Alexander Randolph was born on 4th May 1922 in Czechoslovakia where his parents spent four years coming from the USA. He was the son of self-described "rich parents". His father Samuel Alexander was an artist painter born in Odessa, Russian Empire (1878-1944) and his mother Mary (1882-1955) was an American sculptor. Alex and his half-brother Christopher Craig spent their childhood and teenage in Venice, Italy. They both attended a private school in Switzerland. The Randolph family owned the Palazzetto Stern along the Grand Canal in Dorsoduro in Venice from 1924 to ~1946-47. Randolf spent his early years in various occupations, including military intelligence and as an advertising copy editor in Boston. In 1961, Randolph moved to
Japan and became a professional game developer, performing initial work on
TwixT. During this time, he became a dan player in
shogi. In 1962, Randolph (along with
Sid Sackson) was commissioned to start a new game division for
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (also known as 3M). Through 3M, Randolph created and published such games as
Breakthru,
Evade,
Oh-Wah-Ree, and
TwixT. Randolph moved back to
Venice,
Italy in 1968, continuing his career as a game developer with the company
Venice Connection established with
Dario De Toffoli and
Leo Colovini. Randolph was married to Gertrude Eisenstadt (1921-2008), an American. Randolph died aged 82 in Venice on 27 April 2004 and was buried in
San Michele Cemetery in Venice. Randolf wrote 3 books. Also, two biographies were written about Randolf:
Die Sonnenseite by Philippe Evrard and
Alex Randolph : Artista e autore di giochi by Cosimo Cardellicchio. ==Recognition==