Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is an American former actress. After studying under
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...
at the
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded ...
, Baker began performing on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...
to play the lead in the adaptation of two
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
plays into the film ''
Baby Doll
''Baby Doll'' is a 1956 American dramatic black comedy film directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, and Eli Wallach. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from his own one-act play '' ...
'' in 1956.
Her role in the film as a coquettish but sexually naïve Southern bride earned her a nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...
.
Baker had other early film roles in ''
Giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
'' (1956) and the romantic comedy ''
But Not for Me'' (1959). In 1961, she appeared in the controversial independent film ''
Something Wild'', directed by her then husband
Jack Garfein
Jakob Garfein (July 2, 1930 – December 30, 2019) was an American film and theatre director, writer, teacher, producer, and key figure of the Actors Studio.
Growing up in Bardejov, Czechoslovakia during the rise of Nazism, Garfein was deported ...
, playing a traumatized rape victim. She went on to star in several critically acclaimed
Westerns
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
in the 1950s and 1960s such as ''
The Big Country
''The Big Country'' is a 1958 American epic Western film directed by William Wyler, starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives. The supporting cast features Charles Bickford and Chuck Connors. Filmed i ...
'' (1958), ''
How the West Was Won'' (1962), and ''
Cheyenne Autumn
''Cheyenne Autumn'' is a 1964 American epic Western film starring Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, James Stewart, and Edward G. Robinson. It tells the story of a factual event, the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878–79, told in "Hollywood style ...
'' (1964).
In the mid-1960s, as a contract player for
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
, Baker became a sex symbol after appearing as a hedonistic widow in ''
The Carpetbaggers
''The Carpetbaggers'' is a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title. The prequel ''Nevada Smith'' (1966) was also based on a character in the novel.
In the United States, the term "carpe ...
'' (1964). The film's producer,
Joseph E. Levine
Joseph Edward Levine (September 9, 1905 – July 31, 1987) was an American film distributor, financier and producer. At the time of his death, it was said he was involved in one or another capacity with 497 films. Levine was responsible for the ...
, cast her in the
potboiler
A potboiler or pot-boiler is a novel, play, opera, film, or other creative work of dubious literary or artistic merit, whose main purpose was to pay for the creator's daily expenses—thus the imagery of "boil the pot", which means "to provide one ...
''
Sylvia'' before giving her the role of
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...
in the biopic ''
Harlow
Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...
'' (1965). Despite significant prepublicity, ''Harlow'' was a critical failure, and Baker relocated to Italy in 1966 amid a legal dispute over her contract with Paramount and Levine's overseeing of her career. In Europe, she spent the next 10 years starring in hard-edged ''
giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
'' and
horror films
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoc ...
, including
Romolo Guerrieri
Romolo Guerrieri, aka ''Romolo Girolami'' (born 5 December 1931) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1961 and 1992.
Selected filmography
;Director
* '' Ten Thousand Dollars for a Massacre'' (1966)
* '' ...
's ''
The Sweet Body of Deborah
''The Sweet Body of Deborah'' ( it, Il dolce corpo di Deborah) is a 1968 ''giallo'' film directed by Romolo Girolami and starring Carroll Baker and Jean Sorel. It was written by Ernesto Gastaldi based on a story by Gastaldi and producer Luciano ...
'' (1968), a series of four films with
Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...
beginning with ''
Orgasmo
''Orgasmo'' is a 1969 giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, and Colette Descombes. It follows a wealthy American socialite who finds herself preyed upon by two nefarious young siblings who indulge her in s ...
'' (1969) and ending with ''
Knife of Ice
''Il coltello di ghiaccio'' ( English: ''Knife of Ice'') is a 1972 giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker, Evelyn Stewart, and George Rigaud. Both Baker and Stewart featured in several other films helmed by Lenzi. The ...
'' (1972), and
Corrado Farina
Corrado Farina (18 March 1939 – 11 July 2016) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist. He directed two feature films in the 1970s, many documentaries and commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed t ...
's ''
Baba Yaga
In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga, also spelled Baba Jaga (from Polish), is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking woman. In fairy tales Baba Yaga flies around in a ...
'' (1973). She re-emerged for American audiences as a
character actress
A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to be ...
in the
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
-produced dark comedy ''
Bad
Bad or BAD may refer to:
Common meanings
*Evil, the opposite of moral good
* Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect
* Unhealthy, or counter to well-being
* Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good
Acronyms
* BAD-2, a Soviet armored troll ...
'' (1977).
Baker appeared in supporting roles in several acclaimed dramas in the 1980s, including the true-crime drama ''
Star 80
''Star 80'' is a 1983 American biographical drama film written and directed by Bob Fosse. It was adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Village Voice'' article "Death of a Playmate" by Teresa Carpenter and is based on Canadian ''Playboy'' mode ...
'' (1983) as the mother of murder victim
Dorothy Stratten
Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten (February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980), known professionally as Dorothy Stratten, was a Playboy Playmate and actress, originally from Canada. Stratten was the ''Playboy'' Playmate of the Month for August 1979 and Playm ...
, and the racial drama ''
Native Son
''Native Son'' (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s.
While not apologizing ...
'' (1986), based on the novel by
Richard Wright. In 1987, she had a supporting part in ''
Ironweed'' (1987). Through the 1990s Baker had guest roles in several television series, such as ''
Murder, She Wrote
''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...
''; ''
L.A. Law
''L.A. Law'' is an American legal drama television series that ran for eight seasons on NBC, from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994.
Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it centers on the partners, associates and staff of a Los ...
'', and ''
Roswell''. She also had supporting parts in several big-budget films, such as ''
Kindergarten Cop
''Kindergarten Cop'' is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and distributed by Universal Pictures. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as John Kimble, a tough police detective working undercover as a kindergarten teacher to apprehen ...
'' (1990) and the
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...
-directed thriller ''
The Game'' (1997). She formally retired from acting in 2003. In addition to acting, Baker is also the author of two autobiographies and a novel.
Early life and education
Baker was born and raised in
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropol ...
into a Catholic family, the daughter of Edith Gertrude (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Duffy) and William Watson Baker, a traveling salesman.
Baker is of Irish and Polish descent, which has given rise to a rumor that her birth name was Karolina Piekarski, though this currently cannot be substantiated by known records. Her parents separated when she was eight years old, and she moved with her mother and younger sister, Virginia, to
Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania
Turtle Creek is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh. The population was 5,349 at the 2010 census. George Westinghouse constructed a manufacturing plant nearby. Turtle Creek takes its name from a small stream th ...
.
According to Baker, her mother struggled as a single parent, and the family was poor for much of her upbringing.
Baker attended Greensburg Salem High School in
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Greensburg is a city in and the county seat of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city lies within the Laurel Highlands and the ecoregion of the Western Allegheny Plateau (ecoregion), W ...
, where she was a debate team member and active in the marching band and school musicals. At 18, she moved with her family to
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...
, where she attended St. Petersburg Junior College (now
St. Petersburg College
St. Petersburg College (SPC) is a public college in Pinellas County, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and one of the institutions in the system designated a "state college," as it offers a greater number of bachelor's degrees th ...
).
After her first year in college, she began working as a
magician's assistant
A magician's assistant is a performer in a magic act who is not billed as the magician or principal name in the act. The role of an assistant can include holding the props that are used by a magician, shifting props onto and off the stage, an ...
on the
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
circuit
and joined a
dance company
A dance troupe or dance company is a group of dancers and associated personnel who work together to perform dances as a sport, spectacle or entertainment. There are many different types of dance companies, often working in different styles of dan ...
