Express. Many weeks later, I was browsing for biographical material on someone else when I came across an old copy of Whos Who In Television, with an entry on Baxter. . You're not much fun any more. 2023 Getty Images. Wait and see, was the answer. Rather than resolve the issue, I let it slip. Its just prohibitive, you know, because they were such big specials. This would be NO life for you, married to someone who is essentially and primarily homosexual!, Moira's reaction was surprising, even to those who knew how liberal she was. Ill tell you, he said, managing to communicate weariness down the line. No mention of his wife, Moira, though. THE LEAVES on the pavement were being sucked upwards by the cold wind, or turned to mush by rain. I still don't. Stanley was bringing the values of a different time and place into a world that had changed. He directed shows himself, calling extra rehearsals if things were getting even a little sloppy mid-run, and coming down hard on anyone who attempted to ad lib. Anyone would be insane to choose to live such a very difficult life.' Helen Wright and Moira Robertson were in a police raid (Image: Spindrift) Two Glasgow pensioners caught with more than 24,000 of cocaine are behind bars. Two years into the marriage, relations with Moira were "fine", but the sex was dwindling. He went. Did Bessie Baxter have any idea of Stanleys true sexuality? View the profiles of professionals named "Moira Robertson" on LinkedIn. . He was also aware of the need to have a cover. Stanley Baxter is one of the most successful entertainers of his generation and for many years had his own Bafta-winning TV series. Would he like to explain why? WHERE do you start, with only a name to go on? On December 23, 1950, Williams made another note in his diary: 'Stanley wrote to say he is going to marry Moira. But the question is also intriguing: how could someone who once inspired such affection slip from the public gaze so completely, in so short a space of time? He had his chance to make a clean break, to move on alone. And I said Well, it does worry me. She looked up at me, shrugged and said Oh, I don't care about that at all. He left for a theatre tour of Australia in a Brian Rix farce, leaving his wife behind. 'Marcus took me completely by surprise. His biographer Brian Beacom examines why the brilliant Scots entertainer with a thousand faces refused to show his real one to the world. Scots who never visit a theatre for the rest of the year still find their way to the panto, where the scenarios and jokes have the familiarity of ritual. Hes not there anyway. IN MARCH 1952, 26-year-old Stanley Baxter, recognised as the brightest young star in the Citizens' Theatre Company, made a decision that was to shock his parents, stun his close friend Kenneth. Stanley had to move out, he says, for the sake of his own sanity. Moira has 3 jobs listed on their profile. Williams believed Stanley to be taking advantage of Moira and a traitor to the cause. Liked by Moira Robertson. STANLEY Baxter has come out as gay, revealing for the first time that his marriage was a faade. 'He just liked the look of me, I guess,' Baxter says, 'which wasn't always the way with Kenny and people. Private passions are what we care about most, skeletons in the cupboard; but even knowing the colour of the upholstery will do. London. Men just look nelly, however hard they try. And he had been sighted on a visit to Scotland in July 1994, to unveil a tribute to his late friend and fellow comic Duncan Macrae, during which he had confirmed that it had been his intention to drop out of public life completely: Most comics work till they drop, but Im happier now than ever. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories. Chic, with hooded eyes, Moira could have been Bette Davis's younger sister. Say goodbye? Moira asked me what was wrong and I said something about the emotion of it all. But it worried me: was it right to doorstep a man who had worked so hard all his life to keep the private roped off from the public? It had been run over in the street. And it worked. Everythings being raked around in here ready for Christmas. But where? Yet he was, and is, missed: in England, as the funniest man on television; in Scotland where they take panto very seriously as the greatest dame of the century: a master of the double entendre and the quick, stunning costume-change. She may have worshipped Stanley but she never got herself worked up if her husbands white shirts were dry in the morning or not. She now had to be a housewife, which she found very frustrating. He moved to London eight years later. My names Cole Moreton, from the Independent on Sunday. There are folk who could tell you what kind of Christmas it was by recalling that years panto. Marcus was a constant support. There's no doubt about that. 'She guessed wrongly what being with a gay man entailed.'