Early life and career

Born Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter, she was the daughter of Maine Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thaxter and his wife, a former actress. Thaxter worked on Broadway in the 1930s and signed an MGM contract in 1944. Her movie debut was opposite Van Johnson

Van Johnson

Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....

 in the war-time film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Thirty Seconds over Tokyo

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 MGM war film. It is based on the true story of America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan four months after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist. The screenplay by...

.

At MGM, she routinely portrayed the ever-patient wife to a number of leading men. In 1948, she played a cattle owner's daughter alongside Barbara Bel Geddes

Barbara Bel Geddes

Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie...

 in Blood on the Moon

Blood on the Moon

Blood on the Moon is an RKO black-and-white "psychological" western directed by Robert Wise with cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. The film, starring Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Preston has many film noir elements. It was shot in California and some of the more scenic shots...

. She moved to Warner Brothers in the 1950s, but usually played the same type of roles.

Thaxter's career stalled after an attack of infantile paralysis in 1952. She made a comeback in television series such as Wagon Train

Wagon Train

Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...

, The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...

, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...

. In 1978, Thaxter was cast along with Glenn Ford

Glenn Ford

Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...

 as Ma and Pa Kent in Superman.

Personal life

In her biography of Montgomery Clift

Montgomery Clift

Edward Montgomery Clift was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times’ obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men"....

, author Patricia Bosworth

Patricia Bosworth

Patricia Bosworth is an American journalist and biographer. A former faculty member of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, she has also been an editor, actress and model.-Early life and career:...

 tells of Thaxter's close relationship with Clift in the early forties, writing that they "seemed so close that a great many people assumed they would eventually marry." While at MGM, Thaxter married James T. Aubrey, Jr., who later became president of CBS-TV and MGM. They divorced in 1962. Their daughter is Skye Aubrey, who acted in many made-for-TV films in the 1970s.

Partial filmography

• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
  Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
  Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 MGM war film. It is based on the true story of America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan four months after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist. The screenplay by...
  
   (1944)
• Bewitched
  Bewitched (1945 film)
  Bewitched is an American film noir directed and written by Arch Oboler. The drama features Phyllis Thaxter and Edmund Gwenn.-Plot:...
  
   (1945)
• Week-End at the Waldorf
  Week-End at the Waldorf
  Week-End at the Waldorf is a 1945 American comedy drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. The screenplay by Samuel and Bella Spewack is based on Guy Bolton's adaptation of the Vicki Baum novel Menschen im Hotel, which was filmed as Grand Hotel in 1932.-Plot:The film focuses on various guests...
  
   (1945)
• Tenth Avenue Angel
  Tenth Avenue Angel
  Tenth Avenue Angel chronicles the life and family of Flavia Mills in the late 1930s. Based on a story by Angna Enters and a sketch by Craig Rice, the film took 18 months before release to U.S...
  
   (1946)
• The Sea of Grass
  The Sea of Grass
  The Sea of Grass is a 1936 novel by Conrad Richter. It is set in New Mexico in the late 19th century, and concerns the clash between rich ranchers, whose cattle range freely through the vast sea of grass, and the farmers, or "nesters," who build fences and turn the sod. It is an epic depiction of...
  
   (1947)
• Living in a Big Way
  Living in a Big Way
  Living in a Big Way is an American musical comedy film starring Gene Kelly and Marie McDonald as a couple who marry during World War II after only knowing each other a short time.- Synopsis :...
  
   (1947)
• Blood on the Moon
  Blood on the Moon
  Blood on the Moon is an RKO black-and-white "psychological" western directed by Robert Wise with cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. The film, starring Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Preston has many film noir elements. It was shot in California and some of the more scenic shots...
  
   (1948)
• Act of Violence (1948)
• No Man of Her Own
  No Man of Her Own
  No Man of Her Own is a 1950 drama starring Barbara Stanwyck.It was the second she made with director Mitchell Leisen. It was based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, I Married a Dead Man. Woolrich is credited as William Irish in the film's opening credits.The film was later remade in 1996 as Mrs....
  
   (1950)
• The Breaking Point (1950)
• Jim Thorpe -- All-American
  Jim Thorpe -- All-American
  Jim Thorpe – All-American is a 1951 biographical film produced by Warner Bros. and directed by Michael Curtiz, honoring Jim Thorpe, the great Native American athlete who won medals at the 1912 Olympics and distinguished himself in various sports, both in college and on professional teams.The film...
  
   (1951)
• Fort Worth
  Fort Worth (1951 film)
  Fort Worth is a 1951 western film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Randolph Scott.-Plot synopsis:Former gunfighter Ned Britt sets up shop in Fort Worth, Texas as a newspaper man. He falls in love with Flora Talbot , who is the fiancée of a former friend, Blair Lunsford...
  
   (1951)
• Springfield Rifle
  Springfield Rifle
  The term Springfield Rifle may refer to any one of several types of small arms produced by the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts, for the United States armed forces....
  
   (1952)
• Wagon Train 1959
• Women's Prison
  Women's Prison (1955 film)
  Women's Prison is a 1955 film prison noir directed by Lewis Seiler and starring Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling and Cleo Moore. The movie was released through Columbia Pictures.-Cast:*Ida Lupino as Amelia van Zandt*Jan Sterling as Brenda Martin...
  
   (1955)
• The Invaders
  The Invaders
  The Invaders, a Quinn Martin Production , is an ABC science fiction television program created by Larry Cohen that ran in the United States for two seasons, from January 10, 1967 to March 26, 1968...
  
   (TV series), Season 2/21, Episode: "The Peacemaker" (1968)
• Superman (1978)

External links