Warner Baxter's fascination with the entertainment industry began at a young age. According to his own account, he discovered a boy from the neighborhood who was willing to eat worms and swallow flies for a penny, and for a third of the profits, he exhibited him in a tent.
As a nine-year-old, Baxter's widowed mother moved to San Francisco, where they lived in a tent for two weeks following the devastating earthquake of 1906. This experience left a lasting impression on him, as he later recalled being "in mortal terror of the fire".
By 1910, Baxter had already started his career in vaudeville, which eventually led him to Broadway plays and movies. He became a popular matinee idol during the silent film era, and his breakthrough role as the Cisco Kid in "In Old Arizona" (1928) earned him an Academy Award.
He went on to star alongside Myrna Loy in "Penthouse" (1933) and what many consider his best role, that of the doctor who treated Abraham Lincoln's assassin, in "The Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936). That year, his income of $284,000 topped the industry.
However, his career took a downturn in the 1940s, and he began appearing in a string of B-pictures. It was during this time that he suffered a nervous breakdown, and to alleviate his symptoms, he began starring in the Dr. Ordway "Crime Doctor" series with "Crime Doctor" (1943). These films were a more relaxed and predictable option for him, with studio sets for only one month and the requirement to make only two films per year.
Following a lobotomy to alleviate the pain of his arthritis, Baxter passed away from pneumonia.
