--- name: "Warner Baxter" canonical: "https://film.one/person/warner-baxter" roles: ["Actor"] born: "28 March 1889" died: "7 May 1951" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 72 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-19T21:59:41.368827+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Warner Baxter Actor. Born 28 March 1889 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Died 7 May 1951. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 28 March 1889, Columbus, Ohio, USA - **Died:** 7 May 1951 - **Active:** 1928–1933 - **Also known as:** Warner Leroy Baxter, Уорнер Бакстер - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 1 nominated) - **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1920s 61 (1), 1930s 82 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Baxter, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q312073, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0062828/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/29999 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*42nd Street*](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) (82) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Warner Baxter > Warner Baxter's trick was ease: the hat lifted, the courtesy that never quite meant it, a man at home in front of a microphone when everyone around him was shouting at it. The parts he got rarely deserved him, and the studios rarely noticed. Watch Warner Baxter lift his hat in *In Old Arizona* (1928). He does it at every entrance, to every woman, and never quite means it, and it is the most modern thing in the film. Around him Edmund Lowe shouts every line as if the sound engineer were a field away; Baxter talks to the microphone as if it were a friend across a table. That was the trick, and in 1928, with the microphones only just taken outdoors, almost nobody else had it. His accent as the Cisco Kid is a stage-Mexican thing that would not pass today. The ease underneath it still does. He had been at it a long time before anyone heard him: an extra from 1914, a lead from 1921, dozens of silents through the decade, among them *The Great Gatsby* (1926) and, opposite Lon Chaney, *West of Zanzibar* (1928). *In Old Arizona* made him a star, and the studios did what studios do with a hit and asked for it again. He spent the 1930s as a charming Latin bandit or a suave professional man, the Cisco Kid repeated and varied, until the persona hardened into a type. By the 1940s he was in B-pictures, and the ten films of the *Crime Doctor* series, from 1943, kept him working until the end. The performances people reach for are the ones where the ease is taken away. As Julian Marsh, the harried director of *42nd Street* (1933), he is all drive and desperation, a man with no time to lift his hat. As Dr Samuel Mudd in *The Prisoner of Shark Island* (1936), the doctor who treated Lincoln's assassin, he did what most critics call his finest acting. We have not reviewed either and will not pretend to a verdict. We note only that both are parts in which a courteous man is pushed past courtesy, and that this is where the type broke open. Our own moment with him is smaller. *In Old Arizona* is slow, stagey and thinly written, and for ninety minutes we mostly admired the sound of eggs in a pan. Then the second half takes a turn we will not describe, and Baxter's light manner, which had looked like the whole performance, turns out to have been a way of not showing us something. It unsettled us more than it had any right to, and it is the one place in the film where his ease and Tom Barry's script pull in the same direction. The caveat is the material. Baxter was at its mercy more often than not, and his years at Fox are full of parts that asked him for the hat and nothing else. He is worth your evening when the film gives him somewhere to go. When it does not, he lifts the hat anyway, and you can watch him not quite mean it, which is more than most of his co-stars managed. ## Biography Warner Baxter was an American film actor active from the 1910s to the 1950s. He began in vaudeville and Broadway before entering silent films, with early roles including appearances in *West of Zanzibar* (1928). Baxter gained prominence for playing The Cisco Kid in *In Old Arizona* (1929), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Actor. He reprised similar characters in the 1930s and appeared in other notable films such as *42nd Street* (1933) and *The Prisoner of Shark Island* (1936). In the 1940s he starred as Dr. Robert Ordway in the *Crime Doctor* series. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, allmovie.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *42nd Street* (1933), Fi1m 82, as Julian Marsh — [page](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) - *In Old Arizona* (1928), Fi1m 61, as The Cisco Kid — [page](https://film.one/film/in-old-arizona.md) ## Complete filmography (110) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To* (1990), as (archive footage) - *State Penitentiary* (1950), as Rodger Manners - *Prison Warden* (1949), as Warden Victor Burnell - *The Devil's Henchmen* (1949), as Jess Arno - *The Crime Doctor's Diary* (1949), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *The Gentleman from Nowhere* (1948), as Earl Donovan / Robert Ashton - *The Crime Doctor's Gamble* (1947), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *The Millerson Case* (1947), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *Crime Doctor's Man Hunt* (1946), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *Just Before Dawn* (1946), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *The