Billy 'Silver Dollar' Baxter(1926-2012)
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Billy is a native New Yorker. He enlisted in the Navy on his 17th
birthday and served aboard the USS New Jersey Battleship in the South
Pacific during WWII.
In 1961, Billy produced the Broadway play "Mandingo" starring Franchot Tone, Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward. The play was not a success. Broke, Billy went to work for the press agent he'd hired to handle Mandingo, the legendary Bill Doll. A year later, he became a producer again when he created the "The Celebrity Column with Earl Wilson" radio show during the New York newspaper strike. For the rest of the sixties, he became one of the best known PR men in New York. He handled the publicity for La Dolce Vita, The Pawnbroker, Juliet of the Spirits, and several more unforgettable movies. He became partners with the noted art collector and philanthropist Herbert R. Steinmann in 1973. The first movie the duo bought at the Cannes Film Festival, Lina Wertmuller's "Love and Anarchy" became a hit. Steinmann-Baxter released their next film, the groundbreaking "Outrageous!", and it too was a hit.
In 1980, Billy convinced Lord Lew Grade to finance a televised documentary on the annual Cannes Film Festival. Billy's friends, Kathleen Carroll, Roger Ebert, Alexander Walker, Andrew Sarris and Molly Haskell all participated in "Diary Of The Cannes Film Festival."
Billy got his nickname "Billy Silver Dollar Baxter" from Roger Ebert for his habit of handing out silver dollar tips to impress French waiters at the American Bar of the Hotel Majestic in Cannes.
In 1961, Billy produced the Broadway play "Mandingo" starring Franchot Tone, Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward. The play was not a success. Broke, Billy went to work for the press agent he'd hired to handle Mandingo, the legendary Bill Doll. A year later, he became a producer again when he created the "The Celebrity Column with Earl Wilson" radio show during the New York newspaper strike. For the rest of the sixties, he became one of the best known PR men in New York. He handled the publicity for La Dolce Vita, The Pawnbroker, Juliet of the Spirits, and several more unforgettable movies. He became partners with the noted art collector and philanthropist Herbert R. Steinmann in 1973. The first movie the duo bought at the Cannes Film Festival, Lina Wertmuller's "Love and Anarchy" became a hit. Steinmann-Baxter released their next film, the groundbreaking "Outrageous!", and it too was a hit.
In 1980, Billy convinced Lord Lew Grade to finance a televised documentary on the annual Cannes Film Festival. Billy's friends, Kathleen Carroll, Roger Ebert, Alexander Walker, Andrew Sarris and Molly Haskell all participated in "Diary Of The Cannes Film Festival."
Billy got his nickname "Billy Silver Dollar Baxter" from Roger Ebert for his habit of handing out silver dollar tips to impress French waiters at the American Bar of the Hotel Majestic in Cannes.