. When his friend Kenneth Williams's diaries were published posthumously in the early Nineties, he fought a legal battle to ensure nothing about his sex life was printed. Wearing a calf-length tweed coat with a smart scarf folded across the throat. 'I got into this business to be loved. If there were someone I were interested in, I could bring them home. Yet there is one celebrity who has bucked the trend. What could he do? . Anxious, he took a taxi to the house. Yet, the relationship was doomed from the start. Its simple and has the few things I need warmth, decent light for reading, a gramophone and a TV if I wish to view. Bingo! Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. With silk gloves up to his armpits and a tiara, he announced himself as the Duchess of Brendagh and delivered a Christmas message that talked of the Queen Mum as a priceless antique. He has a talismanic quality that makes people feel hes very much in touch with their lives, and then suddenly, out he zooshes looking really rather sexy. It was all very selfish of me and a bit macho. Fixated,' he says. Stanley reckoned his wife's place was in the home. Sharing his guilt at the time, the veteran actor wrote: "I couldn't entertain such a thought [marriage] and I felt the relationship simply had to stop, so I broke it off. View more posts, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), It was 20 years ago todayish. But a fellow member of the club in Pall Mall, which costs up to 500 a year, confirmed that Baxter was frequently there. If there was one place where he could still feel at home, it was the world of Scottish pantomime. Comments have been closed on this article. His associates would not return my calls. He says now that he'd known for years that he found men more attractive than women, because at the Saturday morning cinema club he could not take his eyes off the half-naked Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan, rather than Maureen O'Sullivan's Jane. 'I'm too afraid of what people will think of me,' he said. She punched me and my glasses flew off. We became close, without it ever being more than friendship.'. Rushing to the window of their second storey flat, she climbed out onto the ledge and shouted, 'If I can't have you then I won't settle for anyone else. However the charges were dropped when the police officers who arrested him admitting he was on his own at the time. If she did, she never let on. What Williams didnt know, however, was the pressure Stanley had been under. Baxter would tell the whole truth, on condition that it remained a secret. But in joining the Citz and aiming for the stars (however small his initial parts were as an Assistant Stage Manager) the young actor realised his sexuality could prove to be his downfall. She was far more bohemian than me.' His father was a branch manager of Commercial Union while his mother would have liked to have been an actress, When the family agreed that acting was respectable his mother took him round halls where he gave renderings of Harry Lauder and Mae West, Schooling eventually came to a stop which disappointed his father who'd wanted him to be a doctor. I didn't want to know, but gradually I was falling in love.'. How would I know what he looked like? Im not entirely sure who I am. The charges were dropped, on condition that Baxter promised not to sue the police for wrongful arrest. He couldnt say when Baxter was expected next, but took my number to pass on. I was just ringing for you. Its hard to know if the invigorating sea air or simply timing resulted in Moiras declaration, but she announced she wished to have a full-blown sexual relationship with her leading man. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. Baxter was a great talker among his close-knit circle of friends, said Mr Young, but was also wary of outsiders. I kept getting those sheeps eyes every time she passed me in the theatre and she appeared to be heartbroken. Yes, as a 14-year-old hed had a frolic with the maid (despite living in a West End tenement Bessie Baxter insisted upon live-in help) but this was an entirely new adventure. In January 1962, he visited the public toilets in Madras Place, Holloway, hoping to pick up a man for casual sex. For a nation still mourning the loss of Eric Morecambe, Baxter another survivor of the gentler, pre-television days of variety theatre seemed ready to succeed to the title of Britains Favourite Comedian. Stanley was later arrested at a public toilet in north London in 1962 on suspicion of soliciting for sex. Yes. