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Overview (4) |
Mini Bio (1) |
Family (4) |
Trade Mark (2) |
Trivia (46) |
Personal Quotes (53)
Overview (4)
| Born | in Michigan City, Indiana, USA |
| Died | in New York City, New York, USA (brain aneurysm) |
| Nickname | Annie |
| Height | 5' 3¾" (1.62 m) |
Mini Bio (1)
Anne Baxter was born in Michigan City, Indiana, on May 7, 1923. She was the daughter of a salesman, Kenneth Stuart Baxter, and his wife, Catherine Dorothy (Wright), who herself was the daughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, the world-renowned architect. Anne was a young girl of 11 when her parents moved to New York City, which at that time was still the hub of the entertainment industry even though the film colony was moving west. The move there encouraged her to consider acting as a vocation. By the time she was 13 she had already appeared in a stage production of 'Seen but Not Heard'", and had garnered rave reviews from the tough Broadway critics. The play helped her gain entrance to an exclusive acting school.
In 1937, Anne made her first foray into Hollywood to test the waters there in the film industry. As she was thought to be too young for a film career, she packed her bags and returned to the New York stage with her mother, where she continued to act on Broadway and summer stock up and down the East Coast. Undaunted by the failure of her previous effort to crack Hollywood, Anne returned to California two years later to try again. This time her luck was somewhat better. She took a screen test which was ultimately seen by the moguls of Twentieth Century-Fox, and she was signed to a seven-year contract. However, before she could make a movie with Fox, Anne was loaned out to MGM to make 20 Mule Team (1940). At only 17 years of age, she was already in the kind of pictures that other starlets would have had to slave for years as an extra before landing a meaty role. Back at Fox, that same year, Anne played Mary Maxwell in The Great Profile (1940), which was a box-office dud. The following year she played Amy Spettigue in the remake of Charley's Aunt (1941). It still wasn't a great role, but it was better than a bit part. The only other film job Anne appeared in that year was in Swamp Water (1941). It was the first role that was really worth anything, but critics weren't that impressed with Anne, her role nor the movie. In 1942 Anne played Joseph Cotten's daughter, Lucy Morgan, in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). The following year she appeared in The North Star (1943), the first film where she received top billing. The film was a critical and financial success and Anne came in for her share of critical plaudits. Guest in the House (1944) the next year was a dismal failure, but Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944) was received much better by the public, though it was ripped apart by the critics. Anne starred with John Hodiak, who would become her first husband in 1947 (Anne was to divorce Hodiak in 1954. Her other two husbands were Randolph Galt and David Klee).
In 1946 Anne portrayed Sophie MacDonald in The Razor's Edge (1946), a film that would land her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had come a long way in so short a time, but for her next two films she was just the narrator: Mother Wore Tights (1947) and Blaze of Noon (1947). It would be 1950 before she landed another decent role--the part of Eve Harrington in All About Eve (1950). This film garnered Anne her second nomination, but she lost the Oscar to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday (1950). After several films through the 1950s, Anne landed what many considered a plum role--Queen Nefretiri in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956). Never in her Hollywood career did Anne look as beautiful as she did as the Egyptian queen, opposite Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. After that epic, job offers got fewer because she wasn't tied to a studio, instead opting to freelance her talents. After no appearances in 1958, she made one film in 1959 Season of Passion (1959) and one in 1960 Cimarron (1960).
