Person
Carroll Baker
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA
Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) 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.…
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Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) 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
Movies and shows, newest first
- 2017
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2011
Hollywood Scandals
Movie Self
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2009
Western Legenden - Made in Hollywood
Movie Self
- 2008
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2006
Baby Doll: See No Evil
Movie Self
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2003
The Lyon's Den
TV show Jack's Mother
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2003
Time Machine: When Cowboys Were King
Movie Self
-
2002
Cinerama Adventure
Movie Self
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2002
Heart of the Festival
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2000
Another Woman's Husband
Movie Laurel’s mother
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1999
Roswell
TV show Claudia Parker
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1998
Memories of Giant
Movie Self
-
1998
Nowhere to Go
Movie Nana
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1998
Rag and Bone
Movie Sister Marie, Tony's Aunt
-
1997
Heart Full of Rain
Movie Edith Pearl Dockett
-
1997
The Game
Movie Ilsa
More credits
-
1997
Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western
Movie Self
-
1997
Skeletons
Movie Nancy Norton
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1997
North Shore Fish
Movie Arlyne
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1996
Just Your Luck
Movie Momie
-
1996
Return to 'Giant'
Movie Self
-
1996
E! True Hollywood Story
TV show
-
1996
La signora della città
Movie Martha Sheppard
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1996
Dalva
Movie Naomi
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1996
Clark Gable: Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Movie Self
-
1995
Storie di seduzione
Movie Diana's Mother
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1995
Roger Moore: A Matter of Class
Movie Self
-
1995
Charlton Heston: For All Seasons
Movie Self
-
1995
In the Flesh
Movie Elaine Mitchelson
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1994
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Movie Baby Doll Meighan (archive footage)
-
1994
Chicago Hope
TV show Sylvie Tannen
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1993
A Kiss to Die For
Movie Mrs. Graham
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1993
Men Don't Tell
Movie Ruth
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1993
Judgment Day: The John List Story
Movie Alma List
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1992
Cyber Eden
Movie Madame
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1991
Blonde Fist
Movie Lovell Summers
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1991
P.S. I Luv U
TV show Victoria
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1990
Kindergarten Cop
Movie Eleanor Crisp
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1990
Gipsy Angel
Movie Pheobe
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1990
Grand
TV show Viva
