Barbara Baxley Movies
After briefly attending the College of the Pacific, Barbara Baxley headed to New York to pursue an acting career. Barbara studied at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse, then went on to become a charter member of the Actor's Studio. After making her New York stage bow in the 1948 revival of Private Lives, she spent the next several years taking over for a number of "big-name" actresses in long-running Broadway plays. She also starred in the original productions of Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Period of Adjustment, and worked extensively off-Broadway in projects like Brecht on Brecht. In the company of several of her Actor's Studios colleagues, Barbara made her film debut in East of Eden (1955), playing the nurse in the closing scenes. Other roles in her feature-film manifest included country-western matriarch Lady Pearl in Nashville (1975) and Leona in Norma Rae (1979). On television, Barbara was one of the stars of Norman Lear's satirical gender-switch soap opera All That Glitters (1977). In June of 1990, 62-year-old Barbara Baxley was found dead in her New York apartment, apparently the victim of heart failure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1957
This episode is, amazingly enough, based on a story by A.A. Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh. Henpecked husband Ernest Findlater (John Williams) dreams of escaping his dreary existence and heading off to the South Seas. During one such dream, a beautiful native girl named Lalage (Barbara Baxley) provides Mr. Findlater with a foolproof plan to eliminate the contentious Mrs. Findlater (Isobel Elsom). Watch for an uncredited Raymond Bailey (aka Mr. Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies) as Alfred Hitchcock's psychiatrist in the episode's prologue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Much to the dismay of his wife Norma (Virginia Gregg), middle-aged Harry Parker (Henry Jones) is quite smitten by his new neighbor across the hall, sexy actress Lainie Elliott (Barbara Baxley). Thus it is that, when Lainie comes to Harry's door in a panic, he offers to help her in any way he can. It seems that someone fired a shot through Lainie's window, instantly killing her husband -- and rather than be blamed for the murder, Lainie begs Harry to help her dispose of the body. The viewer might conclude that Harry is being set up for a fall by Lainie...but the viewer would be only half right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This truncated screen version of John Steinbeck's best-seller was the first starring vehicle for explosive 1950s screen personality James Dean, who plays Cal Trask, the "bad" son of taciturn Salinas valley lettuce farmer Adam Trask (Raymond Massey). Although he means well, Cal can't stay out of trouble, nor is he able to match the esteem in which his father holds his "good" brother Aron (Richard Davalos). Only Aron's girlfriend Abra (Julie Harris) and kindly old sheriff Sam Burl Ives) can see the essential goodness in the troublesome Cal.
When Adam invests in a chancy and wholly unsuccessful method of shipping his crops east, his wealth plummets. In an effort to save the business, Cal obtains money from his estranged mother (the proprietor of a whorehouse) and invests it in a risky new bean crop. The gamble pays off (thanks in no small part to the war), but Adam refuses to take the money from Cal, and the resultant quarrel causes Adam to have a stroke. Released the same year as Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden provided Dean with his first Oscar nomination, for Best Actor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
When Adam invests in a chancy and wholly unsuccessful method of shipping his crops east, his wealth plummets. In an effort to save the business, Cal obtains money from his estranged mother (the proprietor of a whorehouse) and invests it in a risky new bean crop. The gamble pays off (thanks in no small part to the war), but Adam refuses to take the money from Cal, and the resultant quarrel causes Adam to have a stroke. Released the same year as Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden provided Dean with his first Oscar nomination, for Best Actor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Harris, James Dean, (more)
