Anne Baxter

Acting is not what I do. It's what I am. It's my permanent, built-in cathedral.

Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an American actress, star of Hollywood films, Broadway productions, and television series. She won an Oscar and a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy.

Quotes

"Outspoken Anne Baxter Tells It Like It Really Is" (1971)

Haber, Joyce (June 20, 1971). "Outspoken Anne Baxter Tells It Like It Really Is". Los Angeles Times.

• Darryl Zanuck thought all women were either broads or librarians. He thought I was a librarian. He thought I was smart.

• Being a wife-mother and doing a job, it's the toughest damn thing in the world. But we want it.

• Acting is not what I do. It's what I am. It's my permanent, built-in cathedral.

Interview with James Bawden and Ron Miller (1983)

Bawden, James; Miller, Ron (2016). Conversations With Classic Film Stars; Interviews from Hollywood's Golden Era. pp. 137—151

• Well, Walter Lang rushed over to apologize to me once when Barrymore cut loose with a barrage of foul language, but I didn't even know he was swearing. The way I was raised, I didn't even hear a four-letter word until I was eighteen. I mean that. Here's another example: I was autographing photos of me for fans once and my mother looked over my shoulder with a stricken look on her face and said, "What are you writing?" So I told her: "Good luck, always, Anne Baxter." Then she told me, "Your 'L' looks just like an 'F,' and that's a very dirty word!" But the truth is I'd never heard that word before and hadn't a clue what it meant.
  • p. 140

• I wasn't pretty enough to be used for cutesy parts. At my very best, I was attractive. I was not a face, so I never got into that rut. I was also constantly dieting to get rid of my baby fat. I was having a hard time with that and think I probably had a mild case of bulimia. I became a foodaholic. I loved rhubarb pies. There used to be this little place on Ventura Boulevard that made wonderful rhubarb pies. I'd buy one, drive my car onto a side road, eat the whole thing, and then spit it back into the box. I'd buy whole containers of ice cream and spit it into the disposal. It was disgusting!
  • pp. 140–141

• Adored him, but he was a lost soul. Kept saying, "They don't make films here like we do in France, n'est-ce pas?" [...] We filmed indoors on a studio stage with a recreated swamp. Jean could only clasp his arms and look horrified. He was limited in camera angles because of the transparency screens—a movement of inches and the screens would be exposed. And his English was learned from books. In conversation, he was terrible. One day he told a little girl extra to "Make some water." He meant get her dress damp because she'd just been pulled from the swamp. Her mother was horrified, thinking he'd asked her to tinkle—and slapped his face.
  • p. 141

• I loved that one because Greg Peck usually was so stolid in his pictures. Billy made him relax more than usual. He was playing an outlaw and I was shacked up in this ghost town with my pa and the outlaws are trying to smoke us out. Well, there's one line where I remark about his body odor and Greg tried to get it removed, saying it might undermine his box office appeal among girls. And Billy just chuckled and kept on shooting.
  • p. 144

• I can report George Sanders was twice as acerbic in person than on camera as Addison Dewitt. He was just plain nasty to poor Marilyn Monroe, who was always quaking in her boots. He'd pat her on the rump and say, "You almost got through that two-line speech, my dear. Shall we try again?"
  • p. 146

• When the stage musical came along, I was asked to play Margo [the Bette Davis role in the movie] to replace Betty Bacall, and I first thought it was gimmicky. But I can sing, or rather croak, and I wanted to do Broadway—and it turned out just fine. One matinee day Bette Davis phoned and said she was coming to check me out, and we got a chair placed just behind the curtain so she could watch without the audience watching her. After the curtain came down she said, "Baxter, you can still astonish me." And she left. Just like that. On another occasion, she was in Chicago to receive the real Sarah Siddons Award and I popped out to give it to her. Get it? Eve giving Margo the award she'd first won. She looked hesitant when she saw me and then roared with laughter. She got it, she really got it.
  • p. 150

Quotes about Anne Baxter

• We've lost a remarkable actress and a significant star. I ... found her to be an extraordinary performer and a fine woman.
  • Charlton Heston, as quoted in "Academy Award-winner Anne Baxter dead at 62"

• Anne Baxter's death is a shattering shock to all of us who loved her and had the privilege of working with her.
  • Aaron Spelling, as quoted in "Academy Award-winner Anne Baxter dead at 62"

External links

• Anne Baxter on IMDb