Barbara Baxley

Barbara Baxley
Barbara Baxley
	Baxley in a 1955 stage production of Bus Stop
Born	Barbara Angie Rose Baxley; January 1, 1923; Porterville, California, U.S.
Died	June 7, 1990 (aged 67); Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Film, stage, television actress
Years active	1943–1990

Barbara Angie Rose Baxley (January 1, 1923 – June 7, 1990) was an American actress and singer.

Early life

Barbara Baxley acted for six years in productions of schools and Little Theaters before she had her first professional role.^[1]

Career

A life member of the Actors Studio,^[2] Baxley also studied acting under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York City.^{[citation needed]} Her first film was East of Eden, where she portrayed Adam Trask's obnoxious nurse at the end of the film.

In 1961, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress (Dramatic) for her performance in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's comedy Period of Adjustment. She appeared in Chekhov's The Three Sisters and Neil Simon's Plaza Suite as well as the 1960s Broadway musical She Loves Me, which co-starred Jack Cassidy, Barbara Cook and Daniel Massey. She also starred in the 1976 Broadway play Best Friend.

Baxley appeared in supporting roles in many television series of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. She played a wife who had her rodeo performer husband, played by Lee Van Cleef, murdered in the crime drama series Richard Diamond, Private Detective, starring David Janssen. She appeared in a 1958 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Gilded Lily", as Enid Griffin and she played the role of Cora Wheeler in the original Twilight Zone episode of "Mute".

Baxley played two different characters in two episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel, starring Richard Boone. She played the widow Lucy "Rose" Morrow in S1 E28 "Killer's Widow" which aired 3/21/1958. She also played roles on Where the Heart Is and Another World, two daytime soap operas. She further played on an episode of The Fugitive as the one-armed man's girlfriend. She appeared in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Another Baxley performance came in a 1973 episode of Hawaii Five-O entitled "One Big Happy Family". She portrayed the matriarch of a serial-killing family.

She is perhaps better known for the role of Lady Pearl, the feisty wife of country music icon Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) in Robert Altman's film Nashville (1975) and as the mother of Sally Field's character in Norma Rae (1979).

Baxley was a close friend of musician Dave Brubeck and his wife; according to him, Baxley was more like a member of the family.^[3] He later confirmed that Baxley was a liberal Democrat, an atheist, a woman who always put the needs and well-being of others before her own self, and that when she died, he and his wife, Iola, not only handled her funeral arrangements but also buried her in the same cemetery next to their own plots so that they all could be together as one in death, same as in life, because their bond held such a strong connection.^[3]

Death

Baxley died at age 67 on June 7, 1990, at her home in Manhattan, New York, of an apparent heart attack.^[4] She is buried at Umpawaug Cemetery in Redding, Connecticut.^[5]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1955	East of Eden	Nurse	Uncredited
1957	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Miss Elliot	Season 2 Episode 16: "Nightmare in 4-D"
1957	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Lalage	Season 2 Episode 30: "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater"
1958	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Anne Smith	Season 4 Episode 6: "Design for Loving"
1958	The Badlanders	Diane	(scenes deleted)
1959	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Myra Jenkins	Season 5 Episode 6: "Anniversary Gift"
1959	Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond	Miss Lois Morrison	Episode: "Message from Clara" (broadcast November 10th)
1960	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Irma Coulette	Season 5 Episode 22: "Across the Threshold"
1960	The Savage Eye	Judith McGuire
1962	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Maude Sheridan	Season 7 Episode 16: "The Case of M.J.H."
1962	All Fall Down	Schoolteacher
1967	Countdown	Jean
1968	No Way to Treat a Lady	Belle Poppie
1972	Images	Telephone	Voice, uncredited
1975	Nashville	Lady Pearl
1979	Butterflies in Heat
1979	Norma Rae	Leona
1982	A Stranger Is Watching	Lally
1989	Sea of Love	Miss Allen
1990	A Shock to the System	Lillian
1990	The Exorcist III	Shirley	(final film role)