Meredith Baxter

Meredith Baxter
Baxter at the Human Rights Campaign Gala, 2014
Born	Meredith Ann Baxter (1947-06-21) June 21, 1947 South Pasadena, California, US
Other names	Meredith Baxter-Birney
Education	James Monroe High School Hollywood High School Interlochen Center for the Arts
Occupation	Actress, producer
Years active	1971–present
Television	Bridget Loves Bernie Family Family Ties Dan Vs. Family Guy
Spouse(s)	Robert Lewis Bush (m. 1966; div. 1969) David Birney (m. 1974; div. 1989) Michael Blodgett (m. 1995; div. 2000) Nancy Locke (m. 2013)
Children	5
Parent(s)	Tom Baxter Whitney Blake (deceased)
Relatives	Allan Manings (stepfather, deceased)

Meredith Ann Baxter (born June 21, 1947)^[1] is an American actress and producer. She is known for her roles on the ABC drama series Family (1976–80) and the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982–89). A five-time Emmy Award nominee, one of her nominations was for playing the title role in the 1992 TV film A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story. She has also done voice-work on the The Hub channel's animated sitcom Dan Vs. (2011–13).

Early life

Baxter was born in South Pasadena, California, the daughter of actress turned director/producer Whitney Blake and Tom Baxter, a radio announcer.^[2] After her parents were divorced in 1953, Baxter and her two brothers, Richard (born 1944) and Brian (born 1946), were raised by their mother in Pasadena. Her second stepfather was situation-comedy writer Allan Manings.

Baxter was educated at James Monroe High School before transferring to Hollywood High School.^[3] During her senior year, she attended Interlochen Center for the Arts as a voice major, but returned to Hollywood High, where she graduated in 1965.^[4]

Career

Early years

Baxter got her first big break on television in 1972 as one of the stars of Bridget Loves Bernie, a CBS television-network situation comedy. The series was canceled after one season, but her co-star, David Birney became her second husband in 1974. Following their marriage and until their divorce in 1989, she was credited as Meredith Baxter-Birney, under which name she became widely known several years later on Family. She played the role of Nancy Lawrence Maitland and received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (1977 and 1978).

After Family ended, she starred with Annette O'Toole and Shelley Hack in Vanities (1981), a television production of the comedy-drama stage play about the lives, loves and friendship of three Texas cheerleaders starting from high school to post-college graduation; it aired as a part of Standing Room Only, a series on the premium-television channel HBO.

1980s and 1990s

In 1982, Baxter landed the role of Elyse Keaton, the former flower child matriarch of the Keaton family on the NBC sitcom Family Ties. In 1986, during her time on Family Ties, Baxter garnered critical acclaim for her dramatic performance as Kate Stark in the NBC television movie Kate's Secret, about a seemingly "perfect" suburban housewife and mother who is secretly suffering from bulimia nervosa. Following Family Ties, Baxter (whose marriage to Birney ended in 1989) produced and starred in telefilms. She portrayed a psychopathic kidnapper in The Kissing Place (1990) and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special for her work in A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story (1992), based on the true story of a divorcée who was convicted of murder in the shooting of her ex-husband and his young wife. For her work on the television film My Breast (1994), she received a special award for public awareness from the National Breast Cancer Coalition. In 1997, Baxter once again played the mother of a character played by Michael J. Fox (who portrayed her son, Alex P. Keaton, on Family Ties), this time in two episodes of Spin City.^[5]

2000s-present

In 2005, she began appearing in television commercials for Garden State Life Insurance Company. In 2006, she temporarily co-hosted — with Matt Lauer — Today, the NBC morning news and talk show. In 2007, she made a guest appearance on What About Brian, an ABC drama series. That same year, she also made several appearances as the dying mother of Detective Lilly Rush on Cold Case, a CBS police-procedural series. In recent years, Baxter created a skin-care line called Meredith Baxter Simple Works, which raises funds for Baxter's breast cancer research foundation.

Baxter was the guest speaker at the 2008 Southern Commencement for National University in La Jolla, California, and was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the university.^[6]

On December 17, 2009, Baxter's memoir, titled Untied, was published in 2011.^[7] She is also a spokesperson for Consumer Cellular, a cell-phone company advertised as providing a cheaper alternative for senior citizens. She currently voices the character "Elise Sr." in Dan Vs., which airs on The Hub. In April 2013, it was announced that Baxter will be in the season 4 finale episode of Glee, along with Patty Duke, as a mentor to Darren Criss's character Blaine Anderson and Chris Colfer's character, Kurt Hummel.^[8]

On August 4, 2014, it was announced that Baxter would be joining The Young and the Restless, as Maureen, Nikki Newman's new drinking buddy, a "charming, intelligent, middle-class woman who has always aspired to a more privileged life than she has had. Baxter will start appearing on the program on September 8. She is also the mother to "Stich" Raybourne and Kelly Andrews^[9]

Personal life

Marriages and children

Baxter in September 1990

Baxter has been married four times and has five children. In 1966, she married Robert Lewis Bush and they had two children — Theodore Justin ("Ted"; born 1967) and Eva Whitney (born August 6, 1969); the couple divorced in 1971. In 1974, she married David Birney and had three children — Kathleen Jeanne ("Kate"; born December 5, 1974) and twins Mollie Elizabeth and Peter David Edwin (born October 2, 1984).^[10] She and David Birney divorced in 1989. In 1995, she married actor and screenwriter Michael Blodgett; they were divorced in 2000.

On December 2, 2009, she came out as a lesbian during an interview with Matt Lauer on Today, and on the Frank DeCaro Show on Sirius-XM OutQ 102.^[11][12] In 2005, she began a relationship with Nancy Locke, a general contractor. They were married on December 8, 2013, in Los Angeles.^[13]

Baxter said that she did not realize she was gay until she began her first same-sex relationship in 2002. She stated that finally coming to terms with her sexual orientation opened her eyes to the fact that for many years she knew something was different about her and why her relationships with men had failed.^[14]

Health issues

Baxter was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 for which she was treated and from which she has fully recovered.^[7]

Filmography

Chad Everett and Baxter in 1975

Award nominations

References

Sources

• Untied by Meredith Baxter. © 2011; ISBN 978-0-307-71930-0. Crown Archetype (Random House)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Meredith Baxter.

• Meredith Baxter at the Internet Movie Database
• Meredith Baxter at AllMovie
• Meredith Baxter at the TCM Movie Database