Jane Baxter; British Theater and Movie Actress

Jane Baxter, 87, British star of dozens of plays and 29 movies. Born Feodora Forde in Bremen, Germany, she made her stage debut when she was 15 in the musical “Love’s Prisoner” at London’s Adelphi Theater. She worked steadily, opposite such stars as John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave and Charles Laughton. Baxter came to California long enough to make two films, “We Live Again” and “The Enchanted April.” But she preferred to work in England and broke off an affair with actor Ronald Colman in the 1930s rather than stay in Hollywood. When she performed in the wartime motion picture “Ships With Wings,” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called her “that charming lady whose grace personifies all that is best in British womanhood.” On Friday in London.