Keith Baxter (actor)

Keith Stanley Baxter-Wright was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, on 29 April 1933. He was the son of Stanley Baxter-Wright, a Merchant Navy sea captain, and Emily Baxter (née Howell).{{cite news |title=Keith Baxter, much-loved actor and theatre man who played Prince Hal to Orson Welles’s Falstaff – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/10/13/keith-baxter-actor-theatre-film-obituary/ |access-date=13 October 2023 |publisher=The Telegraph |date=13 October 2023}} They lived for a time in Romilly Road, Barry, Glamorgan. He was educated at Newport High School and Barry Grammar School. His early introduction to the stage was from his interest in making model theatres and stage scenery. He studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, during which period he shared a flat with a classmate, Alan Bates. He made his film debut in the 1957 remake of The Barretts of Wimpole Street and appeared uncredited as a detective in the British horror classic Peeping Tom (1960).

In 1960, Orson Welles selected Baxter to portray Prince Hal in his stage production Chimes at Midnight, which combined portions of the Shakespearean plays Henry IV, Part I, Henry IV, Part II, Henry V, Richard II, and The Merry Wives of Windsor and brought the comic figure of Falstaff to the forefront of a primarily tragic tale. Baxter repeated his performance in the 1965 film version. Additional film credits include Ash Wednesday (1973; with Elizabeth Taylor), Golden Rendezvous (1977), and Killing Time (1998).{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/oct/22/keith-baxter-obituary|title=Keith Baxter obituary|author=Michael Coveney|language=en|date=22 October 2023|website=The Guardian|access-date=9 December 2023}}

In 1961, Baxter made his Broadway debut as King Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons. Other New York City stage credits included The Affair (1962), Avanti! (1968), Sleuth (1970), Romantic Comedy (1980), and The Woman in Black (2001).

• Macbeth, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Birmingham, England, 1972
• Vershinin, Three Sisters, Greenwich Theatre, London, 1973
• Benedick, Much Ado about Nothing, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1973
• Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, Stratford Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario, 1976
• Witwoud, The Way of the World, Stratford Festival Theatre, 1976
• Vershinin, Three Sisters, Stratford Festival Theatre, 1976
• King, The Red Devil Battery Sign, Round House Theatre, then Phoenix Theatre, both London, 1977
• Lord Illingworth, A Woman of No Importance, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1978
• Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, Young Vic Theatre, London, 1982
• Elyot, Private Lives, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1990
• Cassius, Julius Caesar, Hartford Stage Company, 1990-1991
• The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Chichester and The Duchess Theatre, 2013

• The Red Devil Battery Sign, Roundhouse and Phoenix Theatre, 1977
• Time and the Conways, 1988–89
• Rope, Chichester Festival Theatre then Wyndham's Theatre, 1994
• Dangerous Corner, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1994, and Whitehall Theatre, 1995
• Gaslight
• After October, 1996–97
• Silhouette

Baxter regularly directed shows at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., including:{{cite web|title=Complete Listing of Past Seasons at the Shakespeare Theatre Company|url=http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/history/all_prods.aspx|publisher=Shakespeare Theatre Company|accessdate=18 February 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525050812/http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/history/all_prods.aspx|archivedate=25 May 2011}}

