This warm and winning, very non-theatrical brunette was born Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter in Portland, Maine, on November 20, 1919. The daughter of Maine Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thaxter, her acting talent came from her mother's side, who was a one-time Shakespearean actress. Phyllis was educated for a time at St. Genevieve School in Montreal and...
Superman, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Springfield Rifle, Jim Thorpe – All-American, Act of Violence, The Breaking Point, The Sea of Grass, Blood on the Moon, Come Fill the Cup, Week-End at the Waldorf, No Man of Her Own, The World of Henry Orient, Women's Prison, Living in a Big Way, Fort Worth, Op...
Star Sign
Scorpio
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Quote
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[In 1991 about James Cagney} He tried to teach me the two-step. I still can't do it. He also tried to get me to quit smoking. I still smoked then.
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(In 1991 on Montgomery Clift) Monty and I loved each other very much, but it was a romantic kind of love - I never went to bed with him. But we finally thought - maybe we should marry. It seemed like a good idea.
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{In 1991 about "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo") The Lunts had said, 'Don't stay out there (in Hollywood.) I should have done just that one movie and gone back to Broadway. But I was foolish and stayed.
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Fact
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Thaxter's husband James Aubrey was reportedly the model for the lead character of Jacqueline Susann's novel "The Love Machine.".
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She has been semi-retired for many years, spending her summers in Vero Beach, Florida. [February 2005]
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She was a staunch Republican who gave much of her time and money towards various conservative political causes. She attended several Republican National Conventions, galas, and fund-raisers, and she was active in the campaigns of Wendell Willkie, Thomas E. Dewey, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.
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She is survived by her daughter, Skye Aubrey, and son, James W. Aubrey; two stepchildren, Ann Fries and Thomas Lea; five grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and several step-grandchildren.
5
When she died she was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea.
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Phyllis worked on Broadway in the 1930s. In 1944, she signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
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She suffered from poliomyelitis.
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Her hospital birth record indicates she was named "Phyllis Schuyler Thaxter" but by the 1920 census, her name was listed as Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter. Schuyler was her mother's maiden name and St. Felix was her father's middle name. Unknown if the name was ever legally changed but likely since her father was a renowned lawyer.
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She was the former mother-in-law of Ilya Salkind, who cast as Martha Kent in Superman (1978).