Carroll Baker
Date of Birth:
May 28, 1931
Place of Birth:
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA
Date of Birth:
May 28, 1931
Place of Birth:
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA
Biography:
Carroll Baker is a former American actress who has enjoyed popularity as both a serious dramatic actress and, particularly in the 1960s, as a movie sex symbol. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in the adaptation of two Tennessee Williams plays into the film Baby Doll in 1956. In the mid-1960s, as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, Baker became a sex symbol after appearing as a hedonistic widow in The Carpetbaggers (1964). The film's producer, Joseph E. Levine, cast her in Sylvia before giving her the role of Jean Harlow in the biopic Harlow (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 and horror films, including Romolo Guerrieri's The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968), a series of four films with Umberto Lenzi beginning with Orgasmo (1969) and ending with Knife of Ice (1972), and Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973). Baker appeared in supporting roles in several acclaimed dramas in the 1980s, including the drama Star 80 (1983) as the mother of murder victim Dorothy Stratten, and the racial drama Native Son (1986), based on the novel by Richard Wright. Through the 1990s Baker had guest roles in several television series, such as Murder, She Wrote; L.A. Law, and Roswell. She formally retired from acting in 2003.
filmography:
2011
2002
1998
1998
1997
1997
1997
1997
1996
1996
1996
1995
1995
1993
1993
1992
1991
1990
1990
1987
1987
1987
1986
1985
1983
1983
1978
1977
1976
1976
1975
1975
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
1971
1969
1967
1967
1965
1965
1965
1964
1964
1963
1963
1962
1961
1961
1959
1959
1958
1956
1956
1953