After Walk on the Wild Side (1962), she took a hiatus from filming for the next four years. She was hardly idle, though. She appeared often on stage and on television. She wasn't particularly concerned with being a celebrity or a personality; she was more concerned with being just an actress and trying hard to produce the best performance she was capable of. After several notable TV appearances, Anne became a staple of two television series, East of Eden (1981) and Hotel (1983). Her final moment before the public eye was as Irene Adler in the TV film Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death (1984). On December 12, 1985, Anne died of a stroke in New York. She was 62.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Denny Jackson
Family (4)
| Spouse |
David Gutman Klee
(30 January 1977 -
15 October 1977) (his death)
Beverly Randolph Galt (18 February 1960 - 29 January 1970) (divorced) (2 children) John Hodiak (7 July 1946 - 9 February 1954) (divorced) (1 child) |
| Children |
Katrina Hodiak Meliss Galt Maginal Galt |
| Parents |
Kenneth Stuart Baxter
Catherine Dorothy Wright Baxter |
| Relatives | Frank Lloyd Wright (grandparent) |
Trade Mark (2)
Heavy-lidded hazel eyes
Husky voice
Trivia (46)
Maternal granddaughter of architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), born in Wisconsin, and his first wife, Catherine Tobin (1871-1959), born in Illinois.
Interred on her grandfather's estate at Lloyd Jones Cemetery in Spring Green, WI.
Was initially cast in All About Eve (1950) because of her resemblance to Claudette Colbert. Miss Colbert was first signed for the role of Margo and the idea was to have Eve visually turn into Margo.
Was the top runner for the lead in Rebecca (1940) and completed several tests for it before David O. Selznick decided to cast Joan Fontaine at the last minute.
Has the unique distinction of being the only actress to play two different guest villains on the television series Batman (1966), having played Zelda the Great during the first season and Olga, Queen of the Bessarovian Cossacks, during the third season. For the latter, she even learned to swear in Russian! Like most performers who guested on the series, she maintained that it was an enjoyable experience.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 51-53. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
Turned down the role of Polly Cutler in Niagara (1953) and was replaced by Jean Peters. After her withdrawal, the film was reworked to highlight Marilyn Monroe.
In Italy, almost all of her films were dubbed by Dhia Cristiani. She was occasionally dubbed by Lydia Simoneschi, Andreina Pagnani and once by Rosetta Calavetta in Walk on the Wild Side (1962).
Maintained her primary residence in Easton, CT , on a ten-acre estate from the 1970s until her death.
While Bette Davis and Anne were both the stars of All About Eve (1950), it was thought that they would both stand a better chance at Oscar trophies if Anne were to be placed in the "Supporting Actress" category, thus avoiding each canceling the other out. Anne refused to be put in the supporting category. Sure enough, both actresses were nominated for "Best Actress" Oscars and both lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950).
Turned down the starring role in Too Much, Too Soon (1958), the overly dramatic, highly fictional retelling of Diana Barrymore's misfortunes. The role went instead to Dorothy Malone.
Replaced Lauren Bacall as Margo Channing in the Broadway hit "Applause", the musical adaptation of "All About Eve".
Was made Honorary Mayor of Universal City in 1970.
She and her third and last husband, David Klee, a prominent stockbroker, were working on renovations on a Connecticut home when he died unexpectedly in October of 1977 after only nine months of marriage.
Was walking down Madison Avenue in New York City when she suffered her fatal brain aneurysm in 1985.
Daughter of Kenneth (1893-1977), born in Michigan, and Catherine (née Wright) Baxter (1894-1979), born in Illinois.
Studied with strong-willed dramatic coach Maria Ouspenskaya and their disagreements often resulted in clashes of temperament.
A 14-year-old Baxter was called in to test with a youthful Montgomery Clift as Tom, but the actor's acne was so bad at the time that the test was never made and both were sent back to New York by producer David O. Selznick.
She was a staunch Republican who gave much of her time and money towards various conservative political causes. She attended several Republican National Conventions, galas and fund-raisers, and she was active in the campaigns of Thomas E. Dewey, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
Gave birth to her first child at age 28, daughter Katrina Hodiak on July 9, 1951. Child's father is her first ex-husband, John Hodiak.
Gave birth to her second child at age 38, daughter Melissa Galt, on October 4, 1961. Child's father is her second ex-husband, Randolph Galt.
Gave birth to her third child at age 39, daughter Maginal Galt, on March 11, 1963. Child's father is her second ex-husband, Randolph Galt.
Suffered a miscarriage while three months pregnant in October 1960.