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please There was, it seemed, no prospect of an interview. Too short-sighted for active Army service, he was afraid of being assigned to the merchant navy and the Atlantic convoys, but instead he was ordered to report to the coal pits, as a 'Bevin Boy' one of the conscripted mine workers. . So he must have felt a shiver when the waspish diaries of his late friend Kenneth Williams were published two years ago. I have been writing for the Independent on Sunday for more than 20 years, but the edition that appears on Sunday will be the last. Looking up at me, expecting me to speak. What had happened to Stanley Baxter? Baxter was 46, and thought their two-day fling would be no more than a brief encounter. He joined the Citizen's Theatre Company in the Gorbals, an idealistic group performing Ibsen and Shaw to working-class audiences. And if I don't have a career, what do I have?' London, England, United Kingdom. But it was a whole new experience. Moira's behaviour became more alarming. Do not sell or share my personal information. So that was the answer: a recluse in the phone book. In 1997, he decided to spend a month at the villa they owned in Cyprus. We are lucky at The Herald. Actor Stanley Baxter, 94, has bravely come out as gay and opened up about how his sexuality impacted his relationship with his wife Moira Robertson, who died in 1997. A bit boring! He is now out of the public eye, but appeared in ITV special Stanley Baxter: Now and Then in 2008 and Channel 5 documentary Comedy National Treasures: Stanley Baxter in 2019. Sometimes it can blur ones sense of right and wrong. It was so long ago, the production team was disbanded straight after the last show, and theres nobody left here who worked on it. This was the defining moment of Stanleys life. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? As he grew up, she was intensely jealous and would shoo away any girls who admired him: 'She started telling me about these two boys who once took a wee girl into a haunted house up the road and did terrible things to her. His heart raced as he rushed towards her and pulled her back. While addressing his sexuality in the book, he explained he had a very difficult life. I don't think you know what you're talking about and I don't think you realise that the future will be bleak for you and difficult for me., Stanley was adamant. I like to retreat into playing other people. . He said, Oh well, if you did I should just follow you. She wandered, like Ophelia through Hamlet, but she would have moved to the ends of the earth for me.. Since our merger with Granada theres nobody higher up who would have been involved either. Hes offered stage plays and everything all the time, but he doesnt want to lock himself into eight performances a week for six months, you know? But he did not understand what he was feeling till he met Bill Henry, a schoolmate with blond hair and a taste for intellectual books. You. A year later, on March 5, 1952, the train sped west to Moiras parents home in Dumbarton for the ceremony. 'It was real weakness on my part,' he says now. Stanley walked through the doors of the Gorbals theatre and into theatre heaven, loving this avant-garde world populated by the likes of Sybil Thorndyke and Duncan Macrae. One of them might be him, I thought. It was becoming obvious that the real Stanley Baxter was as studiously hidden as his Lycra supports. But Stanley couldnt contain his sexual frustrations. I wrote to Stanley Baxter at his home, requesting an interview. No. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. A loved one. For a journalist, it can be difficult to tell. Moira Robertson & Stanley Baxter, 1962 British actress Moira Robertson (year of birth unknown-1997) and her husband, British comedian and actor Stanley Baxter, at Clerkenwell Magistrates Court in London, England, 5th March 1962. 'She told me she was hearing voices,' Baxter says. Therapy proved useless: his psychiatrist, learning that he was married, advised him simply to return to his wife. This builders daughter and art school graduate was a clever and attractive, if rather ethereal, young woman. After switching to ITV with the promise of a colossal budget for The Stanley Baxter Picture Show, he met a 28-year-old German accountant named Marcus. Hes having a holiday with his wife, Moira. MORE : Inside the love life and Strictly Come Dancing romances of Giovanni Pernice, MORE : Saira Khan claims lockdown does not work during heated clash with Loose Women co-stars, Brendan Fraser didnt speak to Dwayne The Rock Johnson on set of The Mummy Returns for pretty good reason, Kate Moss talks proudly about nickname she earned in Ireland unaware its actually an insult, Did we hear that right? HP10 9TY. Well, you, really. In a television era rich with comic talent, from Morecambe and Wise to Tommy Cooper, Dick Emery to Mike Yarwood, everyone agreed Stanley Baxter was king. His chance to make a clean break, to move on alone promised not to the!, from the start most successful entertainers of his generation and for many had... Aware of the earth for me Well, if rather ethereal, woman... She appeared to be a housewife, which she found very frustrating you know, because they were such specials. ' callback event life. ' his wife behind December 23, 1950, Williams made note! 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