Cause of death Heart attack Role TV Personality Name Frank Baxter | Known for Educational television Awards Peabody Award | |
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Full Name Francis Condie Baxter Born May 4, 1896 ( 1896-05-04 ) Newbold, New Jersey Alma mater University of PennsylvaniaCambridge University (Ph.D.) Notable work The Bell Laboratory Science Series Spouse Lydia Spencer Morris (m. 1928–1982) Movies Hemo the Magnificent, The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays TV shows | ||
Francis Condie Baxter (May 4, 1896 – January 18, 1982) was an American TV personality and educator. He was a professor of English at the University of Southern California. Baxter hosted Telephone Time in 1957 and 1958 when ABC picked up the program and ended the tenure of John Nesbitt. During the 1950s, his program Shakespeare on TV won seven Emmy Awards.
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Biography
Born in Newbold, New Jersey, Baxter is best remembered for his appearances from 1956–1962 as "Dr. Research" in The Bell Laboratory Science Series of television specials. These films became a staple in American classrooms from the 1960s through the 1980s. The Bell series combined scientific footage, live actors and animation to convey scientific concepts and history in a lively, entertaining way; and the bald, bespectacled and affable Baxter served as narrator, lecturer and host. These films made Baxter (who was not a scientist) something of a scientific icon among baby boomers. Several of Baxter's science films have been released on DVD.
Baxter also appeared (as himself) in a prologue to the 1956 film The Mole People, in which he gave a brief history of theories of life beneath the surface of the earth.
In 1966, Baxter hosted a popular TV series called The Four Winds to Adventure, featuring filmmakers exploring little-known areas of the world, whether across continents, oceans, or local people and animals in a particular region.
Baxter died in 1982 in Pasadena, California; he was 85. His body was cremated, but his ashes were scattered in Colorado, not placed in a vault in California as some sources maintain.
Awards
In 1959, Baxter won the inaugural Golden Gavel award of Toastmasters International. Baxter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1960, he won the Southland Emmy Award as Outstanding Male Personality for his work at KRCA-TV in Los Angeles, California.
Selected filmography
Except as noted, this filmography is based on the credits listed at the Internet Movie Database.