Joe Don Baker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joe Don Baker
Baker in The Living Daylights (1987)
Born	February 12, 1936 (age 71) Groesbeck, Texas, USA
Spouse(s)	Maria Dolores Rivero-Torres (1969-present)
Notable roles	Buford Pusser in Walking Tall (1973) The Whammer in The Natural (1984) Darius Jedburgh in Edge of Darkness (1985) Jack Wade in Goldeneye (1995) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Joe Don Baker (born February 12, 1936) is an American film actor perhaps best known for his role as sheriff "Buford Pusser" in the American film classic Walking Tall. Baker got his start in acting as an uncredited character in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, but his real beginnings came when he scored the role of Steve McQueen's younger brother in the film Junior Bonner. He later starred as the main character in the 1973 film Walking Tall, a film that was remade in 2004 starring The Rock. Baker was offered a cameo in the remake and declined the offer.

Although lampooned on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television series: Mitchell and Final Justice, Baker has quality performances in a career spanning four decades.

Baker appeared on television in 1980 in the short lived police drama series Eischeid where he played Chief Earl Eischeid. In 1985 he portrayed the corrupt key villain Chief Jerry Karlin in the Chevy Chase hit Fletch.

While actor Carroll O'Connor was undergoing heart bypass surgery, Baker took his place on the television series In the Heat of the Night. Baker appeared as Captain Tom Duggan, a retired police captain who filled in while O'Connor's character was away at a police convention.

[edit] James Bond series

In 1987, Baker got the role of the villain Brad Whitaker (as seen in the picture above) in the Bond film The Living Daylights, starring Timothy Dalton as James Bond. In 1995 and 1997 Baker returned to the series, this time playing a different character, the slovenly and dim-witted CIA agent Jack Wade, in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies with Pierce Brosnan as Bond. He is one of eight actors to have played two separate roles in the official James Bond cinema series, preceded by Charles Gray, Walter Gotell, Jeremy Bulloch, Maud Adams, Burt Kwouk, Anthony Dawson, Tsai Chin and Robert Brown.

The character of Wade is similar to that of CIA agent Darius Jedburgh, played by Baker in the critically acclaimed 1985 BBC Television serial Edge of Darkness. He was nominated for "Best Actor" by the British Academy Television Awards. This serial was directed by Martin Campbell, who also cast Baker as Wade in GoldenEye.

Also, strangely enough Baker was said to have actually tried out for the role of James Bond once for Live and Let Die, but decided to work on other roles.