, working as a professional dancer.
In 1949, Baker won the title of Miss Florida Fruits and Vegetables.
In 1951, Baker moved to New York City, where she rented a dirt-floor basement apartment in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
. She worked as a nightclub dancer and also had stints as a
chorus girl
A chorus line is a large group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed.
Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms s ...
in traveling vaudeville shows, which took her to
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, and New Jersey.
Baker studied acting at
HB Studio
The HB Studio (Herbert Berghof Studio) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization offering professional training in the performing arts through classes, workshops, free lectures, theater productions, theater rentals, a theater artist residency prog ...
. In 1952, she enrolled at the
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded ...
and studied under
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...
.
There, she was a classmate of
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...
,
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen Steiger (; April 14, 1925July 9, 2002, aged 77) was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Cited as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars," he is closely assoc ...
,
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades. She appeared in numerous films. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ''A Patch o ...
, and
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
; she also became a close friend of
James Dean
James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, ''Rebel Without a Cause' ...
for the rest of his life.
[. ''Media Funhouse'' (2000). Retrieved June 28, 2017.]
Career
1952–1957: Early work and critical success
After appearing in television commercials for
Winston cigarettes
Winston is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by ITG Brands, subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco in the United States and by Japan Tobacco outside the U.S. The brand is named after the town where R. J. Reynolds started ...
and
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
, Baker was featured in an episode of ''
Monodrama Theater
''Monodrama Theater'', also known as ''Mono-Drama Theatre'', was a late night television series which aired on the DuMont Television Network weekdays at 11pm ET from May 1952 to December 1953.
Production background
The series consisted of a singl ...
'' performing a
monodramatic piece, which was broadcast in 1952 on the
DuMont Network
The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
.
The following year, she made her film debut with a small walk-on part in the musical ''
Easy to Love'' (1953). This led to her landing roles in two
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
productions:
Roger MacDougall
Roger MacDougall (2 August 1910, in Glasgow – 27 May 1993) was a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and director.
Biography
MacDougall began writing the occasional screenplay in the late 30s, working both alone and in collaboration with ...
's ''Escapade'' in the fall of 1953, and
Robert Anderson's ''All Summer Long'', opposite
Ed Begley
Edward James Begley Sr. (March 25, 1901 – April 28, 1970) was an American actor of theatre, radio, film, and television. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film ''Sweet Bird of Youth'' (1962) an ...
, which ran from September to mid-November 1954.
In 1955, she screen tested and auditioned for the lead role in ''
Picnic
A picnic is a meal taken outdoors ( ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding ...
'', but lost the part to
Kim Novak
Marilyn Pauline "Kim" Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American retired film and television actress and painter.
Novak began her career in 1954 after signing with Columbia Pictures and quickly became one of Hollywood's top box office stars, ...
. She was also considered for the lead in ''
Rebel Without a Cause
''Rebel Without a Cause'' is a 1955 American coming-of-age drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Filmed in the then recently introduced CinemaScope format and directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social co ...
'' (1955) after James Dean recommended her for the part to director
Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film ''Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features pr ...
, which she turned down.
Baker's first major screen role was the supporting part of Luz Benedict II in ''
Giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
'' (1956), opposite
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...
,
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Golde ...
, and James Dean, in his final role. According to Baker, she had been offered numerous leading parts in feature films before that point, but chose to debut in a supporting role in ''Giant'' because she was "insecure" and "wanted to start out a little less 'profile.
''Giant'' was largely filmed in the small town of
Marfa, Texas
Marfa is a city in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos in far West Texas, between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park. It is the county seat of Presidio County, Texas, Presidio County, and its population as of the 2010 United States Cens ...
, in 1955;
Baker recalled her experience on set, saying that James Dean and she were both enamored of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor while filming.
![Carroll Baker by Peter Basch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Carroll_Baker_by_Peter_Basch.png)
Simultaneously, Baker was cast as the title character in
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...
's ''
Baby Doll
''Baby Doll'' is a 1956 American dramatic black comedy film directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, and Eli Wallach. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from his own one-act play '' ...
'' (1956), a role initially intended for
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
.
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
, who had written and developed the screenplay based on two of his one-act plays, wanted Baker to play the part after seeing her perform a scene from his script at the Actors Studio; likewise, Kazan had been impressed by her performance in ''All Summer Long'' on Broadway the year prior. Shot in
Benoit, Mississippi
Benoit is a town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 365.
History
The 1956 movie ''Baby Doll'' was shot on location at the Burrus House in Benoit; many local residents played in minor roles.
G ...
, directly after Baker had completed ''Giant'', her role in the film as a sexually repressed teenaged bride to a failed middle-aged cotton gin owner brought Baker overnight fame and a level of notoriety even before the film's release. In the fall of 1956, artist Robert Everheart, under contract with
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, constructed a billboard in
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
promoting the film, depicting the now-iconic image of a scantily clad Baker lying in a crib sucking her thumb. The controversial advertising campaign for the film caused a pre-emptive backlash from religious groups, and on December 16, 1956, Cardinal
Francis Spellman
Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary ...
of
St. Patrick's Cathedral denounced the film and advised his parish against seeing it. A formal condemnation by the Roman Catholic
National Legion of Decency
The National Legion of Decency, also known as the Catholic Legion of Decency, was a Catholic group founded in 1934 by Archbishop of Cincinnati, John T. McNicholas, as an organization dedicated to identifying objectionable content in motion pictu ...
ensued, which considered it "grievously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency".
In support of Baker, Marilyn Monroe appeared at the film's premiere, working as an
usherette
An usher is a person who welcomes and shows people where to sit, especially at a church, theatre or when attending a wedding.
History
The word comes from the Latin ''ostiarius'' ("porter", "doorman") through Norman French, and is a cognate of ...
to help bolster ticket sales, the proceeds of which were donated to the Actors Studio. Baker received immense critical praise for her performance. ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' said that her performance "captures all the animal charm, the naivete, the vanity, contempt and rising passion of Baby Doll", while
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' praised Baker's ability to exhibit "a piteously flimsy little twist of juvenile greed, inhibitions, physical yearnings, common crudities and conceits". ''Baby Doll'' established Baker as an A-list actress and would remain the film for which she is best remembered. She was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...
for her performance, a
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
for Best Actress, and won a Golden Globe for
Most Promising Newcomer, which she shared with
Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, singer, nightclub entertainer, and ''Playboy'' Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s while under contract at 20th Century Fox, Man ...
and
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles.
Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...
. The performance also earned her a Film Achievement Award from ''
Look'', as well as the title "Woman of the Year" in 1957 from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's
Hasty Pudding Club
The Hasty Pudding Club, often referred to simply as the Pudding, is a social club at Harvard University, and one of three sub-organizations that comprise the Hasty Pudding - Institute of 1770. The club's motto, ''Concordia Discors'' (discordant h ...
.
She appeared on the cover of ''
Life Magazine
''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...
'' in June 1956.
1958–1963: Contract disputes and independent films
![The Big Country Baker Peck screenshot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/The_Big_Country_Baker_Peck_screenshot.jpg)
After the success of ''Baby Doll'', Baker was subsequently offered parts in ''
The Brothers Karamazov
''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...
'' (1958), ''
Too Much, Too Soon
''Too Much, Too Soon'' is a 1958 biographical film about Diana Barrymore produced by Warner Bros. It was directed by Art Napoleon and produced by Henry Blanke from a screenplay by Art Napoleon and Jo Napoleon, based on the autobiography by Dian ...
