ANNE BAXTER Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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ANNE BAXTER

Name: Anne Baxter                                                                         
Born: 7 May 1923 Michigan City, Indiana                                                   
Died: 12 December 1985 New York City, New York                                           
                                                                                         
Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning             
American actress.                                                                         
                                                                                         
Baxter was born in Michigan City, Indiana to Kenneth Stuart Baxter and Catherine         
Wright; her maternal grandfather was architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Baxter's               
father was a prominent executive with the Seagrams Distillery Co. and she was             
raised in New York City amidst luxury and sophistication. At age ten, Baxter             
attended a Broadway play starring Helen Hayes, and was so impressed that she             
declared to her family that she wanted to become an actress. By the age of               
thirteen, Anne had appeared on Broadway. During this period, Baxter learned her           
acting craft as a student of the famed teacher Maria Ouspenskaya.                         
                                                                                         
Baxter screen-tested for the role of Mrs. DeWinter in Rebecca, but lost out to           
Joan Fontaine because director Alfred Hitchcock considered her "too young" for           
the role. The strength of that first foray into movie acting secured the then             
sixteen-year-old Baxter a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox. Her first           
movie role was in 20 Mule Team in 1940. She was chosen by director Orson Welles           
to appear in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), based on the novel by Booth               
Tarkington. Baxter co-starred with Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney in 1946's The           
Razor's Edge, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.           
                                                                                         
In 1950 she was chosen to co-star in All About Eve, largely because of a                 
resemblance to Claudette Colbert, who had initially been chosen to co-star in             
the film. Baxter received a nomination for Best Actress for the title role of             
Eve Harrington. Later during that decade, Baxter also continued to act in                 
professional theater. According to a program from the production, Baxter                 
appeared on Broadway in 1953 opposite Tyrone Power in Charles Laughton's John             
Brown's Body, a play based upon the narrative poem by Stephen Vincent Benét (though     
the Internet Broadway Database states that Power's co-star was Judith Anderson).         
                                                                                         
Baxter with Yul Brynner, from the trailer for The Ten Commandments (1956)                 
                                                                                         
Baxter is also remembered for her compelling role as the Egyptian princess               
Nefertiri opposite Charlton Heston's portrayal of Moses in Cecil B. Demille's             
award winning The Ten Commandments (1956).                                               
                                                                                         
Baxter appeared regularly on television in the 1960s. For example, she did a             
stint as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday Night           
CBS-TV program. She also starred as the special guest villain "Zelda the Great"           
in two episodes of the 60s superhero show Batman. She also appeared as the               
special guest villain "Olga, Queen of the Cossacks" opposite Vincent Price's "Egghead"   
in three episodes of the show's third season.                                             
                                                                                         
Baxter appeared again on Broadway during the 1970s, in Applause, the musical             
version of All About Eve, but this time in the "Margo Channing" role played by           
Bette Davis in the film (she was replacing Lauren Bacall, who won a Tony Award           
in the role). Bette Davis tells, in one of her biographies, of attending one             
such performance by Baxter, to their mutual delight.                                     
                                                                                         
In the 1970s, Baxter was a frequent guest and stand-in host on the popular               
daytime TV talk-fest The Mike Douglas Show, since Baxter and host Mike Douglas           
were friends. She portrayed a homicidal movie star on an episode of Columbo.             
                                                                                         
In 1983, the actress starred in the television series Hotel, replacing Bette             
Davis in the cast after Davis took ill. Baxter has a star on the Hollywood Walk           
of Fame at 6741 Hollywood Blvd.