Was on life support for eight days until family members agreed that brain function had ceased.
Campaigned for the title role in Pinky (1949) but Jeanne Crain, who received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, was cast instead.
Was the 27th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Razor's Edge (1946) at The 19th Academy Awards on March 13, 1947.
Became a grandmother for the first time at age 61 when daughter Katrina Hodiak gave birth to a son, Tobin Vonditter, in September 1984. He was only 15 months old when she died.
Was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6741 Hollywood Blvd. on February 8, 1960.
In 1954 her part of Nefretiri in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956) was regarded by columnist Louella Parsons as "the most sought-after role of the year".
Her memoir, "Intermission", was published in 1976. A paperback edition in 1983 by Arkon Publishers announced "Soon to be a major film from Harry M. Miller and Michael Edgley". It was to portray "her years in outback Australia". The film was n ever produced, From an Australian viewpoint, Baxter's location during the years 1959-63, with husband Randolph Galt on a cattle station (ranch), was not in the "outback". Rural, certainly, remote-rural, yes, "The Bush" perhaps, in the old phrase, but not at all "the Outback".
Starred in five Oscar Best Picture nominees: The Pied Piper (1942), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Razor's Edge (1946), All About Eve (1950) and The Ten Commandments (1956). All About Eve won.
"Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!", one of her lines in The Ten Commandments (1956), was included among the 400 quotes nominated for the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list.
In August 1955, while filming The Ten Commandments (1956), she wrote a newspaper article for the United Press titled "Egyptian Queen Role Presents Problem For Modern Movie Star", in which she discussed ancient Egyptian makeup and perfume.
Although she felt she was miscast in the role of Nefretiri (because of her Irish features), Baxter enjoyed watching The Ten Commandments (1956) on TV every Easter. She loved the film.
Paternal granddaughter of Charles (1863-1922), born in Ohio, and Dora (née Belcher) Baxter (1863-1942), born in Kentucky.
Paternal great-granddaughter of Daniel (1840-1918), born in Ohio, and Emily (née Shepardson) Baxter (1836-1906), born in Michigan.
She was the studio's choice to play Bathsheba in David and Bathsheba (1951), but director Henry King told her he didn't think she could portray a biblical queen and gave the part to Susan Hayward. Baxter left the studio in 1953 and got her revenge the following year, when Cecil B. DeMille chose her for the role of the Egyptian queen Nefretiri in The Ten Commandments (1956), which turned out to be the most financially successful biblical movie ever made.
Bette Davis starred in the pilot for Hotel (1983), but then decided she didn't want to do the series. Her All About Eve (1950) co-star Baxter replaced her.
Was considered for the role of Pola Debevoise in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), but producer Nunnally Johnson chose Marilyn Monroe.
Was born four months before Charlton Heston, her co-star in The Ten Commandments (1956) and Three Violent People (1956). Baxter was born in Indiana; Heston was born in Indiana's western neighbor, Illinois.
Was born in the same year Cecil B. DeMille released The Ten Commandments (1923). Baxter would later star in the remake: The Ten Commandments (1956).
When she was a child, she fell out of a sled and broke her nose. She never fixed it because she wanted to be known for talent and not her appearance.
She has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), All About Eve (1950) and The Ten Commandments (1956).
Smoked cigars and dyed her hair blond in the early 1950s in order to attract more publicity. She had left 20th Century-Fox and was freelancing at this point. She also transformed herself into a sex symbol, posing for cheesecake photos. The publicity stunt worked and she was offered glamorous roles.
Mentioned in She-Wolf in Hollywood: The Story of Maria Ouspenskaya as one of Ouspenskaya's acting students.
Twice in 1973 (January and December), appeared on a popular TV show playing an aging actress who is trying for a comeback and is either a victim being blackmailed, gas-lighted or is the killer. Once in Mannix: The Deadly Madonna (1973) and in Columbo: Requiem for a Falling Star (1973).
