Screen Legends Codexery

Anne Baxter

Academy Award-winning star of stage and screen.

Anne Baxter

Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons

Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an American actress, star of Hollywood films, Broadway productions, and television series. She won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and one Photoplay Award, and was nominated for two Laurel Awards.

born
May 7, 1923
died
December 12, 1985
field
Actress
nationality
American
known_for
Academy Award-winning role in The Razor's Edge; title role in All About Eve; role in The Ten Commandments

Lore & Background

A granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, Baxter studied acting with Maria Ouspenskaya and had some stage experience before making her film debut in The Great Profile (1940). She became a contract player of 20th Century-Fox and was loaned to RKO Pictures for the role of Lucy Morgan in Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). She was the leading lady in Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo (1943). In 1947, she won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Sophie MacDonald in The Razor's Edge (1946).

Reader's Guide

Baxter played the title role in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve (1950), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and won her first Laurel Award for Topliner Female Dramatic Performance. She worked with several of Hollywood's greatest directors, including Alfred Hitchcock in I Confess (1953), Fritz Lang in The Blue Gardenia (1953), and Cecil B. DeMille in The Ten Commandments (1956), for which she won her second Laurel Award for Topliner Female Dramatic Performance.

Did You Know?

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Anne Baxter?

Anne Baxter was an American stage, film, and television actress whose career stretched from the mid-1940s into the 1980s. She is best remembered for her Oscar-winning supporting turn in The Razor's Edge and her lead performance in All About Eve.

What are Anne Baxter's most iconic roles?

Her two signature screen performances are Sophie MacDonald in The Razor's Edge (1946) and Eve Harrington in All About Eve (1950). She is also widely associated with her part in The Ten Commandments.

Did Anne Baxter win an Oscar?

Yes—she took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Razor's Edge, and she earned a Best Actress nomination for All About Eve. The same Razor's Edge role also brought her a Golden Globe.

What is Anne Baxter's family background?

She was born on May 7, 1923, in Michigan City, Indiana. Her mother, Catherine Dorothy Wright, was the daughter of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, making Baxter the famous designer's granddaughter.

When did Anne Baxter pass away?

Anne Baxter died on December 12, 1985, closing out a career that spanned roughly four decades across film, Broadway, and television.

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