Stanley Baxter, (born 24 May 1926 in Glasgow, Scotland), is a comic actor and impressionist, best known for his UK TV shows. The son of an insurance manager, Baxter was schooled for the stage by his mother. He began his career as a child actor in the Scottish edition of the BBC's Children's Hour. He developed his performing skills further during his National Service with the Combined Services Entertainment unit, working alongside the likes of comedy actor Kenneth Williams, film director John Schlesinger and dramatist Peter Nichols, who used the experience as the basis for his play Privates on Parade. Baxter returned to Glasgow taking to the stage for three years at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre before moving to London to work in television in 1959. His TV series, such as On The Bright Side (1959-60), The Stanley Baxter Show (1963, 1967-8, 1971), The Stanley Baxter Picture Show (1972) and The Stanley Baxter Series (1981) were enjoyed by enormous audiences and the later shows were memorable for the high quality of their production. The cost in terms of sets, effects and extras for these spectacular programmes resulted in Baxter's sacking in turn by the BBC and London Weekend Television. Perhaps his most memorable routine is “Parliamo Glasgow”. Conceived as being written by a fictitious scholar visiting Glasgow, the sketch took the patois of Glasgow and developed it to marvellous comic effect. This sketch was included in one of his BBC Scotland series in the 1960's and was based on the corporation's first venture into language programmes namely 'Parliamo Italiano' - 'Let's speak Italian'. The scene which most people remember is when he goes to the local market and says to the trader "Izat a marra on yer barra, Clara?", which he then translates into plain English as "Is that a marrow on your barrow, Clara?". Another introduced the Glaswegian word "Sanoffy", as in "Sanoffy cold day" ("It's an awfully cold day"). In 1969 he played in the original production of Joe Orton's controversial farce What The Butler Saw in the West End at the Queen's Theatre in 1969 with Sir Ralph Richardson, Coral Browne, and Hayward Morse. He guest starred in one of the episodes of The Goodies and later appeared in the lead role in Mr Majeika, a children's show about a magic teacher, expelled from Walpurgis (the wizard land) for failing his wizarding exams. He remained a great favourite on the Scottish pantomime circuit up until his retirement in 1991, starring with popular Scottish stars, Jimmy Logan and Una McLean. Working with director Neil Cargill, he then returned to radio by taking the role of Noel Coward in the BBC World Service Play of the Week, "Marvellous Party" - written by Jon Wynne-Tyson, it also starred Dorothy Tutin as Coward's life-long friend, Esme Wynne-Tyson (Jon's mother). Also with Cargill, he read "Whisky Galore" and "Jimmy Swan - The Joy Traveller" for BBC Radio, providing the voices of all the characters. He appeared in 2004 in a series of three half-hour radio sitcoms for BBC Radio 4, entitled Stanley Baxter and Friends. Baxter has appeared in a number of films, including Geordie (1955), Very Important Person (1961), The Fast Lady (1962) and Father Came Too! (1963), the last three alongside James Robertson Justice, together with the animation Arabian Knight (1995). He often played a fiercely nationalistic Scot, as in Very Important Person, a POW escape comedy where a stereotypical Nazi officer (also played by Baxter!) calls him "Englischer Schwein", Baxter responding "Scottish swine!!" He has also penned a number of books based on the language of Glasgow, as developed in his Parliamo Glasgow sketch, and on humour of the city. Six of Baxter's hour-long ITV shows were released in 2005 DVD as Stanley Baxter: The Specials. Stanley Baxter was married for 46 years. His wife Moira died in 1997.
External links
- Stanley Baxter at the Internet Movie Database
- Stanley Baxter biography and credits at BFI Screenonline
- Parliamo Glasgow audio clip from BBC Radio Scotland
- [1] Stanley Baxter as Mr Majeika (Video clip)