Personal Quotes (53)
[on All About Eve (1950)] I patterned Eve [Harrington] after the understudy I had in a Broadway play when I was 13. She actually threatened to finish me off. She was the bitchiest person I ever saw.
The Razor's Edge (1946) contained my only great performance. When we shot that hospital scene in which "Sophie" loses her husband, child and everything else, I relived the death of my brother, whom I adored and who died at three. It gives me chills right now to think of it.
I'm an actress, not a personality. It's more successful to be a personality. But can you use it in every role? I don't spill over into everything I do. I do what I do from inside someone else's skin.
[on Frank Lloyd Wright] Like many famous men, my grandfather had been too busy to be a good father. But he was a charming grandfather. He designed plans for me for a doll-house. On his wedding night, he wore nothing but a red sash. Now that's what I call a true romantic.
Tallulah Bankhead is a marvelous female impersonator.
[on Hedy Lamarr in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949)] If I had just seen myself as Delilah, looking as Hedy did, I would still be talking about it.
The greatest beauty secret in the world is rest. It is the fundamental rule which must be followed if you want to look well and feel well.
If a role is challenging, then my enthusiasm is unflagging and I can bring something special to the performance.
[in 1954] There's no reason why feet should be the ugliest part of the body. Four thousand years ago Egyptians considered a woman's feet beautiful. So why not today?
The eye, someone said, is the window of the soul and the Egyptian beauties seemed to know that it was an extremely lethal weapon.
Partly because I'm an actress, but chiefly because I'm a woman, I've been doing research in the field of feminine allure since I was about 10. Now my knowledge of beauty secrets has been greatly enlarged by playing the role of Nefretiri, the Queen of Egypt, in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956).
Nefretiri ruled the glamor arena some 3,200 years ago, and it's surprising how much the ladies of that day knew about the art of stalking a man.
I noticed that not long after I turned blonde, people began behaving differently toward me, saying sillier things and playing more practical jokes. So I started giving it right back until pretty soon I realized that this wasn't the Anne I used to think myself, but quite a different character - a much more interesting one, I think.
With this nose and full Irish face, I just didn't look like an Egyptian. I wanted to wear a putty nose but Mr. DeMille was so appalled at the idea I had to forget about it.
Acting is not what I do. It's what I am. It's my permanent, built-in cathedral.
Darryl Zanuck [Darryl F. Zanuck, head of the 20th Century Fox studio] thought all women were either broads or librarians. He thought I was a librarian. He thought I was smart.
There was only one DeMille, and there wasn't an actor in the world who didn't want to work for him just once.
[on All About Eve (1950)] None of us knew we were making a film classic. Every day was like a glorious relay race.
[on All About Eve (1950)] None of us, Marilyn Monroe included, none of us could wait to get to work.
[on All About Eve (1950)] I was good, I was respected, I had a great part, the script was superb; the actors were perfect and perfectly cast. Even me, and I wasn't always.
John Hodiak and I were happily married then, but I had a secret crush on Joseph L. Mankiewicz. His wit, his modest perspicacity, and my latent father complex drew me to him like a magnet. In fact, all the ladies on the set melted and gravitated to him as I did.
George Sanders did not in the least resemble Sleepy, the Disney dwarf. However, they shared a penchant for shuteye. George slept soundly in his portable dressing room between shots.
Alfred Hitchcock had turned me blond for I Confess (1953), and I'd stayed that way, at considerable cost in time and money and effort, until The Ten Commandments (1956) three years later. At which point, Cecil B. DeMille turned me auburn. The use of henna was prevalent in Egypt, and I was to play Egyptian Nefertiti's granddaughter Nefretiri. Actually I wore several wigs, but the picture went on so long I got used to myself reddish.
[1976] I can still see Sir Cedric Hardwicke sweating copiously in what he bitterly called his plastic beanie, which was two feet tall. He played the old Pharaoh Sethi. And Yul Brynner, expressionlessly arrogant, thrusting out his arm with first and second fingers open in a victory sign, into which his trembling body servant slid a lighted cigarette. Regal Yul never, ever looked around. That used to really impress DeMille.
