Bruce Baxter in 1933
Bruce Baxter (1894 - 1979) was an American actor in the Early 20th Century.
Biography[]
Bruce Baxter was born in Atlantic City in 1894. Baxter moved from New Jersey to California where he started his career as an actor. He befriended Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Baxter had a great career in Hollywood, but the Great Depression ruined his career in Los Angeles, moving to New York City.
In 1933, Bruce Baxter was a famous and successful action/romance actor who was hired to star in Carl Denham's new project. The studio had thought Denham hired Baxter as promised to appear in a previous series involving romantic scenes with Moraine Mackenzie, but were disappointed to see that it was another one of Denham's "safari pictures". Preston Hanks welcomed Baxter onboard the Venture and assisted him into his cabin. Baxter was disappointed and disgusted at the standards of the cabin and decorated it with posters of his films, which were later vandalized by Jimmy Bell of the Venture crew. Baxter however contemplated the idea of growing a mustache, thinking the look might start to grow on him.
He originally took part in the rescue group for Ann Darrow and, during the running of the "Brontosaurus", brings the great reversal of these dinosaurs, as he had shot one of the "Brontosaurus" in the legs, causing it to trip, obstructing the others' paths and causing them to fall over one another. After abandoning the search for Ann (justifying it by declaring "I'm just an actor with a gun, who's lost his motivation"), he made his way back to the Venture. Later he had a change of heart and returned to save Bell, Denham and Jack Driscoll from the insects after they had fallen off the log. Captain Englehorn gives him credit for this, as he "insisted on a rescue mission" - in contrast with his previously survival-of-the-fittest nature. Later, during the capture of Kong, he was seen standing and holding his Thompson. When Kong broke and everyone headed to the Lifeboats, he got into one with Englehorn, Ann, Preston, and 4 sailors, he was holding onto Ann in order to protect her from Kong, despite protest that she can calm Kong down. After Kong was hit and knocked out with chloroform thrown by Denham, he stood and watched as Kong fell asleep. Carl Denham also gave him credit for rescuing Ann after they returned to New York; a blatant lie, as it was Jack who had done so, however Bruce went along with it, with Jack likely refusing to be in the show.
However, while posing for photographers backstage, Bruce realized that Kong was about to break free from his chains. Wisely, despite being slowed down by photographers, he left the theater, just moments before Kong broke free and went to rampage. Off-screen, as chaos ensues inside the theater, he escaped the area before Kong broke out into the city, avoiding and surviving the whole ordeal. After the Kong Incident, Baxter continued his career as an actor in Broadway.
He died in Hoboken, New Jersey In 1979.