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Alexandra Isles
Alexandra Isles
Alexandra Isles
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Alexandra Isles (née Alexandra Cornelia von Moltke; born February 11, 1945)[1] is a documentary filmmaker and former actress. She is best-known for her role as the original Victoria Winters from 1966 to 1968 on the gothic TV serial Dark Shadows.

Key Information

Early life

[edit]
Further information: Livingston family and Moltke family

Alexandra Cornelia von Moltke was born in Uppsala, Sweden on February 11, 1945, of Danish and American parentage, the elder of two daughters, to Count Carl Adam Moltke, son of Count Carl Moltke, and Countess Mab Moltke (née Wilson; formerly Wright).[1] Count Moltke was a permanent member of the Danish Mission to the United Nations, and Countess Moltke was an editor at Vogue.[2][better source needed]

Through her American grandmother, Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer, Isles and her younger sister, Victoria, are descended from the Livingston, Schuyler, Bayard and Van Rensselaer families.[3]

Career

[edit]

In 1985, Isles began work at the Museum of Television & Radio where she became a curator specializing in arts, drama and children's programming.[4][5] In 1991, a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities launched her on a career as a producer and director of the award-winning documentaries The Power of Conscience: The Danish Resistance and Rescue of the Jews (1995); Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1999); Porraimos: Europe's Gypsies in the Holocaust (2002); The Healing Gardens of New York (2006); and Hidden Treasures: Stories from a Great Museum (2011).[4] Her films have been seen at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, D.C.), Museum of Modern Art (New York), and numerous film festivals including the Human Rights Watch and Margaret Mead Film Festivals, and all have aired on PBS. Currently, Isles works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a Volunteer Educator.

Personal life

[edit]

In 1967, Isles married Philip Henry Isles II of the Lehman banking family at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.[6][7] She left Dark Shadows in 1968 due to pregnancy. In 1969, she gave birth to a son.[citation needed]

Isles was the mistress of Claus von Bülow and testified at his 1982 and 1985 trials for the attempted murder of his wife, Sunny. She was portrayed by Julie Hagerty in the 1990 film Reversal of Fortune that dramatized these events.[8][9][10]

In 1985, Isles began work at the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media), and became an Assistant Curator, working on exhibitions and screening series on the arts and children's programming. In 1991, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, she produced and directed Scandalize My Name, Stories from the Blacklist, introduced by Morgan Freeman and featuring Harry Belafonte and Ossie Davis. That same year, she married a physician, Dr. Alfred Jaretzki III.[5][2][better source needed]

Isles' subsequent documentary films were The Power of Conscience: The Danish Resistance and Rescue of the Jews; Porraimos: Europe's Gypsies in the Holocaust; The Healing Gardens of New York; Hidden Treasures: Stories from a Great Museum; and Harry's Gift: A New York Story.[5][2]

Filmography

[edit]

Television

[edit]
Year Title Role Notes
1966–1968 Dark Shadows[3] Victoria Winters Main role; Gothic soap opera
1968 Certain Honorable Men[3] Betty Jo Daly Television Film

Documentary Films (Director/Producer)

[edit]
Year Title Role Notes
1995 The Power of Conscience: The Danish Resistance and Rescue of the Jews Director/Producer Documentary about Denmark’s rescue of Jews during WWII
1999 Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist Director/Producer Narrated by Morgan Freeman; explores McCarthy-era blacklisting of Black performers
2002 Porraimos: Europe's Gypsies in the Holocaust Director/Producer Documentary on the persecution of Roma people during WWII
2006 The Healing Gardens of New York Director/Producer Examines therapeutic gardens in urban NYC
2011 Hidden Treasures: Stories from a Great Museum Director/Producer Focuses on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collections
2016 Harry’s Gift: A New York Story Director/Producer Short documentary; screened at ReelHeART International Film Festival


Awards and nominations

[edit]
Year Award Category Nominated work Result
2016 ReelHeART International Film Festival Short Documentary Harry's Gift Nominated

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Alexandra Isles

View on Grokipedia
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Alexandra Isles (née Alexandra Grevina von Moltke; born February 11, 1945) is a Danish-American documentary filmmaker and former actress best known for originating the role of Victoria Winters, the young governess and romantic lead, in the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows from 1966 to 1968. Born in Sweden to Danish parents of noble descent, she spent her formative years in New York City, where her father served as a permanent member of the Danish Mission to the United Nations and her mother worked as an editor at Vogue. After leaving acting following her marriage and the birth of her son in 1969, Isles pursued higher education and shifted to nonfiction production, earning a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to develop history-focused documentaries that have aired on PBS, Ovation, and BET, while also receiving screenings at institutions like the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and festivals including Human Rights Watch and MoMA's Documentary Fortnight. Her films emphasize archival depth and integrity, with several acquired by university libraries for scholarly use, reflecting a career marked by meticulous research and global distribution in countries such as , , and . In addition to , Isles has contributed as a researcher and assistant curator at the , participated in Steven Spielberg's Shoah project through interviews, and currently volunteers as a guide at the , underscoring her ongoing commitment to cultural preservation and education.