'' (1958), and ''
The Devil's Disciple'' (1959). She refused to make ''Too Much Too Soon'', so Warner Bros. put her on suspension, which prevented her from starring in ''The Brothers Karamazov'' (1958) at MGM. Baker was also chosen by MGM for the lead in ''
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams. An adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", the play was written by him between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his p ...
'' (1958) and by
Twentieth Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...
for ''
The Three Faces of Eve
''The Three Faces of Eve'' is a 1957 American film noir mystery drama film presented in CinemaScope, based on the book of the same name about the life of Chris Costner Sizemore, which was written by psychiatrists Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey ...
'' (1957), but her contract with Warner Bros. again prevented her from accepting the roles.
Tensions between Baker and the studio escalated further when she went against their wishes by appearing in ''
Arms and the Man
''Arms and the Man'' is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's ''Aeneid'', in Latin:
''Arma virumque cano'' ("Of arms and the man I sing").
The play was first produced on 21 April 1894 at the Aven ...
'' on stage. Baker commented on the effect of the system on her career, saying: "I came in at the end of the big studio system. I still had a slave contract and they were willing to put you in almost anything they had."
After her suspension with Warner Bros. was lifted, Baker appeared in
William Wyler
William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a Swiss-German-American film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), ''The Best Years of O ...
's Western epic ''
The Big Country
''The Big Country'' is a 1958 American epic Western film directed by William Wyler, starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives. The supporting cast features Charles Bickford and Chuck Connors. Filmed i ...
'' (1958). The film was well received by critics, though the shoot was described as "problematic": Baker was four months pregnant at the time and had to wear restraining garments, and director Wyler reportedly had her on the verge of tears after forcing her to repeat the same take over 60 times, only to use the first one. She followed ''The Big Country'' with lead roles in two romances, portraying a nun in ''
The Miracle'' (1959), co-starring
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 19 ...
, and in ''
But Not for Me'' (1959), a comedy with
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...
. ''The New York Times'' praised Baker's performance in ''But Not for Me'', saying: "Miss Baker, being a young lady who not only has looks, but also can act, makes you understand why Mr. Gable would like to cheat a little bit on Father Time." She disliked ''The Miracle'' so much that she bought out her contract with Warner Bros., putting her in considerable debt. ''But Not for Me'' was made at Paramount.
Baker went on to make the experimental film ''
Something Wild'' (1961), directed by her then-husband
Jack Garfein
Jakob Garfein (July 2, 1930 – December 30, 2019) was an American film and theatre director, writer, teacher, producer, and key figure of the Actors Studio.
Growing up in Bardejov, Czechoslovakia during the rise of Nazism, Garfein was deported ...
. In this independent production, she plays a young college student from
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
who is raped one night in St. James Park, and later held captive by a Manhattan mechanic (
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 August 5, 1988) was an American film, stage, and television actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of '' Mister Roberts'' (1948–1951) and ''Picnic'' ...
), who witnessed her subsequent suicide attempt. In preparation for her role, Baker lived alone in a boarding house in New York's
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
, and gained employment as a department-store salesgirl; her
method
Method ( grc, μέθοδος, methodos) literally means a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system. In recent centuries it more often means a prescribed process for completing a task. It may refer to:
*Scien ...
approach to the role was profiled in ''Life'' magazine in 1960. Critical reaction to the film was largely negative, though ''Film Quarterly'' cited it as "the most interesting American film of its quarter", and the most underrated film of 1961. However, its controversial depiction of rape led to critical backlash and public criticism, and the film has been credited by historians as nearly halting Baker's career.
The same year, she portrayed Gwen Harold in ''
Bridge to the Sun
''Bridge to the Sun'' is a 1961 film directed by Etienne Périer and starring Carroll Baker, James Shigeta, James Yagi, Tetsurō Tamba and Sean Garrison. It is based on the 1957 autobiography ''Bridge to the Sun'' by Gwen Terasaki, which detaile ...
'' (1961), a production by MGM based on the 1957 best-selling autobiography of a Tennessee-born woman who married a Japanese diplomat (portrayed by
James Shigeta
James Saburo Shigeta ( ja, 繁田 三郎) (June 17, 1929 – July 28, 2014) was an American actor of Japanese descent. He was noted for his roles in ''The Crimson Kimono'' (1959), '' Walk Like a Dragon'' (1960), ''Flower Drum Song'' (1961), ...
) and became one of the few Americans to live in Japan during World War II. While only a modest success at the box office,
the film was well received by critics and was America's entry at the
Venice International Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
.
After this, Baker appeared in the independent British-German film ''
Station Six-Sahara
''Station Six-Sahara'' is a 1963 British-West German drama film directed by Seth Holt and starring Carroll Baker, Peter van Eyck and Ian Bannen. It is a remake of the 1938 film '' S.O.S. Sahara'', which had been based on a play by Jean Martet.
...
'' (1962) as a woman who provokes tensions at an oil station in the
Sahara Desert
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, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
, country1 =
, ...
, as well as the blockbuster Western epic ''
How the West Was Won'' (1962), opposite
James Stewart
James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...
and
Debbie Reynolds
Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portra ...
and former co-stars Gregory Peck and Karl Malden. In addition to film acting, Baker also found time to appear again on Broadway, starring in the 1962 production of
Garson Kanin
Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was an American writer and director of plays and films.
Early life
Garson Kanin was born in Rochester, New York; his family later relocated to Detroit then to New York City. He attended ...
's ''Come on Strong'' in the fall of that year.
In 1963, Baker relocated permanently with then-husband Jack Garfein and their two children to Los Angeles, where she based herself for the next several years. She traveled to
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
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, ...
to film ''
Mister Moses
''Mister Moses'' is a 1965 American adventure film about a con man blackmailed into persuading an entire African village into relocating for their own safety. It was directed by Ronald Neame and stars Robert Mitchum and Carroll Baker. The film wa ...
'' (1965), where publicized rumors spread that she and co-star
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
were having an affair, which they both vehemently denied.
Another story, now considered
apocryphal
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
, had it that a
Maasai Maasai may refer to:
* Maasai people
*Maasai language
* Maasai mythology
* MAASAI (band)
See also
* Masai (disambiguation)
* Massai
Massai (also known as: Masai, Massey, Massi, Mah–sii, Massa, Wasse, Wassil or by the nickname "Big Foot" Mas ...
chief in Kenya offered 150 cows, 200 goats, sheep, and $750 for her hand in marriage. She subsequently appeared with Maasai warriors on the cover of ''Life''s July 1964 issue.
1964–1966: Sex symbol roles
Baker portrayed a
pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
schoolteacher in
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
's ''
Cheyenne Autumn
''Cheyenne Autumn'' is a 1964 American epic Western film starring Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, James Stewart, and Edward G. Robinson. It tells the story of a factual event, the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878–79, told in "Hollywood style ...
'' (1964), and received critical acclaim for the role. She then had a supporting role as
Saint Veronica
Saint Veronica, also known as Berenike, was a woman from Jerusalem who lived in the 1st century AD, according to extra-biblical Christian sacred tradition. A celebrated saint in many pious Christian countries, the 17th-century ''Acta Sanctorum' ...
in
George Stevens
George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, film producer, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', March 12, 1975, page 79. Films he produced were nomi ...
' ''
The Greatest Story Ever Told
''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens. It is a retelling of the Biblical account about Jesus of Nazareth, from the Nativity through to the Ascension. Along with the ensemble cast, ...
'' (1965), and portrayed a cynical, alcoholic movie star in ''
The Carpetbaggers
''The Carpetbaggers'' is a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title. The prequel ''Nevada Smith'' (1966) was also based on a character in the novel.
