JOE DON BAKER
Name: Joe Don Baker
Born: 12 February 1936 Groesbeck, Texas, U.S.
Joe Don Baker (born February 12, 1936) is an American film actor, perhaps best
known for his role as real-life Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser in the American
film classic Walking Tall.
Baker was born in Groesbeck, Texas, the son of Edna (née McDonald) and Doyle
Charles Baker. He got his start in acting as an uncredited character in the
1967 film Cool Hand Luke, but his real beginnings came when he scored the role
of Steve McQueen's younger brother in the film Junior Bonner, directed by Sam
Peckinpah. He later starred as the main character in the hugely successful 1973
film Walking Tall, directed by legendary filmmaker Phil Karlson (Baker also
starred in the auteur's final film, "Framed", two years later). Baker was
offered a cameo in the remake (which had nothing to do with Sheriff Pusser) and
declined the offer.
Perhaps it is his work in director Don Siegel's (Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
Madigan, Dirty Harry) 1973 minor-masterpiece Charley Varrick, that remains Baker's
most critical success. Baker was praised for his courageous and offbeat portrait
of the sadistic hitman Molly. The film starred Walter Matthau as the eponymous
Charley Varrick, and won a British Academy Award.
Although lampooned on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television series:
Mitchell and Final Justice, Baker has performances in a career spanning four
decades. In 1980 Baker became the first actor to receive $1,000,000 to star in a
television series--the short lived police drama Eischeid where he played Chief
Earl Eischeid. In 1985 he portrayed the corrupt key villain Chief Jerry Karlin
in the Chevy Chase hit Fletch. In the UK, Baker is probably best known as CIA
agent Darius Jedburgh from the drama serial Edge of Darkness.
While actor Carroll O'Connor was undergoing heart bypass surgery, Baker took his
place on the television series In the Heat of the Night. Baker appeared as
Captain Tom Duggan, a retired police captain who filled in while O'Connor's
character was away at a police convention.
Name: Joe Don Baker
Born: 12 February 1936 Groesbeck, Texas, U.S.
Joe Don Baker (born February 12, 1936) is an American film actor, perhaps best
known for his role as real-life Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser in the American
film classic Walking Tall.
Baker was born in Groesbeck, Texas, the son of Edna (née McDonald) and Doyle
Charles Baker. He got his start in acting as an uncredited character in the
1967 film Cool Hand Luke, but his real beginnings came when he scored the role
of Steve McQueen's younger brother in the film Junior Bonner, directed by Sam
Peckinpah. He later starred as the main character in the hugely successful 1973
film Walking Tall, directed by legendary filmmaker Phil Karlson (Baker also
starred in the auteur's final film, "Framed", two years later). Baker was
offered a cameo in the remake (which had nothing to do with Sheriff Pusser) and
declined the offer.
Perhaps it is his work in director Don Siegel's (Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
Madigan, Dirty Harry) 1973 minor-masterpiece Charley Varrick, that remains Baker's
most critical success. Baker was praised for his courageous and offbeat portrait
of the sadistic hitman Molly. The film starred Walter Matthau as the eponymous
Charley Varrick, and won a British Academy Award.
Although lampooned on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television series:
Mitchell and Final Justice, Baker has performances in a career spanning four
decades. In 1980 Baker became the first actor to receive $1,000,000 to star in a
television series--the short lived police drama Eischeid where he played Chief
Earl Eischeid. In 1985 he portrayed the corrupt key villain Chief Jerry Karlin
in the Chevy Chase hit Fletch. In the UK, Baker is probably best known as CIA
agent Darius Jedburgh from the drama serial Edge of Darkness.
While actor Carroll O'Connor was undergoing heart bypass surgery, Baker took his
place on the television series In the Heat of the Night. Baker appeared as
Captain Tom Duggan, a retired police captain who filled in while O'Connor's
character was away at a police convention.