Early life

Family background and upbringing

Alexandra Cornelia von Moltke was born on February 11, 1945, in Uppsala, Sweden, to Count Carl Adam Moltke, a Danish diplomat who had participated in the Danish resistance during World War II, and Mabel "Mab" Wilson Moltke, an American-born editor at Vogue magazine and later a publicity executive from a San Francisco family with roots in the Comstock Lode mining fortune. Her parents' marriage ended in divorce, after which her mother remarried Henry McCormick Gross Jr. The elder of two daughters—she had a younger sister named Victoria—Moltke grew up primarily in due to her father's posting as a permanent member of the Danish Mission to the , immersing her in an international diplomatic environment often described as that of a "U.N. brat." She spent summers with her paternal grandmother in , maintaining ties to her father's noble heritage, which traces back to an old German-Danish aristocratic lineage originating in . This bicoastal and binational upbringing exposed her to both American urban life and Scandinavian traditions, with her mother's Wilson family providing connections to established East Coast and West Coast American lineages.

Education

Isles trained as an actress at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in , a conservatory-style institution focused on dramatic performance. She is reported to have graduated from the academy, alongside contemporaries such as actress . This specialized education prepared her for her early career in television, including her debut role on in 1966. No records indicate attendance at a traditional or for .

Acting career

Entry into acting and Dark Shadows role

Alexandra Isles entered professional acting with her casting as the governess Victoria Winters in the ABC supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows, which debuted on June 27, 1966. This role served as her acting debut, with no prior credited screen or stage appearances listed in her filmography. At approximately 21 years old, Isles was chosen for her physical resemblance to veteran actress Joan Bennett, who played family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, enabling narrative ties portraying Winters as Stoddard's unacknowledged daughter. In the series' early episodes, Isles provided the distinctive opening voiceover narration, intoning lines such as "My name is Victoria Winters" to set the atmospheric tone for the Collinsport storyline, a practice she maintained through episode 274. Severely nearsighted and unable to read the teleprompter, Isles memorized her dialogue rigorously to perform without visual aids. Her portrayal positioned Winters as the audience's entry point into the eerie events at Collinwood mansion, evolving from a mundane governess hire to a figure entangled in supernatural mysteries, including time travel and vampirism. Isles sustained the role across 627 episodes until early , when she exited the production upon discovering her pregnancy. The departure aligned with the show's shift toward intensified gothic elements, though her character's arc had concluded with a parallel timeline storyline, allowing recasting without immediate narrative disruption. This initial foray into acting, spanning roughly 18 months, established Isles as a key figure in the series' foundational phase before her pivot to family life.

Departure from acting

Isles portrayed on from its premiere in June 1966 until early 1968, appearing in 333 episodes before departing the series. Her exit coincided with a difficult following her marriage to Philip Henry Isles in 1967, during which she requested release from the role to prioritize her health and impending motherhood. The birth of their son, , in 1968 further solidified her decision to step away, as she chose not to resume acting afterward despite opportunities to return in a modified capacity. Isles expressed fatigue with the character's stagnant development and the demanding production schedule, factors that, combined with family commitments, led her to retire from professional acting entirely by the late . No subsequent on-screen or theatrical roles are documented in her career, marking a definitive transition from performance to private life and eventual pursuits in media production.

Personal life

Marriage and family

Isles married Philip Isles, an aide, on October 28, 1967. The couple had one son, . They divorced in 1976. In 1991, Isles married Alfred Jaretzki III, a surgeon and Professor Emeritus of Clinical Surgery at . The marriage lasted until Jaretzki's death on May 29, 2014, and produced no children.

Relationship with Claus von Bulow and trial involvement

Alexandra Isles began a romantic affair with , the Danish-born socialite and husband of heiress Martha "Sunny" von Bülow, around 1979, which lasted approximately two years. During this period, von Bülow discussed divorcing his wife to marry Isles, though he did not follow through. Isles issued an ultimatum in late 1979 or early 1980, demanding that von Bülow end his marriage within six months or terminate their relationship, a condition he acknowledged but failed to meet. Isles became a pivotal prosecution in von Bülow's 1982 trial in , where he was charged with twice attempting to murder his wife by injecting her with insulin, leading to her in December 1979 and December 1980. Her testimony detailed the affair's timeline, including von Bülow's expressions of intent to divorce Sunny and marry her both before and after the 1979 incident, which prosecutors argued provided motive. Jurors later cited Isles' account of the ultimatum as influential in von Bülow's initial conviction on two counts of , for which he received a 30-year sentence. Prior to testifying, Isles returned an von Bülow had given her. The affair ended amid the legal proceedings, and Isles received anonymous threatening letters, some allegedly linked to von Bülow, prompting her to go into hiding before the 1985 retrial. In the retrial, after the original conviction was overturned on due to evidentiary issues, Isles again testified for the prosecution, recounting a in which von Bülow described watching Sunny slip into her 1979 coma for hours before deciding he could not let her die, claiming he then summoned help. Despite her testimony, von Bülow was acquitted on June 10, 1985, with defense arguments emphasizing inconsistencies in witness accounts and lack of . Isles' involvement highlighted tensions in high-society Newport circles but did not alter the trial's ultimate outcome.