In the United States, the term "carpe ...
'' (1964), which brought her a second wave of notoriety in spite of the film's lackluster reviews.
''The New York Times'' called the film "a sickly sour distillation" of the source novel, but said Baker's performance "brought some color and a sandpaper personality as the sex-loaded widow."
The film was the top moneymaker of that year, with domestic box-office receipts of $13,000,000, and marked the beginning of a tumultuous relationship with the film's producer,
Joseph E. Levine
Joseph Edward Levine (September 9, 1905 – July 31, 1987) was an American film distributor, financier and producer. At the time of his death, it was said he was involved in one or another capacity with 497 films. Levine was responsible for the ...
.
![Carroll Baker as Jean Harlow, 1964](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Carroll_Baker_as_Jean_Harlow%2C_1964.png)
Based on her ''Carpetbaggers'' performance, Levine began to develop Baker as a movie
sex symbol
A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive.Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to ...
, and she appeared posing in the December 1964 issue of ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
''. She was subsequently cast by Levine in the title roles of two 1965
potboiler
A potboiler or pot-boiler is a novel, play, opera, film, or other creative work of dubious literary or artistic merit, whose main purpose was to pay for the creator's daily expenses—thus the imagery of "boil the pot", which means "to provide one ...
s— ''
Sylvia'', as an ex-prostitute and con artist, and as
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...
in ''
Harlow
Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...
''. Baker appeared on the cover of the ''
Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
'' on their November 2, 1963, issue dressed as Harlow, promoting the film's upcoming production. In 1965, she became an official celebrity spokesperson for
Foster Grant
Foster Grant, or FosterGrant, is an American brand of eyewear founded by Sam Foster in 1919. The Foster Grant brand is a subsidiary company of FGX International, a consumer goods wholesaler with headquarters in Smithfield, Rhode Island, which has ...
sunglasses and appeared in advertisements for the company. Baker likened this era of her career to "being a beauty contest winner
s opposed toan actress".
Despite much prepublicity, ''Harlow'' received a lukewarm response from critics: ''Variety'' referred to Baker's portrayal of Harlow as "a fairly reasonable facsimile, although she lacks the electric fire of the original." Relations between Baker and Levine soured; in a 1965 interview, Baker sardonically commented: "I'll say this about Joe Levine: I admire his taste in leading ladies", which led the press to suspect a rift between the actress and producer. Baker sued Levine in 1966 over her contract with Paramount Pictures,
and was ultimately fired by Paramount and had her paychecks from ''Harlow'' frozen amid the contentious legal dispute; this left Baker hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt (however, she was eventually awarded $1 million in compensation).
In an interview with
Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed (born October 2, 1938) is an American film critic, occasional actor, and television host. He writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for ''The New York Observer''.
Early life
Reed was born on October 2, 1938, in Fort Wort ...
in his book ''People Are Crazy Here'' (1974), Baker revealed that she had felt pressure in both her working relationship with Levine, and her domestic life with her husband whom she said wanted to maintain an expensive lifestyle: "We'd been very poor when we started out at the Actors Studio in New York", she told Reed. "I was under contract to Joe Levine, who was going around giving me diamonds and behaving like he owned me. I never slept with him or anything, but everyone thought I was his mistress." In the spring of 1966, Baker returned to theatre, performing in a production of ''
Anna Christie
''Anna Christie'' is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work. According to historian Paul Avrich, the orig ...
'' at the
Huntington Hartford Theater Huntington may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Huntington, Nova Scotia
New Zealand
* Huntington, New Zealand a suburb in Hamilton, New Zealand
United Kingdom
* Huntington, Cheshire, England
* Huntington, East Lothian, Scotland
* Huntington, ...
in Los Angeles. The production was directed by Garfein. The production was heralded as the "theatre event of the week" in Los Angeles, though its reception was middling.
Cecil Smith of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote of the production: "The beautiful Miss Baker's vehicle becomes a hearse." The play was also performed at the
Tappan Zee Playhouse
Tappan Zee Playhouse, built in 1911 as the Broadway Theater, was a historic theatre located at Nyack in Rockland County, New York. It consisted of an early 20th-century lobby and theatre structure in front and stage house in rear. The stage house ...
in
Nyack, New York
Nyack () is a Village (New York), village located primarily in the Town (New York), town of Orangetown, New York, Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, Rockland County, New York (state), New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, it retai ...
in June 1966.
1967–1975: European films
Baker separated from her second husband, Jack Garfein, in 1967, and moved to Europe with her two children to pursue a career there after struggling to find work in Hollywood.
Eventually settling in Rome, Baker became fluent in Italian
and spent the next several years starring in hard-edged
Italian thrillers,
exploitation
Exploitation may refer to:
*Exploitation of natural resources
*Exploitation of labour
** Forced labour
*Exploitation colonialism
*Slavery
** Sexual slavery and other forms
*Oppression
*Psychological manipulation
In arts and entertainment
*Exploi ...
, and
horror films
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoc ...
. In 1966, Baker had been invited to the Venice International Film Festival, where she met director
Marco Ferreri
Marco Ferreri (11 May 1928 – 9 May 1997) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, who began his career in the 1950s directing three films in Spain, followed by 24 Italian films before his death in 1997. He is considered one of t ...
, who asked her to play the lead role in ''
Her Harem
''Her Harem'' ( it, L'harem, released in UK as ''The Harem'') is a 1967 Italian comedy-drama film written and directed by Marco Ferreri and starring Carroll Baker, Gastone Moschin and Renato Salvatori.
Plot
A woman has a number of male lovers so, ...
'' (1967). This was followed with the horror films ''The Sweet Body of Deborah'' (1968) and ''The Devil Has Seven Faces'' (1971). Baker also starred in ''
So Sweet... So Perverse'' (1969), ''
Orgasmo
''Orgasmo'' is a 1969 giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, and Colette Descombes. It follows a wealthy American socialite who finds herself preyed upon by two nefarious young siblings who indulge her in s ...
'' (1969), ''A Quiet Place to Kill'' (1970), and ''
Il coltello di ghiaccio'' (''Knife of Ice'') (1972), all
giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
films directed by Italian filmmaker
Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...
.
![Il dolce corpo di Deborah (1968) - Carroll Baker (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Il_dolce_corpo_di_Deborah_%281968%29_-_Carroll_Baker_%281%29.jpg)
Many of these films feature her in roles as distressed women, and often showed Baker in nude scenes, which few major Hollywood actors were willing to do at the time. Baker became a favorite of Umberto Lenzi, with her best-known role being in the aforementioned ''Paranoia'', where she played a wealthy widow tormented by two sadistic siblings. In his review of ''Paranoia'',
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
said: "Carroll Baker, who was a Hollywood sex symbol (for some, it is said) until she sued Joe Levine and got blacklisted, has been around. She may not be an actress, but she can act. In ''The Carpetbaggers'', there was a nice wholesome vulgarity to her performance. She is not intrinsically as bad as she appears in ''Paranoia''. I think maybe she was saying 'the hell with it', and having a good time." As with ''Paranoia'', the majority of the films she made in Italy received poor critical reception in the United States, though they afforded Baker—who had left Hollywood in debt and with two children to support— an income, as well as fame abroad. In retrospect, Baker commented on her career in Italy and on her exploitation film roles, saying: "I think I made more films
here
Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to:
Software
* Here Technologies, a mapping company
* Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here
Television
* Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...
than I made in Hollywood, but the mentality is different. What they think is wonderful is not what we might ... it was marvelous for me because it really brought me back to life, and it gave me a whole new outlook. It's wonderful to know about a different world."