I took a cut in salary to work for DeMille; a lot of actors did; he seemed to expect it as a kind of due. There was only one DeMille and there wasn't an actor in the world who didn't want to work for him just once, however short the salary or tall the corn. I could still picture Angela Lansbury coyly running around in chiffon skivvies, letting arrows fly at the back end of a lion skin tacked on a patio wall in Samson and Delilah (1949). I always thought that looked like good fun.
Edith Head and I really got to know each other in The Ten Commandments (1956). We had fittings on the unbelievably extravagant costumes for over a period of eight months. I made two other pictures in between fittings.
Nineteen hundred forty-six had been quite a year. I had married John Hodiak and, through a ridiculous series of Hollywood flukes, got the coveted part of Sophie in The Razor's Edge (1946). I knew about the film - they'd tested thirteen girls on and off the Twentieth Century-Fox lot. It never occurred to me they'd even consider me for the part. I'd been sidetracked into sweet-ingenue roles, and from what I'd heard about Sophie, I didn't have a prayer.
[1953] In all honesty I must admit that I'm no holier-than-thou. I'm not Gree-ah Garson [Greer Garson]. I'm a young actress who resents being presented as dull and inhibited.
[1953] In the past my sex appeal has been kept in shackles. My fan mail, for example, has always consisted of letters congratulating me on my acting ability, my interpretation of various roles. I appreciate those letters. I really do. But why haven't I got any mail asking for pinup photos? The answer is simple: men, because of my films and reputation, have regarded me as brainy, dull, motherly, practical, anything but sexy.
There is no stopping ambition. I always like to dramatize things in my life. Acting is not merely fun, it's an earnest career.
[on her second Academy Award nomination] My career had gone on since the age of 13 . . . and I felt that I had worked long enough to have earned leading-actress status. . . . I should have been practical the way the studio was practical. They knew what my billing was. . . .
I guess I do take chances. But then, I have a large appetite for life. I want to experience everything.
[on Frank Lloyd Wright, who left his family for another woman] Mother always said he was a lousy father. And she said it just that way . . . that he may be a great architect . . . but he is a lousy father.
[on Darryl F. Zanuck, who wanted to nominate her for Best Supporting Actress for All About Eve (1950)] He said he could guarantee a win. But could he? Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter both got nominations and split the vote, so Josephine Hull won. So how would I have won as the third nominee? I told him the movie was titled after my character. It wasn't called All About Margo, was it? So I refused. I got nominated and so did Bette as Best Actress and we split the vote and Judy Holliday got it. Betty was more than mildly upset, Zanuck more so. My career at Fox was over, although it took me awhile to realize that.
[on Orson Welles] To his credit Orson always asked us for acting solutions, to try something a different way. And yes, he did make the obligatory pass at me and I made the obligatory refusal.
[on her popularity as a star of World War II films] I was getting almost as much mail as Betty Grable. I was our boys' idealized girl next door.
[on I Confess (1953)] Hitch had hired a Norwegian star, Anita Björk, but when she arrived in Hollywood she confided in Jack Warner she was expecting. And Jack freaked out because that would have made her an illegitimate mother. So he fired her and told me to fly to Quebec City, where shooting had already commenced. Hitch was seething but there was nothing he could do, and I was never able to warm him up.
At one time I was up for How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) until Nunnally Johnson picked Marilyn Monroe, as he should have. She had zoomed in popularity after All About Eve (1950). But I turned blond for a screen test for him and I stayed blond for a bit. My agent, Henry Wilson, even had me smoking cigars for the sake of publicity!
[on The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)] I'd talked with and tested for Orson Welles, but he said his heart was set on Jeanne Crain, who he'd met in the RKO commissary. Jeanne was prettier than I was but hadn't acted as yet. RKO studio head George Schaefer made the call, much to Orson's displeasure. His days as the studio golden boy ended when Citizen Kane (1941) failed to return a profit.