• The Country Wife (2000)
• The Rivals (2003)
• Lady Windermere's Fan (2003){{cite web |url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/93385-Keith-Baxter-Directs-Dixie-Carter-Tessa-Auberjonois-in-DC-Shakespeare-Theatres-Lady-Windermeres-Fan-June-7 |title=Keith Baxter Directs Dixie Carter, Tessa Auberjonois in D.C. Shakespeare Theatre's Lady Windermere's Fan June 7 |work=Playbill |accessdate=20 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019173012/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/93385-Keith-Baxter-Directs-Dixie-Carter-Tessa-Auberjonois-in-DC-Shakespeare-Theatres-Lady-Windermeres-Fan-June-7 |archivedate=19 October 2012}}
• The Imaginary Invalid (2008)
• The Rivals (2009)
• Mrs. Warren's Profession (2010){{cite news|last=Marks|first=Peter|title='Mrs. Warren's Profession' is alluring in Shakespeare Theatre Company production|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061504815.html|accessdate=25 February 2013|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=16 June 2010}}
• An Ideal Husband (2011){{cite news|last=Marks|first=Peter|title=Theater review: Shakespeare Theatre Company’s ‘An Ideal Husband’|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/theater-review-shakespeare-theatre-companys-an-ideal-husband/2011/03/16/ABBwsIh_story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216161035/http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-03-16/lifestyle/35260648_1_sir-robert-chiltern-royal-nuptials-ideal-husband|url-status=live|archive-date=16 December 2013|access-date=25 February 2013|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=16 March 2011}}
• The Importance of Being Earnest

Baxter was signed for the role of Octavian "Augustus" Caesar opposite Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra in the 1963 film of Cleopatra. Taylor's bout of pneumonia, soon after filming began, temporarily shut down filming. By the time she recovered, Baxter had other commitments and Roddy McDowall assumed the role. Baxter co-starred with Taylor in the film Ash Wednesday (1973). He also later played Mark Antony opposite Maggie Smith's Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra at the Stratford Festival in Canada in 1976.{{cite web | url =https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/people/5306 | title = Keith Baxter acting credits | website = Stratford Festival Archives | access-date = 5 June 2019}}

Baxter's television work included appearances in Gideon's Way, The Avengers, Hawaii Five-O, Thriller (1976) and the 1998 mini-series Merlin.

Baxter was the author of a memoir, My Sentiments Exactly {{cite web|title=My Sentiments Exactly (Hardback)|url=http://oberonbooks.com/biography-and-memoir/my-sentiments-hardback|website=Oberon Books|publisher=Oberon Books|accessdate=13 August 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004194836/http://oberonbooks.com/biography-and-memoir/my-sentiments-hardback|archivedate=4 October 2015}} and of several plays, including 56 Duncan Terrace, Cavell and Barnaby and the Old Boys.

In 1971 he recorded an LP of several short stories by Saki for Caedmon Records under the title Reginald on House-Parties, and Other Stories.{{cite web|title=Reginald on house-parties, and other stories|url=http://searchworks.stanford.edu/catalog/citation?id=7193|website=SearchWorks|publisher=Stanford University Libraries|accessdate=13 August 2015}}{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Baxter was an associate member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

During the 1960s Baxter had a brief affair with the dancer Rudolf Nureyev.{{cite book|author=Julie Kavanagh|title=Rudolf Nureyev: the Life|publisher=Penguin Random House|year=2008|ISBN=9780241986905|pages=336-9}} In 1979 he met Brian Holden and formed a lasting relationship; they married in 2016 and moved from London to West Sussex.

Keith Baxter died from a heart attack while swimming on holiday in Corsica, on 24 September 2023. He was 90, and was survived by his husband.

• 1962 Theatre World Award for A Man for All Seasons
• 1971 Drama Desk Award for Sleuth

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0062772|name=Keith Baxter}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20121005162356/http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=people&keyword=name&first=Keith&last=Baxter&middle= Keith Baxter] at Internet Off-Broadway Database
• [http://www.bristol.ac.uk/theatrecollection/search/search/people_sub_plays?forename=Keith&surname=BAXTER&job=Director&pid=243&image_view=Yes&x=19&y=17 Selected plays directed by Keith Baxter], Bristol University Theatre Archive

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Category:1933 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Category:Male actors from Newport, Wales

Category:Welsh LGBTQ actors

Category:People educated at Barry Comprehensive School

Category:People educated at Newport High School

Category:Welsh male film actors

Category:Welsh male stage actors

Category:Welsh male television actors

Category:20th-century Welsh male actors

Category:21st-century Welsh male actors