Acting
Community Rating
6.9
TMDB estimate
Born
September 9, 1909
Died
September 13, 1996 (age 87)
Born in
Bremen, Germany
A distinguished stage and film actress Jane Baxter was one of the most glamorous performers on the London stage. Winston Churchill, an ardent fan, once described her as, "that charming lady who grace personifies all that is best in British womanhood". Her stage career spanned half a century and she is best remembered for her role in "Dial M For Murder", in which she co-starred with Michael Redgrave. Redgrave said that she was "every undergraduate's ideal of an English rose". Born Fedora Kathleen Alice Forde in Germany, she came to London as a child and studied acting at the Italia Conti Stage School. She made her West End debut at the age of 13 in the musical comedy "Love's Prisoner". On the advice of the playwright J.M. Barrie, she changed her name to Jane Baxter and, in 1938, played the lead in the hit comedy "A Damsel in Distress". Several other West End shows followed as well as films such as We Live Again (1934), with Fredric March and The Clairvoyant (1935), with Claude Rains and, in 1935, she joined the repertory company at the Liverpool Playhouse where the leading actor was Michael Redgrave. He viewed her arrival "with some alarm", expecting "a spoilt and temperamental film star". Instead, he found "a delightful actress". Baxter eventually became godmother to Redgrave's daughter, the future actress Vanessa Redgrave. She had success again in London in 1937 with "George and Margaret", which ran for two years and, on Broadway, she co-starred with John Gielgud and Margaret Rutherford in "The Importance of Being Earnest", in which she played "Cicely Cardew". She continued to make films and appear on stage throughout the 1960s and her final London stage role was in John Mortimer's "A Voyage Round My Father", in which she starred opposite Michael Redgrave. Her last stage role was at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley in 1978 in the thriller "Assault", in which she appeared with Richard Todd. In 1992, she made a guest appearance - to a standing ovation - at the London Palladium in "A Tribute to Evelyn Laye". In her will, she requested that there be no memorial service for her but just a gathering of friends at her local church in Wimbledon, South London. Film director Bryan Forbes gave the address

Upstairs, Downstairs
as Dowager Lady Newbury
1971
All Hallowe'en
as Lady DeVille
1953

Death of an Angel
as Mary Welling
1952

The Flemish Farm
as Tresha
1943

Ships with Wings
as Celia Wetherby
1941

The Briggs Family
as Sylvia Briggs
1940

The Chinese Bungalow
as Charlotte Merivale
1940
Confidential Lady
as Jill Trevor
1939
Murder Will Out
as Pamela Raymond
1939

The Ware Case
as Lady Margaret 'Meg' Ware
1938
Second Best Bed
as Patricia Lynton
1938

Dusty Ermine
as Linda Kent
1936

The Man Behind the Mask
as Lady June Slade
1936

The Clairvoyant
as Christine
1935

Drake of England
as Elizabeth Sydenham
1935

Enchanted April
as Lady Caroline Dester
1935

The Little Minister
as Maid Helping with Wedding Dress
1934

We Live Again
as Missy Kortchagin
1934

The Night of the Party
as Peggy Studholme Kennion
1934

Blossom Time
as Vicki Wimpassinger
1934