[on Homecoming (1948)] The film just was not believable. Gable and Lana Turner are doctor and nurse on the front lines and each night repair to separate tents? I think not. But the censor would not permit any hints of adultery. That was the Code in effect. And I was stuck on the home front and never wavered? Blah. It would have been far more realistic to confront the actual situations that had arisen. So the picture flopped. Big time.
[on Wallace Beery, her co-star in 20 Mule Team (1940)] Wally Beery had very busy hands and Marjorie Rambeau said she'd protect me - and she did, very nicely. Stepped right in and would snort, "Back off, you old sea horse!" Acting with him was impossible. He'd paraphrase everything and told me to "jump right in when I stop talking."
[on her appearance in 1940] I had a body like a mini Mack truck and a face that looked like it was storing nuts for the winter.
[on the Academy Award] It's like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval.
[on The Ten Commandments (1956)] The soundstage sets were magnificent. It was all corny, sure, but DeMille knew it was corny - that's what he wanted, what he loved. I loved slinking around - really, this was silent film acting but with dialogue. No shading was permitted. "Louder! Better!" That's what DeMille roared at everybody. It was all too much for him, I'm afraid, and directing the desert scenes in the Sinai was so strenuous he had a heart attack. This one was the last film he directed. It's on TV every Easter. I advise sitting down with a big box of chocolates, a jug of white wine, and a loaf of freshly baked bread. I do it that way and I still love this last gasp of old Hollywood excessiveness.
[on You're My Everything (1949)] It spoofed vaudeville and silent movies, but people couldn't have cared less. They did it so much better in Singin' in the Rain (1952), I'm afraid.
[describing an interview with Cecil B. DeMille for the role of Nefretiri in The Ten Commandments (1956)] DeMille asked me to come in. His office at Paramount was bursting with books, props, rolls of linens. I told him I'd have to wear an Egyptian false nose and he pounded the table. "No. Baxter, your Irish nose stays in this picture." He acted out my part and I kept nodding, and I walked out with the part.
[on The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1952)] I'm getting my clothes selected in rehearsals and Miriam Hopkins comes up and pats me on the shoulder, saying, "My dear, both of us have survived Bette Davis!"
[on A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950)] On that one I very well remember Marilyn Monroe as one of the chorus girls. She had dirty fingernails and always seemed so unkempt and then she just exploded in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and All About Eve (1950). But here? Didn't even get billing.
The Academy Awards are a horse race. Any time you vote between five people, all kinds of things happen. To me, the accolade is the nomination, because this is the joy of your peers, who simply say we think you did a great job. That's all there is to it. That's the nice thing.
[on Charlton Heston] I think there's no doubt at all that Charlton was deeply affected by the role he played [in The Ten Commandments (1956)]. Moses, you see, had to be so subtly differentiated in portraying the three great phases of his life - those of the Prince of Egypt, the outlaw shepherd, and the man who led the Israelites to the Promised Land - that it required interpretation of the most delicate shadings. I, as the queen who loved him, could feel how beautifully he accomplished this.
[All About Eve (1950)] was originally titled Command Performance. First cast was Claudette Colbert as Margo and then Zanuck insisted on Jeanne Crain as Eve because she had just had a huge hit in Pinky (1949) and got an Oscar nomination. Jeanne later withdrew because she found she was pregnant - again! And then Joe asked me. In the back of his mind, he said, Eve and Margo should resemble each other and Claudette and I both had these square faces.
[on first husband, actor John Hodiak] I was just leaving Alfred Hitchcock's house and John was just coming in. He was about to star in Hitch's Lifeboat (1944). I took one look at him and that was the end of me. Then we made a picture together [Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944)] and fell in love.
[1942] Maybe my way is the hardest way because many actresses have got their start by being seen often in swim suits. I think I'll skip it just the same. It's not that I'm prudish, I just want the moviegoers to remember my face.
