Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 - December 12, 1985)

Anne Baxter...where do I begin? Between 1940 and 1980 she appeared in 52 films. She was on hand to appear in some of the greatest including The Razor's Edge, All About Eve, The Ten Commandments, and The Blue Gardenia. Her television resume isn't to bad either. Like many of her colleagues she appeared in episodes of "Playhouse 90", "Lux Playhouse", "The DuPont Show with June Allyson", "Wagon Train" and "General Electric Theater." She also guest starred on "Dr. Kildare", "My Three Sons", "The F.B.I.", "The Virginian", "The Big Valley", "Marcus Welby, M.D.", "Ironside", "Cannon", "Banacek", "Mannix", and "The Love Boat." For me she will always be three people...Eve in All About Eve of course and Zelda the Great & Olga, Queen of the Cossacks on the 1960's version of "Batman." The thing I loved about her two appearances as Zelda the Great in the episodes "Zelda the Great" and "A Death Worse than Fate" was that the cliffhanger didn't involve Batman and Robin for once but rather Aunt Harriet (Madge Blake)! Zelda turns the tables on the Dymanic Duo and nabs Aunt Harriet but of course there was always a happy ending. I'm sure many people in 1966 kept their fingers crossed for Aunt Harriet until the next "Bat-Time" on the same "Bat-Channel." As Queen Olga she was brilliantly cast opposite Vincent Price as the peculiar egg obsessed evil genius Egghead. The part that I love the most is that the television series "Hotel" was originally supposed to star Bette Davis as Laura Trent, Baxter's co-star in All About Eve. Unfortunately the actress became ill after the pilot was filmed and Baxter was cast as her sister-in-law, Victoria Cabot. She became a permanent fixture on the show...so permanent that Davis was not asked back when she recovered. Unfortunately I don't know how it was explained that Victoria Cabot was "filling in" for Laura Trent in the show's storyline. I love the irony, it almost shadows All About Eve completely...who would have thought in 1950 that such a thing would go on to happen in 1983? Baxter's sudden death from a brain aneurysm in December 1985 was a devistating shock to the industry. I've never watched "Hotel" for longer than ten minutes but I'm sure her presence was severely missed. I will say that her other in-laws were played by quite a roster of fine actors...Ralph Bellamy, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and Dina Merrill. No matter what I will always see Anne Baxter in her Queen Olga crown and robe plotting with Vincent Price's Egghead to take over Gotham City for the rest of my life....

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