She followed her roles in Lenzi's films with a leading role in
Corrado Farina
Corrado Farina (18 March 1939 – 11 July 2016) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist. He directed two feature films in the 1970s, many documentaries and commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed t ...
's ''
Baba Yaga
In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga, also spelled Baba Jaga (from Polish), is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking woman. In fairy tales Baba Yaga flies around in a ...
'' (1973) as the titular witch, alongside
Isabelle De Funès
Isabelle Christine Inès Léonore Girard (born July 27, 1944), better known by the name Isabelle De Funès, is a French actress, singer, model and photographer. She is best known for her portrayal of Guido Crepax's comic book character Valentina ...
and
George Eastman
George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He was a major philanthropist, establishing the ...
. ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' referred to the film as an "exceptionally handsome example of 1970s Italian pop-exploitation filmmaking sweetened by Piero Umilani's lounge-jazz score", and praised Baker's performance, but noted that she was "physically wrong for the role; her elaborate lace-and-beribboned costumes sometimes make her look more like a fleshy
Miss Havisham
Miss Havisham is a character in the Charles Dickens novel ''Great Expectations'' (1861). She is a wealthy spinster, once jilted at the altar, who insists on wearing her wedding dress for the rest of her life. She lives in a ruined mansion with ...
than a sleekly predatory sorceress".
1976–1987: Return to American films; theater
Baker's first American film in over 10 years came in the
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
–produced
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
''
Bad
Bad or BAD may refer to:
Common meanings
*Evil, the opposite of moral good
* Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect
* Unhealthy, or counter to well-being
* Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good
Acronyms
* BAD-2, a Soviet armored troll ...
'' (1977), in which she plays the lead role of a
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
beauty salon owner who provides
hitmen
Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
with jobs, starring alongside
Susan Tyrrell
Susan Tyrrell (born Susan Jillian Creamer; March 18, 1945 – June 16, 2012) was an American character actress. Tyrrell's career began in theater in New York City in the 1960s in Broadway and off Broadway productions. Her first film was ''Shoot ...
and
Perry King
Perry Firestone King (born April 30, 1948) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles on television and in films.
King received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in the television film ''The Hasty Heart'' (1983), which is a rema ...
. "You can hardly call making an Andy Warhol movie a 'comeback'", said Baker. "It's more like going to the moon! The subject is totally unique."
She followed ''Bad'' with a part in the low-budget surrealist thriller ''
The Sky Is Falling'' (1979) with
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...
, playing a washed-up actress living among expatriates in a Spanish village. The 1970s also had a return to the stage for Baker, where she appeared in British theater productions of ''
Bell, Book, and Candle''; ''Rain'', an adaptation of a story by
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
; ''
Lucy Crown
''Lucy Crown'' is a novel by American author Irwin Shaw. First published in 1956, it was Shaw's third novel, following The Young Lions and The Troubled Air.
Principal Characters
* Lucy Crown, wife and mother
* Oliver Crown, her husband
* Antho ...
'', an adaptation of the novel by
Irwin Shaw
Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: ''The Young Lions'' ( ...
; and ''Motive''. In 1978, while touring England and Ireland in productions of ''Motive'', Baker met stage actor
Donald Burton
Donald Graham Burton (10 February 1934 – 8 December 2007) was an English theatre and television actor.
Life and career
Donald was born in Norwich, England, on 10 February 1934. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a scholarship ...
, who became her third husband.
She also appeared in American stage productions of
Georges Feydeau
Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (; 8 December 1862 – 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914.
Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class parent ...
's ''
13 Rue de l'Amour
''Monsieur chasse!'' (Monsieur is hunting!) is a three-act farce by Georges Feydeau, first produced in Paris in 1892. A married man disguises his absences conducting an extramarital affair in Paris as shooting trips in the country, but an evenin ...
'', ''
Forty Carats
''Forty Carats'' is a play by Jay Presson Allen. Adapted from the French original by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, the comedy revolves around a 40-year-old American divorcee who is assisted by a 22-year-old when her car breaks down du ...
'', and ''
Goodbye Charlie
''Goodbye Charlie'' is a 1964 American comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds and Pat Boone. The film is about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from George Axelrod's 1959 p ...
''.
By the 1980s Baker had largely become a
character actress
A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to be ...
, and was based in London. She starred in a supporting role in the 1980
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
-produced horror film ''
The Watcher in the Woods'', alongside
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
, after having been asked by
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
director
John Hough, a longtime admirer of her work. After an appearance in the British television film ''
Red Monarch
''Red Monarch'' is a 1983 British television film starring Colin Blakely as Joseph Stalin. It is directed by Jack Gold and features David Suchet as Lavrentiy Beria and David Threlfall as Stalin's son Vasily.
''Red Monarch'' is a comedy based o ...
'' (1983), she played the mother of murdered ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'' model
Dorothy Stratten
Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten (February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980), known professionally as Dorothy Stratten, was a Playboy Playmate and actress, originally from Canada. Stratten was the ''Playboy'' Playmate of the Month for August 1979 and Playm ...
(played by
Mariel Hemingway
Mariel Hadley Hemingway (born November 22, 1961) is an American actress. She began acting at age 14 with a Golden Globe-nominated breakout role in ''Lipstick'' (1976), and she received Academy and BAFTA Award nominations for her performance in ...
) in the biopic ''
Star 80
''Star 80'' is a 1983 American biographical drama film written and directed by Bob Fosse. It was adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Village Voice'' article "Death of a Playmate" by Teresa Carpenter and is based on Canadian ''Playboy'' mode ...
'' (1983). She also appeared as the mother of
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
in the comedy ''
The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud
''The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud'' is a 1984 American comedy film directed by Danford B. Greene and starring Bud Cort.
Cast
* Bud Cort as Sigmund Freud
* Carol Kane as Martha Bernays
* Klaus Kinski as Dr. Max Bauer
* Marisa Berenson as Emma ...
'' (1984) with
Carol Kane
Carolyn Laurie Kane (born June 18, 1952) is an American actress. She became known in the 1970s and 1980s in films such as '' Hester Street'' (for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress), ''Dog Day Afternoon'', ''Annie ...
and
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski (, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991) was a German actor, equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality. He appeared in over 130 film roles in a c ...
.
Baker featured in ''
Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil'' (1985), a coming-of-age drama set against
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, as well as in the drama ''
Native Son
''Native Son'' (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s.
While not apologizing ...
'' (1986), based on
the novel
''The Novel'' (1991) is a novel written by American author James A. Michener. A departure from Michener's better known historical fiction, ''The Novel'' is told from the viewpoints of four different characters involved in the life and work of ...
by
Richard Wright, which featured
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination.
Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a te ...
,
Geraldine Page
Geraldine Sue Page (November 22, 1924June 13, 1987) was an American actress. With a career which spanned four decades across film, stage, and television, Page was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Acade ...
, and a young
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
. In the latter Baker plays a 1930s Chicago housewife, mother of a teenage girl accidentally killed by an African American chauffeur, who attempts to cover up the accident. Critic Roger Ebert praised Baker's performance, noting her "powerful" scene with Winfrey during the film's finale.
Following ''Native Son'', Baker had a critically acclaimed lead role as the wife of a
schizophrenic
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...
drifter (played by
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
) in ''
Ironweed'' (1987), alongside
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...
. Her performance in the film was praised by Ebert, who said: "Nicholson's homecoming
n the film
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
is all the more effective because Carroll Baker is so good as his wife ... she finds a whole new range. It may seem surprising to say that Baker holds the screen against Jack Nicholson, and yet she does".