Later career

Work at media institutions

Following her departure from acting, Alexandra Isles joined the Museum of Television & Radio (now the ) in New York as a researcher in November 1985. She advanced to the position of assistant , serving until June 1991. In these roles, Isles curated exhibitions and organized screening series on topics including , , and children's programming. Her responsibilities involved detailed archival work and programming that highlighted historical media content. This period at the institution cultivated Isles' expertise in media research and curation, skills she later applied to independent projects.

Documentary filmmaking

Alexandra Isles began her documentary filmmaking career in the 1990s after receiving a research grant from the , producing works centered on historical events, social justice, and the experiences of marginalized groups, often featuring survivor interviews and archival footage. Her films have aired on public television networks including , Ovation, and , and screened at international festivals such as , , and MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, with three titles featured at the . Her debut documentary, The Power of Conscience: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews (1994), directed and produced by Isles, examines Denmark's collective effort to evacuate nearly all of its Jewish population to safety in Sweden during Nazi occupation, incorporating oral histories from Danish and Jewish survivors alongside period footage. In 1998, she directed Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist, narrated by Morgan Freeman, which chronicles the underrecognized impact of the Hollywood blacklist on African American performers and artists during the McCarthy era, drawing on personal testimonies from figures like Rosetta LeNoire and Frederick O'Neal. Isles continued with Porraimos: Europe's Gypsies in the Holocaust (2002), a 56-minute film she directed and produced that addresses the Romani genocide—known as Porraimos or "the devouring"—highlighting the role of in Nazi persecutions and featuring survivor accounts as the first American on the topic. Later, The Healing Gardens of New York (2007), directed by Isles with music by Jed Feuer, documents how community gardens in areas from to Battery Park revitalized neighborhoods amid , , and , exemplified by a initiative now serving over 100 families through youth programs and food distribution; it premiered at Pioneer Theatre in New York, broadcast on , and won Best of the Best at the Charlotte Festival. In 2016, Isles released the short documentary Harry's Gift, focusing on the life and posthumous discovery of reclusive photographer Harry Shunk, whose hoard of artwork was uncovered in his apartment after his death, earning the Audience Award at the SENE Festival and Best Documentary at the Real Art Festival while screening at events like the . Her documentaries emphasize human resilience and historical accountability, distributed in countries including , , , and .

References

  1. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0411308/
  2. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0411308/bio/
  3. https://alexandraisles.com/about/
  4. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/22/style/chronicle-902095.html
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/28/obituaries/mab-moltke-dies-at-78-ex-publicity-executive.html
  6. https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/b49c7929-876a-4b5d-9082-2511edf9082e
  7. https://www.nytimes.com/1967/10/29/archives/alexandra-moltke-wed-to-philip-isles-counts-daughter-is-married.html
  8. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/87713039/mabel-moltke
  9. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-isles-0499731a
  10. https://www.facebook.com/kathrynleighscottauthor/posts/if-you-are-in-los-angeles-please-stop-in-to-see-ben-martins-exhibit-of-artists-i/952636739758167/
  11. https://www.facebook.com/kathrynleighscottauthor/posts/watch-kathryns-speech-delivered-with-love-humor-and-aplomb/1260784748943363/
  12. https://darkshadows.fandom.com/wiki/Alexandra_Moltke
  13. https://darkshadowscommentary.com/tag/alexandra-moltke-isles/
  14. https://www.yahoo.com/movies/bp/original-dark-shadows-tv-actress-remembers-past-lives-191456566.html
  15. https://www.firstforwomen.com/entertainment/movies-shows/dark-shadows-cast-1966
  16. https://cavemancircus.com/2024/01/25/alexandra-isles/
  17. https://news.amomama.com/405992-dark-shadows-victoria-winters-lover-was.html
  18. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/dark-shadows-cast-1966-happened-115817462.html
  19. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156611412/alfred-jaretzki
  20. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/05/27/Alexandra-Isles-the-former-mistress-of-Claus-von-Bulow/4270486014400/
  21. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/19/us/von-bulow-lover-testifies-on-affair.html
  22. https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/claus-von-bulow-cleared-in-attempted-murder-case-involving-megarich-wife-dies-at-92/
  23. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/29/us/key-witness-asserts-von-bulow-told-her-about-day-of-coma.html
  24. https://time.com/archive/6703339/for-love-or-money/
  25. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/claus-von-bulow-socialite-cleared-attempted-murder-wife-dies-92-n1012351
  26. https://alexandraisles.com/the-power-of-conscience-the-danish-resistance-and-rescue-of-the-jews/
  27. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308749/
  28. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258949/
  29. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404334/
  30. https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/52461/porraimos-europe-s-gypsies-in-the-holocaust
  31. https://alexandraisles.com/the-healing-gardens-of-new-york/
  32. https://alexandraisles.com/harrys-gift/
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