Jane Baxter

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 costarred with Michael Redgrave Redgrave said that she was every undergraduates 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 Loves Prisoner On the advice of the playwright JM 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 Redgraves 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 costarred 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 Mortimers 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