Stanley Baxter, the comic actor whose female impersonations in his lavish TV spectaculars attracted vast audiences, has died at 99. ‘His breadth of talent was unmatched – satirist, stand-up comedian, singer, dancer, impressionist, wit, poet, panto dame, dramatic actor, writer and choreographer.’ His shows at their height were watch by 14 million viewers and involved often up to 45 costume changes as he mimicked Shirley Bassey, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and others. Made with meticulous care and high production values, they were among the most expensive productions in the field of light entertainment.
For all his success he was a troubled soul. He said in an interview “I’m still not quite sure who I really am, which makes it easier to play other people, but a lot harder to be convincing as Stanley Baxter.” He also struggled with his lifelong homosexuality, telling his biographer “I never wanted to be gay.”
He was born 24 May 1926 2.15 am Glasgow, Scotland, with a timid insurance actuary father and a flamboyant mother who fostered his interest in the entertainment business from an early age and encouraged him to do Mae West impressions. After WW11 he did his National Service in the Far East, serving with fellow comedian Kenneth Williams who remained a close friend. He married an actress when he was 26 and remained married for nearly fifty years. She had mental health problems and died eventually of suicide. He spent the past 25 years as a virtual recluse in his first floor apartment in a Highgate Village art deco mansion. ‘He dreaded going out – believing himself to be decrepit, he feared being recognised and, worse, pitied.’
He was born a few days after after Robert Lifton, the psychiatrist who shed light on the darkest corners of human behaviour (see post 18 November 2025) three weeks after David Attenborough and a month after Queen Elizabeth 11, so he shared their stalwartly enduring Fixed chart. In his case he was Gemini rather than Taurus which fitted his communicative and quixotic temperament. But he did have the Fixed T Square of Jupiter in Aquarius in his 1st opposition an uncommitted-about-relationships Neptune in his 7th square an overly conscientious Saturn in his 9th.
Possibly most significant was his 5th house Pluto in his chart area of entertainment conjunct Sirius, the brightest star in the sky which confers honours. It may be one reason for the number of eminent personalities from that year. (And Margaret Thatcher and Peter Sellers from 1925).
Baxter’s deeply buried, intense 8th house Moon in Libra opposed Venus (and Nessus) squaring Pluto pointed not only to a possessive mother – but might also be a clue to his talent for female impersonation with Nessus Venus = deceit about women at its crudest. He also had a creative though unhappy Water Grand Trine of Mars in Pisces trine North Node (Pluto) in Cancer trine Saturn with Uranus in Pisces trine Saturn as an outlier.
His Sun is virtually unaspected bar an out-of-element sextile to Uranus which would not bolster a strong sense of personal identity.
A wonderful entertainer and a staple of my childhood visits to Christmas pantomimes in Glasgow with his double act along with Jimmy Logan.
The massive impact mothers had in complex characters like Baxter, Williams & Sellers is telling. Like a number of well-known entertainers of his generation, he spent his final years in Denville Hall; a residence for those from the entertainment industry.
His Thalia, muse of comedy, aspects MH, career, and trines Mercury, mimicry.
I saw some of his reruns on the TV in the late 90’s and my favourite skit he did was him striking a pose, Betty Grable style in 1940’s ladies swimwear, descending from the top of the stage from inside a huge syringe, with the name on it saying Miss Penny Cillin. What hoot he was!
Baxter was a brilliant comic and impersonator. His impression of the late Queen Elizabeth II was so good in his send ups of the royal Christmas Speech that I often could not tell the two apart. He really exemplified all that was best about Glaswegian Scottish comedy though his ability to take off all the other British accents was priceless as well. The tragedy of his life was that he could never really come to terms with his homosexuality and was never comfortable being gay. It was all the sadder that by the time he finally came out in his published autobiography in 2020 no one was remotely shocked as it had been an open secret for years. In fact what caused most surprise was not that he was gay but that he was still alive.
It’s interesting that he was good friends with Kenneth Williams in respect of being gay. In Williams’s published diaries, though he was rather vicious about people in general, he tended to write very fondly of his friendship with SB.
His Sun in not aspected to any of the planets, yet his Sun/Midpoint is in Leo in 6th house, which is ruled by Mercury/ Virgo which may be why is was self critical? His Mercury is in a wide sextile to Pluto and with a nearer sextile to his NN. His emotions were deep, with Cancer the Crab keeping his them very close to himself. Especially as Mercury was square to Lilith. I remember his TV shows, even if he was a complex man, he gave a lot of pleasure to his audiences.
He wasn’t all that well known by my generation, but I’ll always remember the Christmas my mother encouraged me to watch one of his ‘specials’ with her and we fell about with laughter at his parody of ‘Towering Inferno’. They were lavish productions which one assumes were also fairly costly as it appeared no expense was spared. He was also a perfectionist. R.I. P. Thanks, Marjorie.