William Gaxton

William Gaxton, born Arthur Anthony Gaxiola on December 2, 1893, in San Francisco, California, was an American actor whose career spanned vaudeville, film, and Broadway theatre. Of Californio and Spanish ancestry, he was a cousin of actor Leo Carrillo. His early education took him through Boone's Military Academy, Berkeley High School, and Lowell High School in San Francisco. He went on to attend Santa Clara College, where Edmund Lowe was among his classmates, and later the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a member of the Sigma Phi fraternity.

Gaxton made his Broadway debut on October 23, 1922, in the Music Box Revue, launching a stage career that would continue through 1946. Among his notable early credits was Rodgers and Hart's A Connecticut Yankee in 1927, in which he performed "Thou Swell," followed by Cole Porter's Fifty Million Frenchmen in 1929, where he sang "You Do Something to Me." He appeared in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Of Thee I Sing in 1931 alongside Victor Moore, and the two went on to form one of the more recognized theatrical partnerships of the era, also collaborating in Anything Goes in 1934, which featured Ethel Merman, and Leave It to Me! in 1938. Additional Broadway credits included Let 'Em Eat Cake, White Horse Inn in 1936, Louisiana Purchase in 1940, and Hollywood Pinafore in 1945.

Gaxton's work extended beyond the stage. He appeared in several films, including the 1931 screen adaptation of Fifty Million Frenchmen, The Silent Partner that same year, Their Big Moment in 1934, and Best Foot Forward, The Heat's On, and Diamond Horseshoe in the mid-1940s. He and Victor Moore also appeared together on film. On radio, Gaxton starred in Broadway Showtime, a thirty-minute musical drama broadcast on CBS from December 27, 1943, through June 26, 1944. In 1961 and 1962, he starred alongside Arthur Treacher in Guy Lombardo's production of Paradise Island at Jones Beach Marine Theater.

Off stage, Gaxton served multiple terms as president of The Lambs Club, a theatrical organization in New York City, holding the position from 1936 to 1939, 1952 to 1953, and again from 1957 to 1961. He was survived by his wife, Madeline Cameron Seitz, who had been part of The Cameron Sisters dance team. Gaxton died of cancer on February 2, 1963, in Manhattan.