Actor Stanley Baxter, 94, Comes Out
Glasgow-born actor and comic Stanley Baxter, 94, has come out as gay. In a new authorised biography by Brian Beacom, Baxter discussed his private life and talked about his struggles to come to terms with his sexuality, his efforts to keep it secret and the effect his troubled marriage had in his life.
‘The Real Stanley Baxter’ explores the complex relationship with his wife Moira, his early sexual encounters as a teenager, and the strenuous efforts he made to maintain his privacy in later life, including taking legal action over the publication of the diaries of actor Kenneth Williams, a long-time friend, after he had passed away.
The biography recounts how “apprehensive” Baxter was when he began to forge a close relationship with a fellow Citizens actress, Moira Robertson, with the “defining point” in his life arriving when he realised that she wanted them to get married, as ‘The Scotsman’ reports.
Baxter says: “I couldn’t entertain such a thought and I felt the relationship simply had to stop, so I broke it off. However, Moira was very, very upset. I kept getting those sheep’s eyes every time she passed me in the theatre and she appeared to be heartbroken.”
The biography states that Baxter “reckoned the only way to break off the relationship once and for all was to be entirely honest with Moira and underline his true sexual predilection.”
The actor says: “I told her my preference and said, ‘That’s why I am breaking off the relationship. This would be NO life for you, married to someone who is essentially and primarily homosexual.”
The book recalls how he only agreed to keep their relationship going after Moira threatened to jump out the window of their second-floor flat.
Baxter says: “By that time, I had so many tender feelings for her. I thought she would still be heartbroken. But of course, I should have been stronger. It was a real weakness on my part.”
Baxter recalls how he would be allowed by his wife to bring men home, at a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain.
He says: “She was very good about letting them go to bed with me. She would go off to our bedroom and let me take the one opposite.”
Baxter would go on to have a secret long-term relationship with a German accountant but remained married to Moira until she died of an overdose when he was overseas in 1997.
Reflecting on his private life, Baxter tells Beacom: “Anybody would be insane to choose to live such a very difficult life. There are many gay people these days who are fairly comfortable with their sexuality, fairly happy with who they are. I’m not. I never wanted to be gay. I still don’t.”
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