1988–2003: Later roles and retirement
In 1990, Baker played the role of Eleanor Crisp—described by Roger Ebert as "an effective bitch on wheels"—in
Ivan Reitman
Ivan Reitman (; October 27, 1946February 12, 2022) was a Czechoslovak-born Canadian filmmaker. He was best known for his comedy work, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 1998.
Film ...
's comedy ''
Kindergarten Cop
''Kindergarten Cop'' is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and distributed by Universal Pictures. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as John Kimble, a tough police detective working undercover as a kindergarten teacher to apprehen ...
'', starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
, which she filmed in
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is a port city and the seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the northwest corne ...
, in the summer of 1990. The film was a huge financial success, grossing over $200 million worldwide. Her film and television work continued throughout the '90s, and she acted in many
made-for-television
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
movies, including the true-crime story ''
Judgment Day: The John List Story'' (1993), ''Witness Run'' (1996), and ''
Dalva
''Dalva'' is a 1996 American made-for-television drama film starring Farrah Fawcett and Carroll Baker.
Although Fawcett isn't the movie's only star, she is the only performer to be billed in the opening credits. However, on DVD and VHS home vid ...
'' (1996) with
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Leni Fawcett (born Ferrah Leni Fawcett; February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) was an American actress. A four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and six-time Golden Globe Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she playe ...
.
In 1997, Baker was cast in a supporting role in
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...
's thriller ''
The Game'', in which she plays a housekeeper to a billionaire San Francisco banker (played by
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AF ...
) who becomes embroiled in a sadistic game by his antagonistic brother, played by
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008).
Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
. In an interview with ''
The New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' following the film's release, Baker commented on her role, saying: "It's an important movie and I'm honored to be in it. Of course, I'd like to be the romantic lead, and I'm actually closer to Michael's
ouglasage than
Deborah Kara Unger
Deborah Kara Unger (born 12 May 1966) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles in the films '' Highlander III: The Sorcerer'' (1994), ''Crash'' (1996), '' The Game'' (1997), ''Payback'' (1999), '' The Hurricane'' (1999), ''White Noise' ...
is,
utI think it's always worked that way in Hollywood. When I was in my 20s, I played opposite Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum, and Clark Gable, all of whom were old enough to be my father." ''The Game'' proved to be a major success among Baker's later films, performing successfully at the box office and garnering widespread critical acclaim.
In addition to her work in big-budget productions, Baker also appeared in small, independent films, such as ''Just Your Luck'' (1996) and ''Nowhere to Go'' (1997). The 1990s also had Baker more frequently appearing on television series, including episodes of ''
Grand
Grand may refer to:
People with the name
* Grand (surname)
* Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor
* Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist
* Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper
Places
* Grand, Oklahoma
* Grand, Vosges, village and commu ...
'' (1990), ''
Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt may refer to:
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s
** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...
'' (1991, opposite
Teri Garr
Teri Ann Garr (born December 11, 1944) is an American former actress, dancer, and comedian. She frequently appeared in comedic roles throughout her career, which spans four decades and includes over 140 credits in film and television. Her accola ...
in a segment directed by
Michael J. Fox
Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American retired actor. Beginning his career in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom ''Family Ties'' (1 ...
), ''
Murder, She Wrote
''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...
'' and ''
L.A. Law
''L.A. Law'' is an American legal drama television series that ran for eight seasons on NBC, from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994.
Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it centers on the partners, associates and staff of a Los ...
'' (both 1993); ''
Chicago Hope
''Chicago Hope'' is an American medical drama television series, created by David E. Kelley. It originally aired on CBS from September 18, 1994, to May 4, 2000. The series is set in a fictional private charitable hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
...
'' (1995), and ''
Roswell'' (1999). In 2000, she appeared in the
Lifetime film ''Another Woman's Husband''. In 2002, Baker appeared in the documentary ''
Cinerama Adventure
''Cinerama Adventure'' is a 2002 documentary about the history of the Cinerama widescreen film process. It tells the story of the widescreen process' evolution, from a primitive multi-screen pyramid process to a Vitarama format that played a big p ...
'', and guest-starred in an episode of ''
The Lyon's Den
''The Lyon's Den'' is an American legal drama television series set in Washington, D.C. The legal drama starred Rob Lowe as a lawyer named Jack Turner, newly appointed as partner of a long-established law firm that, as the plot revealed, harbored ...
'', playing the mother of
Rob Lowe
Robert Hepler Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker, and podcast host. He made his acting debut at the age of 15 with ABC's short-lived sitcom ''A New Kind of Family'' (1979–1980). Following numerous television roles in ...
's character. Her role in ''The Lyon's Den'' was Baker's last screen appearance before she formally retired from acting in 2003. Her acting career spanned 50 years, and more than 80 roles in film, television, and theater.
She has, however, sometimes participated in retrospective documentaries, including an interview for the 2006 DVD release of ''Baby Doll'', which includes a documentary featuring Baker reflecting on the film's impact on her career.
Baker has also been featured in documentaries about several of her co-stars, including Clark Gable,
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 19 ...
,
Sal Mineo
Salvatore Mineo Jr. (January 10, 1939 – February 12, 1976) was an American actor, singer, and director. He is best known for his role as John "Plato" Crawford in the drama film ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955), which earned him a nomination f ...
, and James Dean, including the 1975 ''James Dean: The First American Teenager'', and a 1985 BBC Radio 2 tribute marking the 30th anniversary of the actor's death. Her memories of James Dean at the Actors Studio and later in ''Giant'' were recalled on BBC Radio 2 in 1982, when she guested on ''You're Tearing Me Apart'', Terence Pettigrew's documentary which commemorated the 25th anniversary of Dean's death in a car accident in 1955. Also on the program were singer-actor
Adam Faith
Terence Nelhams Wright (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), known as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. A teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK Singles Chart with "What Do You Want?" (1959) and "Poo ...
and the screenwriter
Ray Connolly
Ray Connolly (born 4 December 1940) is a British writer. He is best known for his journalism and for writing the screenplays for the films ''That'll Be the Day'' and its sequel '' Stardust'', for which he won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain ...
.
Writing
In 1983, Baker published an autobiography titled ''Baby Doll: An Autobiography'', which detailed her life and career as an actress and revealed the issues with
Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
and
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
that had led her to move to Europe in the 1970s and pursue a career in Italian films. Baker said to
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin (; August 25, 1931 – July 25, 2020)Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine was an American television presenter, talk show host, game show host, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest working ma ...
, when he interviewed her for Lifetime Television in 1986, that she "didn't want to write an autobiography ... but I wanted to write, and I knew that would be the easiest thing to get published."
She further commented to Philbin on her writing, saying: "I think I always wanted to write, but I was a little self-conscious about it. I never had a formal education, and I've always had such a respect for writing. While I could go out and say, even before I started to act, 'Yes, I'm an actress,' I couldn't really say 'I'm a writer.'"
In spite of Baker's misgivings, ''Baby Doll: An Autobiography'' was well received. She later wrote two other books, ''To Africa with Love'' (1986), detailing her time spent in Africa, and a novel titled ''A Roman Tale'' (1987).
Personal life
Baker has been married three times. She first married 54 year-old Louie Ritter, owner of the Weylin Hotel, in 1953. The marriage ended within a year, after which she enrolled at the Actors Studio in New York City. Baker alleged that Ritter had
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
d her when she was still a
virgin
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
in the early stages of their relationship.
Her second was to director
Jack Garfein
Jakob Garfein (July 2, 1930 – December 30, 2019) was an American film and theatre director, writer, teacher, producer, and key figure of the Actors Studio.