Crime Doctor's Warning* (1945), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *The Crime Doctor's Courage* (1945), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *Shadows in the Night* (1944), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *Lady in the Dark* (1944), as Kendall Nesbitt - *The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case* (1943), as Dr. Robert Ordway - *Crime Doctor* (1943), as Dr. Robert J. Ordway / Phillip Morgan - *Adam Had Four Sons* (1941), as Adam Stoddard - *Earthbound* (1940), as Nick Desborough - *Barricade* (1939), as Hank Topping - *Land of Liberty* (1939), as (archive footage) - *The Return of the Cisco Kid* (1939), as The Cisco Kid - *Wife, Husband and Friend* (1939), as Leonard Borland aka Logan Bennett - *I'll Give a Million* (1938), as Tony Newlander - *Kidnapped* (1938), as Alan Breck - *Wife, Doctor and Nurse* (1937), as Dr. Judd Lewis - *Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938* (1937), as George Curson - *Slave Ship* (1937), as Jim Lovett - *White Hunter* (1936), as Capt. Clark Rutledge - *The Road to Glory* (1936), as Captain Paul La Roche - *To Mary - with Love* (1936), as Jack Wallace - *Robin Hood of El Dorado* (1936), as Joaquin Murrieta - *The Prisoner of Shark Island* (1936), as Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd - *King of Burlesque* (1936), as Kerry Bolton - *Under the Pampas Moon* (1935), as Cesar Campo - *One More Spring* (1935), as Jaret Otkar - *Hell in the Heavens* (1934), as Lt. Steve Warner - *Broadway Bill* (1934), as Dan Brooks - *Grand Canary* (1934), as Dr Harvey Leith - *Such Women Are Dangerous* (1934), as Michael Shawn - *Stand Up and Cheer!* (1934), as Lawrence Cromwell - *As Husbands Go* (1934), as Charles Lingard - *Penthouse* (1933), as Jackson 'Jack' Durant - *Paddy the Next Best Thing* (1933), as Lawrence Blake - *I Loved You Wednesday* (1933), as Philip Fletcher - *42nd Street* (1933), as Julian Marsh — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) - *Dangerously Yours* (1933), as Andrew Burke - *6 Hours to Live* (1932), as Captain Paul Onslow - *Man About Town* (1932), as Stephen Morrow - *Amateur Daddy* (1932), as Jim Gladden - *Surrender* (1931), as Sergeant Dumaine - *The Cisco Kid* (1931), as The Cisco Kid - *The Squaw Man* (1931), as Jim Wingate - aka Jim Carston - *Their Mad Moment* (1931), as Esteban Cristera - *Daddy Long Legs* (1931), as Jervis Pendleton - *The Stolen Jools* (1931), as Cisco Kid Character - *Doctors' Wives* (1931), as Dr. Judson Penning - *Renegades* (1930), as Jean Deucalion - *The Voice of Hollywood* (1930), Actor - *The Arizona Kid* (1930), as The Arizona Kid - *Such Men Are Dangerous* (1930), as Ludwig Kranz / Pierre Villard - *Romance of the Rio Grande* (1929), as Pablo Wharton Cameron - *Happy Days* (1929), as Minstrel Show Performer - *Behind That Curtain* (1929), as Col. John Beetham - *Thru Different Eyes* (1929), as Jack Winfield - *Linda* (1929), as Dr. Paul Randall - *In Old Arizona* (1928), as The Cisco Kid — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/in-old-arizona.md) - *West of Zanzibar* (1928), as Doc - *Craig's Wife* (1928), as Walter Craig - *Danger Street* (1928), as Rolly Sigsby - *Three Sinners* (1928), as James Harris - *Ramona* (1928), as Alessandro - *The Tragedy of Youth* (1928), as Frank Gordon - *A Woman's Way* (1928), as Tony - *Singed* (1927), as Royce Wingate - *The Coward* (1927), as Clinton Philbrook - *Drums of the Desert* (1927), as John Curry - *The Telephone Girl* (1927), as Matthew Standish - *The Great Gatsby* (1926), as Jay Gatsby - *Mismates* (1926), as Ted Carroll - *Aloma of the South Seas* (1926), as Nuitane - *The Runaway* (1926), as Wade Murrell - *Miss Brewster's Millions* (1926), as Thomas B. Hancock Jr - *Mannequin* (1926), as John Herrick - *The Best People* (1925), as Henry Morgan - *A Son of His Father* (1925), as Big Boy Morgan - *Rugged Water* (1925), as Calvin Horner - *Welcome Home* (1925), as Fred Prouty - *The Awful Truth* (1925), as Norman Satterlee - *The Air Mail* (1925), as Russ Kane - *The Golden Bed* (1925), as Bunny O'Neill - *The Garden of Weeds* (1924), as Douglas Crawford - *Christine of the Hungry Heart* (1924), as Stuart Knight - *The Female* (1924), as Col. Valentia - *Those Who Dance* (1924), as Bob Kane - *His Forgotten Wife* (1924), as Donald Allen / John Rolfe - *Alimony* (1924), as Jimmy Mason - *In Search of a Thrill* (1923), as Adrian Torrens - *Blow Your Own Horn* (1923), as Jack Dunbar - *St. Elmo* (1923), as Murray Hammond - *The Ninety and Nine* (1922), as Tom Silverton - *If I Were Queen* (1922), as Vladimir - *A Girl's Desire* (1922), as Jones / Lord Dysart - *The Girl in His Room* (1922), as Kirk Waring - *Her Own Money* (1922), as Lew Alden - *Cheated Hearts* (1921), as Tom Gordon - *First Love* (1921), as Donald Halliday - *The Love Charm* (1921), as Thomas Morgan - *Sheltered Daughters* (1921), as Pep Mullins - *Lombardi, Ltd.* (1919), as Bit Part (uncredited) - *All Woman* (1918), as Bit Part ## Gallery - ![Warner Baxter](https://film.one/media/person/1224202/gallery-0a0d32b464ba.jpg) Warner Baxter — Image via TMDB - ![Warner Baxter](https://film.one/media/person/1224202/gallery-ad9d19beed08.jpg) Warner Baxter — Image via TMDB - ![Warner Baxter](https://film.one/media/person/1224202/gallery-e3d07fdbc7c2.jpg) Warner Baxter — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 1 won, 1 nominated - 1930: Best Actor (won), for *In Old Arizona* - 1929: Best Actor (nominated), for *In Old Arizona* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/warner-baxter