school through high school.  He graduated from El Dorado High School in 1983, where he had been a very active participant in Michele Banks’ drama department.

Alex’s grandfather, Courtney Graves, came to El Dorado in 1922 as a partner in a drug store.  By the 1930s, there were three Graves Drug Stores in El Dorado; in the 1980s, the company operated stores in four Kansas towns and two in Oklahoma.

Courtney and his wife were the parents of two sons, John and Alex’s father, Bill.  Following college and time spent in the United States Navy, Bill worked for many years as a reporter for the Kansas City Star before returning to El Dorado to become a partner in Graves Drug Stores.  Alex’s mother, known to her friends as Sandy, at one time worked for former Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker.


LEAVING THE AREA

A native of El Dorado, Alex left town to attend college, first studying at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, then at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Graves says that Michele Banks, his drama teacher in high school, and Bob Peterson, theater instructor at Butler County Community College, were his first major influences in his eventual career path.