Growing up in Bardejov, Czechoslovakia during the rise of Nazism, Garfein was deported ...
, a
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
survivor she met at the Studio and for whom she
converted to Judaism (having been raised a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
).
They had one daughter,
Blanche Baker
Blanche Baker (born December 20, 1956) is an American actress and filmmaker. She won an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the television mini-series ''Holocaust''. Baker is known for her role as Ginny Baker in ''Sixteen Can ...
(born 1956), also an actress, and a son,
Herschel Garfein Herschel Garfein (born January 17, 1958) is an American composer, librettist, stage director, and faculty member of the Steinhardt School of Music at New York University, where he teaches Script Analysis. Garfein is widely known for his libretto w ...
(born 1958), who is a composer and faculty member at the
Steinhardt School of Music at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
. Garfein and Baker divorced in 1969. Baker also has six grandchildren.
Baker married her third husband, British
theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...
actor
Donald Burton
Donald Graham Burton (10 February 1934 – 8 December 2007) was an English theatre and television actor.
Life and career
Donald was born in Norwich, England, on 10 February 1934. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a scholarship ...
, on March 10, 1982,
and resided in
Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...
, London, in the 1980s.
The couple remained together until Burton's death from
emphysema
Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...
at their home in
Cathedral City, California
Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second larg ...
, on December 8, 2007.
[
After leaving Hollywood in the mid-1960s, Baker travelled with ]Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
's Christmas USO
The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...
troupe entertaining soldiers in Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, an experience which she described as reformative: "In the hospitals I held the hands of damaged young men, and I realized that my pain was not exclusive: that in this world there was suffering much more terrible than mine."
Baker resided mainly in New York City and Los Angeles throughout the 1950s and 1960s before relocating to Rome to pursue her career there. Baker was mainly based in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...
, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. , she resides in New York City. In February 2014, she served as maid of honor at longtime friend, psychologist, and former actor, Dr Patrick Suraci's wedding to his partner, Tony Perkins, in New York.
Legacy
Baker's role in ''Baby Doll'' was one that would come to be career-defining, and her association with both the film and character remained consistent throughout her career.[ In a 1983 article by ''People'' magazine, "Baby Doll" was referred to as Baker's "middle name".][ The film, adapted originally from Tennessee Williams' one-act play ''27 Wagons Full of Cotton'', has been performed on stage into the 21st century: it had its theatrical debut in 2000, and has been performed numerous times since. Baker's performance of the role was credited in '' Vanity Fair'' as marking a significant cultural interest in the ]ingénue
The ''ingénue'' (, , ) is a stock character in literature, film and a role type in the theater, generally a girl or a young woman, who is endearingly innocent. ''Ingénue'' may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in such roles ...
in American cinema.
In 2011, Baker attended the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival
The Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival is an annual five-day literary festival in the city of New Orleans. The festival is dedicated to American playwright Tennessee Williams, who lived and worked in the city, and later won the Pu ...
in celebration of Williams' centenary. There, she participated in a panel with Rex Reed, where she discussed her experiences with Williams and performing in ''Baby Doll''. In 2011 and 2012, she was awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Hoboken and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festivals.
A 1956 photograph by Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus (; née Nemerov; March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971
" The New York ...
depicts Baker onscreen in ''Baby Doll'' with a passing silhouette during a New York City theater screening of the film. She was also photographed by Andy Warhol in 1975 as part of his Polaroid
Polaroid may refer to:
* Polaroid Corporation, an American company known for its instant film and cameras
* Polaroid camera, a brand of instant camera formerly produced by Polaroid Corporation
* Polaroid film, instant film, and photographs
* Polar ...
portrait series, and is mentioned in his published diaries.
Baker has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
at 1725 Vine Street, which was erected on February 8, 1960. In 2001, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars
The Palm Springs Walk of Stars is a walk of fame in downtown Palm Springs, California, where "Golden Palm Stars", honoring various people who have lived in the greater Palm Springs area, are embedded in the sidewalk pavement. The walk includes po ...
was also dedicated to her.
Filmography and credits
Select filmography:
* '' Easy to Love'' (1953)
* ''Giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
'' (1956)
* ''Baby Doll
''Baby Doll'' is a 1956 American dramatic black comedy film directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, and Eli Wallach. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from his own one-act play '' ...
'' (1956)
* ''The Big Country
''The Big Country'' is a 1958 American epic Western film directed by William Wyler, starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives. The supporting cast features Charles Bickford and Chuck Connors. Filmed i ...
'' (1958)
* '' But Not For Me'' (1959)
* '' The Miracle'' (1959)
* ''Bridge to the Sun
''Bridge to the Sun'' is a 1961 film directed by Etienne Périer and starring Carroll Baker, James Shigeta, James Yagi, Tetsurō Tamba and Sean Garrison. It is based on the 1957 autobiography ''Bridge to the Sun'' by Gwen Terasaki, which detaile ...
'' (1961)
* '' Something Wild'' (1961)
* '' How the West Was Won'' (1962)
* ''Station Six-Sahara
''Station Six-Sahara'' is a 1963 British-West German drama film directed by Seth Holt and starring Carroll Baker, Peter van Eyck and Ian Bannen. It is a remake of the 1938 film '' S.O.S. Sahara'', which had been based on a play by Jean Martet.
...
'' (1963)
* ''The Carpetbaggers
''The Carpetbaggers'' is a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title. The prequel ''Nevada Smith'' (1966) was also based on a character in the novel.
In the United States, the term "carpe ...
'' (1964)
* ''Cheyenne Autumn
''Cheyenne Autumn'' is a 1964 American epic Western film starring Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, James Stewart, and Edward G. Robinson. It tells the story of a factual event, the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878–79, told in "Hollywood style ...
'' (1964)
* '' Sylvia'' (1965)
* ''The Greatest Story Ever Told
''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens. It is a retelling of the Biblical account about Jesus of Nazareth, from the Nativity through to the Ascension. Along with the ensemble cast, ...
'' (1965)
* ''Mister Moses
''Mister Moses'' is a 1965 American adventure film about a con man blackmailed into persuading an entire African village into relocating for their own safety. It was directed by Ronald Neame and stars Robert Mitchum and Carroll Baker. The film wa ...
'' (1965)
* ''Harlow
Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...
'' (1965)
* ''Her Harem
''Her Harem'' ( it, L'harem, released in UK as ''The Harem'') is a 1967 Italian comedy-drama film written and directed by Marco Ferreri and starring Carroll Baker, Gastone Moschin and Renato Salvatori.
Plot
A woman has a number of male lovers so, ...
'' (1967)
* '' Jack of Diamonds'' (1967)
* ''The Sweet Body of Deborah
''The Sweet Body of Deborah'' ( it, Il dolce corpo di Deborah) is a 1968 ''giallo'' film directed by Romolo Girolami and starring Carroll Baker and Jean Sorel. It was written by Ernesto Gastaldi based on a story by Gastaldi and producer Luciano ...
'' (1968)
* ''Orgasmo
''Orgasmo'' is a 1969 giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, and Colette Descombes. It follows a wealthy American socialite who finds herself preyed upon by two nefarious young siblings who indulge her in s ...
'' (1969)
* '' So Sweet...So Perverse'' (1969)
* ''A Quiet Place to Kill
''A Quiet Place to Kill'' ( it, Paranoia) is a 1970 ''giallo'' film directed by Umberto Lenzi.
Plot
Helen, a racecar driver whose personal and professional life is rapidly declining, is invited by her ex-husband Maurice's new wife Constance to ...
