Do you remember Warner Baxter? Can you name any of his films, other than 42nd Street? Read on and we’ll provide some visual clues.
First, just who IS Warner Baxter? Answer: A silent movie veteran who successfully made the jump to mostly run-of-the-mill talkies. (He made over 100 movies over a 32-year career.)
As British critic David Thomson puts it: (Baxter) is now hardly known because only a handful of his films are ever seen.
Besides 1933’s 42nd Street, in which Baxter plays a harassed director, the actor is best remembers perhaps for John Ford’s 1936 adventure outing The Prisoner of Shark Island, which has Baxter playing a doctor imprisoned for setting John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg; and for Howard Hawks’ 1936 combat saga, The Road To Glory.
Let’s not forget Baxter’s Oscar-winning performance as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 western, In Old Arizona.
Good fortune (at least for Baxter) played a hand since Raoul Walsh was initially all set to play The Kid (see below) in this first talkie to be filmed outdoors (in Utah and in California’s Mojave Desert). An auto accident resulted in a lost eye for Walsh, who had to withdraw. (He went on, of course, to become a distinguished director.) In any case, Warner’s career as a dashing matinee idol seemed assured.
But as Baxter himself noted, his career — which lasted until the year before he died in 1951 — had its wild swings. I was a failure and a success three times in Hollywood. ‘In Old Arizona’ ended a two-year slump, he said, and ’42nd Street’ revived me after The Cisco Kid had worn off.
But throughout the Thirties and Forties, stardom eluded him. Few of his 1930s movies have lasted well, noted Thomson. There was something subdued in Baxter, so that he often looked best in support of some other star.
Still in all, Baxter can be highly ranked among the most successful actors to weather the transition from silents to talkies. A notable survivor.
Penthouse, one of my favorite Myrna Loy movies also stars Warner Baxter. I also recently watched the silent film Linda specifically because Baxter was in it. Although it turns out his screen time was rather limited. It’s too bad he wasn’t born a little bit later, he could have given Clark Gable a run for his money. Unfortunately, he was entering his forties when the “talkies” began and I don’t think his age helped him compete against some of the younger stars. I’m curious how many of his films are actually available, since I don’t see them playing on TCM or other streaming sites often.
WARNER BAXTER…
The man, as renown Broadway producer/director Julian Marsh, who uttered that immortal cinematic, all defining HOLLYWOOD speech in 42ND STREET to newcomer Peggy Sawyer, played by newcomer herself Ruby Keeler…
“Sawyer, you listen to me, and you listen hard. Two hundred people, two hundred jobs, two hundred thousand dollars, five weeks of grind and blood and sweat depend upon you. It’s the lives of all these people who’ve worked with you. You’ve got to go on, and you’ve got to give and give and give. They’ve got to like you. Got to. Do you understand? You can’t fall down. You can’t because your future’s in it, my future and everything all of us have is staked on you. All right, now I’m through, but you keep your feet on the ground and your head on those shoulders of yours and go out, and Sawyer, YOU’RE GOING OUT A YOUNGSTER BUT YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK A STAR!”
Baxter was the first American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for IN OLD ARIZONA… Which really helped him to survive the silent era to sound transition, as many, even better actors didn’t.
As all ready noted, he was very honest about his career, that later was beset by health problems, that spared him the humiliation of having to seek work in television.
Warner Baxter Baxter suffered from arthritis for several years, and in 1951 he underwent a lobotomy as a last resort to ease the chronic pain. On May 7, 1951, he died of pneumonia at age 62 and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
As a movie fan, I live close to where the majority of HOLLYWOOD stars, character actors, bit-players, directors, producers, make-up men you name it…
And they all finally end up with equal billing, and if they’re lucky enough to have made a few memorable movies like Warner Baxter, then they are remembered!