Education
University of Pennsylvania. University of Cambridge.
University of Pennsylvania. University of Cambridge.
He was a professor of English at the University of Southern California. Baxter hosted Telephone Time in 1957 and 1958 when American Broadcasting Company picked up the program and ended the tenure of John Nesbitt. Born in Newbold, New Jersey, Baxter is best remembered for his appearances from 1956–1962 as "Doctor Research" in The Bell Laboratory Science Series of television specials.
These films became a staple in American classrooms from the 1960s through the 1980s.
The Bell series combined scientific footage, live actors and animation to convey scientific concepts and history in a lively, entertaining way. And the bald, bespectacled and affable Baxter served as narrator, lecturer and host.
These films made Baxter (who was not a scientist) something of a scientific icon among baby boomers. Several of Baxter"s science films have been released on Digital Video Disc. Baxter also appeared (as himself) in a prologue to the 1956 film The Mole People, in which he gave a brief history of theories of life beneath the surface of the earth.
In 1966, Baxter hosted a popular television series called The Four Winds to Adventure, featuring filmmakers exploring little-known areas of the world, whether across continents, oceans, or local people and animals in a particular region.
Baxter died in 1982 in Pasadena, California. He was 85. His body was cremated, but his ashes were scattered in Colorado, NOT placed in a vault in California, as some sources maintain.