Carroll Baker
Born: 1931-05-28 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA
Known For: Acting
Biography
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
2017
2011
- Hollywood Scandals as Self
2009
2008
2006
- Baby Doll: See No Evil as Self
2003
- The Lyon's Den as Jack's Mother
- Time Machine: When Cowboys Were King as Self
2002
- Heart of the Festival as Self (archive footage)
- Cinerama Adventure as Self
2000
- Another Woman's Husband as Laurel’s mother
1999
- Roswell as Claudia Parker
1998
- Nowhere to Go as Nana
- Memories of Giant as Self
- Rag and Bone as Sister Marie, Tony's Aunt
1997
- The Game as Ilsa
- Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western as Self
- Skeletons as Nancy Norton
- North Shore Fish as Arlyne
- Heart Full of Rain as Edith Pearl Dockett
1996
- E! True Hollywood Story
- Clark Gable: Tall, Dark, and Handsome as Self
- Just Your Luck as Momie
- Dalva as Naomi
- Return to 'Giant' as Self
- La signora della città as Martha Sheppard
1995
- Roger Moore: A Matter of Class as Self
- In the Flesh as Elaine Mitchelson
- Storie di seduzione as Diana's Mother
- Charlton Heston: For All Seasons as Self
1994
- Chicago Hope as Sylvie Tannen
- Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage as Baby Doll Meighan (archive footage)
1993
- Men Don't Tell as Ruth
- A Kiss to Die For as Mrs. Graham
- Judgment Day: The John List Story as Alma List
1992
- Cyber Eden as Madame
1991
- P.S. I Luv U as Victoria
- Blonde Fist as Lovell Summers
1990
- Grand as Viva
- Kindergarten Cop as Eleanor Crisp
- Gipsy Angel as Pheobe
1989
- Tales from the Crypt as Mother Paloma ("segment "The Trap")
1987
- Ironweed as Annie Phelan
- Hollywood Uncensored as Self
- On Fire as Maureen Leary
1986
- L.A. Law as Rae Morrison
- Native Son as Mrs. Dalton
1985
- Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil as Gerda Hoffman
- What Mad Pursuit as Louise Steinhauser
1984
- Murder, She Wrote as Sibella Stone
- The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud as Mama Freud
1983
- Star 80 as Dorothy's Mum
- Red Monarch as Ellen Brown
1980
- The Watcher in the Woods as Helen Curtis
1979
- The World Is Full of Married Men as Linda Cooper
1978
- Cyclone as Sheila
1977
- Bad as Hazel Aiken
1976
- Confessions of a Frustrated Housewife as Laura
- Blackmail Chase as Polly Pott
- Shattered Dreams as Carol
1975
- The Private Lesson as Laura Formenti
- Valentina... The Virgin Wife as Lucia
- James Dean: The First American Teenager as Self
- The Sky is Falling as Treasure
- The Next Victim as Sandy Marshall
1974
- The Body as Madeliene
1973
- Thriller as Sandy Marshall
- Baba Yaga as Baba Yaga
- The Flower with Petals of Steel as Evelyne Graffi
1972
- Knife of Ice as Martha Caldwell
1971
- Captain Apache as Maude
- The Fourth Victim as Julie Spencer / Lillian Martin
- The Devil with Seven Faces as Julie Harrison / Mary Harrison
1970
- A Quiet Place to Kill as Helen
1969
- So Sweet... So Perverse as Nicole Perrier
- Paranoia as Kathryn West
1968
- The Sweet Body of Deborah as Deborah
1967
- Lionpower from MGM as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- Jack of Diamonds as Carroll Baker
- The Harem as Margherita
1965
- The Greatest Story Ever Told as Veronica
- Harlow as Jean Harlow
- Sylvia as Sylvia: West (Karoki, Kay, Carlyle)
- Mister Moses as Julie Anderson
1964
- Cheyenne Autumn as Deborah Wright
- The Carpetbaggers as Rina Marlowe Cord
1963
- Station Six-Sahara as Catherine
- The Paradise Suite as Lena Roland
1962
- The Merv Griffin Show as Self
- How the West Was Won as Eve Prescott Rawlings
1961
- The Mike Douglas Show as Self
- Something Wild as Mary Ann Robinson
- Bridge to the Sun as Gwen Terasaki
1959
- The Miracle as Teresa
- But Not for Me as Ellie Brown / Borden
1958
- The Big Country as Patricia Terrill
- Fun in the Big Country as Self
1956
- Cinépanorama as Self
- Giant as Luz Benedict II
- Armchair Theatre as Lena Roland
- Baby Doll as Baby Doll Meighan
- New York Premiere Telecast 'Giant' as Self
1953
- The Oscars as Self
- Easy to Love as Clarice
1950
- What's My Line? as Self - Mystery Guest