Baxter has a long string of credits stretching back over a distinguished 22-year dramatic career. In addition to appearances in New York and widely elsewhere through this country, he has played in England, Africa, Spain and Australia.
Among over 100 roles, he recalls most fondly and proudly appearance in two Lambs’ Showcase productions. One was his playing of Mac Duff in 1957 opposite Ian Keith in the title role of Macbeth. The other was his starring role of Eddie Pierce in the historic 1951 world premier of Stalag 17, which moved on from The Lambs’ Theater to international success on Broadway, in London and on film. Charley resumed his starring role in its London production.
A native of Paterson NJ, Baxter studied at the Yale School of Drama with famed coach, Constance Welch. Following graduation in 1947, he came to New York City where, on a September day at lunch, with two classmates in a 45th Street bistro, he was introduced to a lady agent.
The introduction led to an audition before Richard Rodgers which brought Charles Baxter’s rich baritone to the chorus of the New York cast of Oklahoma! Subsequently, he played the role of Will Parker in a road company tour of the memorable Rodgers-Hammerstein musical. The following season he returned to the Broadway scene in the musical Texas’ Li’l Darlin’.
Over the years Charley used is versatile talents in all media — in dramatic and musical productions on and off Broadway, in stock, on film, over radio and TV — both dramatically and commercially.
Sop opera fans will readily identify with Charles Baxter, now in his third year in Another World, and with past parts in such other soaps as Edge of Night, As The World Turns, The Secret Storm, The Guiding Light, and Love of Life. Other major TV programs on which he has been featured include Ominbus, The Herb Shriner Show, Scott Music Hall, Show of Shows, Kraft Theater, Hallmark and Philco Playhouse.
He performed on Broadway with Sandy Dennis in Any Wednesday (later touring Australia for seven months in the same vehicle); with Barbara Bel Geddes and Barry Nelson in Edward Albee’s Everything in the Garden; with James Daly in The Advocate, and opposite Vicki Cummings in Hook N’ Ladder.
In stock, he toured with Angela Lansbury in Affairs of State and Gramercy Ghost, and has appeared in other shows with such stars as Eve Arden, Veronica Lake, Joan Blondell, Gloria Swanson, Kay Francis and Sarah Churchill, as well as with Wayne Morris, Robert Alda, Arthur Treacher, Frank McHugh and George Tobias.
Charley’s film appearances include a 1961 Cine-Features production of Lust for Ivory, which was shot in Tanganyika and starred him as a great white hunter. With four months’ free time between this vehicle and a Samuel Bronston production, 55 Days at Peking, which was filmed in Madrid, he took a leisurely 15,000 mile safair through east and north Africa, up the Nile and on to Gibraltar and Spain.
During his work on the Peking production, Charley got hooked on Spain, to the extent of buying a cliff-side Moorish tower in Mojacar, on the country’s southeast coast. He looks forward to eventual retirement to this abode, which commands a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea and his five-acre farm in the valley below.
Stalg 17 had poignant associations for Baxter, as well as for its co-authors, Don Bevan and Ed Trczynski. Charley was a tail-gunner on an 8th Air Force B-17, which was shot down during a bombing raid on a German fighter plane base in France. Captured after parachuting down, he was taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Austria, where he met Bevan and Trcynski. Their experiences during three years as prisoners, of course, inspired the writing of Stalag 17. Charley was mainly responsible for getting its premier production at The Lambs.
Since coming into The Fold in 1949, Charles Baxter has contributed devotedly to our club, having served as a Record Secretary and a member of Council, also a member of the House, Admissions and Entertainment committees.
Reprinted from The Lambs’ Script, 10/17/69