'' (1970)
* ''Captain Apache
''Captain Apache'' is a 1971 Spanish-British acid Western film directed by Alexander Singer and starring Lee Van Cleef, Carroll Baker, and Stuart Whitman. It was written and produced by Milton Sperling and Philip Yordan. The film was based on th ...
'' (1971)
* ''The Devil Has Seven Faces
''The Devil Has Seven Faces'' ( it, Il diavolo a sette facce, also known as ''The Devil with Seven Faces'') is a 1971 Italian giallo film directed and co-written by Osvaldo Civirani. It starred George Hilton, Carroll Baker and Luciano Pigozzi. ...
'' (1971)
* ''Knife of Ice
''Il coltello di ghiaccio'' ( English: ''Knife of Ice'') is a 1972 giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker, Evelyn Stewart, and George Rigaud. Both Baker and Stewart featured in several other films helmed by Lenzi. The ...
'' (1972)
* ''Baba Yaga
In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga, also spelled Baba Jaga (from Polish), is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking woman. In fairy tales Baba Yaga flies around in a ...
'' (1973)
* '' The Flower with the Petals of Steel'' (1973)
* '' Private Lessons'' (1975)
* ''Andy Warhol's Bad
''Andy Warhol's Bad'' is a 1977 comedy film directed by Jed Johnson and starring Carroll Baker, Perry King, and Susan Tyrrell. It was written by Pat Hackett and George Abagnalo, and was the last film produced by Andy Warhol before his death ...
'' (1977)
* ''Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...
'' (1978)
* ''The World Is Full Of Married Men
''The World Is Full of Married Men'' is the debut novel of British author Jackie Collins, first published in 1968 by W. H. Allen & Co.
Plot summary
Set in London in the swinging sixties, middle-aged advertising executive David Cooper cheats on ...
'' (1979)
* ''Star 80
''Star 80'' is a 1983 American biographical drama film written and directed by Bob Fosse. It was adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Village Voice'' article "Death of a Playmate" by Teresa Carpenter and is based on Canadian ''Playboy'' mode ...
'' (1983)
* ''Native Son
''Native Son'' (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s.
While not apologizing ...
'' (1986)
* '' Ironweed'' (1987)
* ''Kindergarten Cop
''Kindergarten Cop'' is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and distributed by Universal Pictures. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as John Kimble, a tough police detective working undercover as a kindergarten teacher to apprehen ...
'' (1990)
* ''Blonde Fist
''Blonde Fist'' (or ''Blond Fist'') is a 1991 sports film directed by Frank Clarke and starring Margi Clarke as the protagonist Ronnie O'Dowd, who finds female boxing as an alternative to her domestic problems. The film received a mixed reception ...
'' (1991)
* '' The Game'' (1997)
Select television credits:
*''The Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
'' (1954)
* ''Danger
Danger is a lack of safety and may refer to:
Places
* Danger Cave, an archaeological site in Utah
* Danger Island, Great Chagos Bank, Indian Ocean
* Danger Island, alternate name of Pukapuka Atoll in the Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean
* Danger Isla ...
'' (1955)
* '' Thriller'' (1976)
* ''Grand
Grand may refer to:
People with the name
* Grand (surname)
* Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor
* Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist
* Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper
Places
* Grand, Oklahoma
* Grand, Vosges, village and commu ...
'' (1990)
* ''Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt may refer to:
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s
** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...
'' (1991)
* ''Murder, She Wrote
''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...
'' (1993)
* ''L.A. Law
''L.A. Law'' is an American legal drama television series that ran for eight seasons on NBC, from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994.
Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it centers on the partners, associates and staff of a Los ...
'' (1993)
* ''Chicago Hope
''Chicago Hope'' is an American medical drama television series, created by David E. Kelley. It originally aired on CBS from September 18, 1994, to May 4, 2000. The series is set in a fictional private charitable hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
...
'' (1995)
* '' Roswell'' (1999)
Select stage credits:
* ''Escapade'' (1953)
* '' All Summer Long'' (1954)
* ''Arms and the Man
''Arms and the Man'' is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's ''Aeneid'', in Latin:
''Arma virumque cano'' ("Of arms and the man I sing").
The play was first produced on 21 April 1894 at the Aven ...
'' (1958)
* ''Come on Strong'' (1962)
* ''Anna Christie
''Anna Christie'' is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work. According to historian Paul Avrich, the orig ...
'' (1966)
* ''Rain'' (1977)
* ''Lucy Crown
''Lucy Crown'' is a novel by American author Irwin Shaw. First published in 1956, it was Shaw's third novel, following The Young Lions and The Troubled Air.
Principal Characters
* Lucy Crown, wife and mother
* Oliver Crown, her husband
* Antho ...
'' (1979)
* ''Motive'' (1980)
Publications
* ''Baby Doll: An Autobiography'' (Arbor House, 1983),
* ''To Africa with Love'' (Dutton, 1986),
* ''A Roman Tale'' (Dutton, 1986),
Accolades
Awards
* 1957: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress
The Golden Globe for New Star of the Year – Actress was an award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at their annual Golden Globe Awards.
History
The award was first introduced at the 5th Golden Globe Awards in 1948 where it was g ...
* 1957: Hasty Pudding Theatricals
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a theatrical student society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque crossdressing musicals. The Hasty Pudding is the oldest theatrical organization in the United Sta ...
Award for "Woman of the Year"
* 1965: Golden Laurel for Dramatic Performance, Female, for ''The Carpetbaggers'' (2nd place)
Nominations
* 1957: Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for ''Baby Doll''
* 1957: Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, for ''Baby Doll''
* 1957: BAFTA Award
The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...
for Best Foreign Actress (USA), for ''Baby Doll''
* 1964: Golden Laurel
The Laurel Awards was an American cinema awards system established to honor films, actors, actresses, producers, directors, and composers. This award was created by the ''Motion Picture Exhibitor'' magazine, and ran from 1948 to 1971 (with the e ...
for Top Female Star
* 1965: Golden Laurel for Female Star
Honors
* 1996: Golden Boot Award
Golden means made of, or relating to gold.
Golden may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
*Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall
*Golden Cap, Dorset
*Golden Square, Soho, London
*Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...
for ''The Big Country'', ''How the West Was Won'', and ''Cheyenne Autumn''
* 1997: Lifetime Achievement Award, Breckenridge (Colorado) Film Festival
* 2009: The National Arts Club
The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and members club on Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1898 by Charles DeKay, an art and literary critic of the ''New York Times'' to "stimulate, foster, and promote public ...
's Medal of Honor
* 2011: Lifetime Achievement Award, Hoboken International Film Festival The Hoboken International Film Festival is an annual festival that promotes domestic and international television pilots, screenplays, non-studio films. Awards, with cash prizes, are given for the best submissions. The festival was founded by Kennet ...
* 2012: Lifetime Achievement Award, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
See also
* List of actors with Academy Award nominations
*
Notes
References
Works cited
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Carroll
Living people
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American actresses
Actors Studio alumni
Actresses from Florida
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from New York City
Actresses from Pennsylvania
American female dancers
American film actresses
American former Christians
American musical theatre actresses
American people of Irish descent
American people of Polish descent
American stage actresses
American women novelists
Converts to Judaism from Roman Catholicism
Dancers from California
Dancers from Florida
Dancers from New York (state)
Dancers from Pennsylvania
Jewish American actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
Novelists from California
Novelists from New York (state)
Novelists from Pennsylvania
Paramount Pictures contract players
People from Cathedral City, California
People from Johnstown, Pennsylvania
St. Petersburg College alumni
Warner Bros. contract players
Western (genre) film actresses
21st-century American Jews
United Service Organizations entertainers
1931 births