The Fabulous Baker Boy

Most of us are well familiar with a famous Welsh actor by the name of Richard Burton. But fewer seem to be keyed into another man, a childhood (and later adult) friend of his from the same mining village. The same teacher spotted the signs of talent in each lad and encouraged them to pursue acting in their school plays, working with them on their voices and expressions. Burton became an Academy award nominated actor whose face was splashed across every magazine during his high-profile affair and marriage(s) to Elizabeth Taylor. His school and stage chum, Stanley Baker, led a different sort of existence, but rose to terrific heights in British film, occasionally landing in an American production along the way. His name was Stanley Baker.

Baker was born on February 28th, 1928 in Ferndale, Galmorgan, Wales into a less-than-affluent family. His father, a coal miner, had lost a leg in an accident, but worked as a lift operator thereafter. As a youth, Baker was fiery and energetic, engaging in both sports and knockabout brawls with almost no interest in schooling.

Discovered early on by a casting director in attendance at one of his plays, 14 year-old Baker was cast in the movie Undercover (1943) as a Yugoslavian boy during German occupation. When some students assist their teacher in escaping imprisonment, six of them are killed in retaliation. Following this, he worked three years at Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

This head-start at an opportunity as a stage and potential screen actor was interrupted soon after when Baker served two required years in the Royal Army Service Corp. Upon his release, he worked more on stage and began to land bit roles in movies like Val Guest's Just William's Luck (1948), Edward Dmytryk's Obsession (1949) and Robert Montgomery's Your Witness (1950), among others. As seen above, he played a mentally disabled servant in 1951's Home to Danger.

Already by 1950, Baker was a married man, wed to actress Ellen Martin. The two would produce boy/girl twins and two more sons over the course of their marriage, which lasted until Baker's death.

A better movie opportunity came his way when he was cast in a Warner Brothers feature which was filmed in the U.K. to utilize funds there. Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) starred Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo and Baker played the exacting and severe boson on ship. The expensive color film was the ninth most popular movie in Britain that year and a hit in the U.S. as well.

Other film and TV appearances followed, but it was 1953's The Cruel Sea, in which he played an abusive and demanding first lieutenant, that really put him on the map. The movie was the top film of its year in Britain and, though he was sixth-billed, he made a strong impact. Baker realized early on that most of the juiciest parts were the villainous ones and though it was typically the heroes who became movie stars, he found it hard to resist the call of playing tough, sneering, virtually heartless roles.

When MGM made Knights of the Round Table (1953) in order to use up their U.K. funds, After George Sanders became ill, Baker found himself amongst Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Mel Ferrer as he played the dastardly Modred. His goateed lantern jaw looked perfect in his armor and helmet and his expertise at villainy was well in place now.

Having won a role in 1953's The Red Beret with Alan Ladd, he was given a meatier part (as a potential murderer) in a follow-up film with Ladd, Hell Below Zero (1954.)

1954 also brought one of his biggest and best roles to that date, a boxer-turned-robber in The Good Die Young. This film, brimming over with notable performers, was given tribute here.

For 1954's Twist of Fate, he was cast opposite the older Miss Ginger Rogers. This was not planned. Another, older actor (Walter Rilla) had worked on the movie 10 days before quitting and Baker was brought in (and prematurely grayed) for the role, leaving him rather miscast. And Rogers attentions were geared towards another costar anyway, her new husband the handsome Jacques Bergerac.

Laurence Olivier was hand-picking a prestigious cast for his upcoming Richard III (1955) and approached Richard Burton to play Henry IV, but when he declined to do it, Olivier went for the next best thing and selected Baker for the part. The richly-handled, highly-theatrical movie was not a financial success, but creatively and collaboratively it was a feather in Baker's cap.

Elaborate big-screen epics were all the rage and when Robert Wise was putting together Helen of Troy (1956), Baker (who'd been offered the role of his choice) opted to play the famed warrior Achilles, who is done in by an arrow to that one vulnerable spot - his heel! Terence Longdon can be seen as Patroclus, who was either Achilles close friend or lover, depending on the source. Baker was, at best, merely tolerant towards homosexuals, though a few of his characters along the way exhibited signs of such.

Also in 1956, Baker appeared as Attalus in Alexander the Great. Boyhood pal Richard Burton had the title role and this film represents their only joint appearance in a movie or scripted television program.

Though Alexander's sexuality has also been debated through the years, Burton actually admitted to having tried it (unsuccessfully, according to him!) He felt that many actors either were or were afraid they were homosexual and turned to drink to cover their feelings, the profession being quite at odds with his tough, working-class upbringing. In any case, Alexander's attentions were to Hephaestion (muted in this version) and not Attalus.

Baker was becoming more and more known to British audiences, essaying the role of Mr. Rochester in a TV version of Jane Eyre and working in several movies in 1956. Michael Medwin, seen here, was in two of them; Hell in Korea and Checkpoint. But he had yet to really star in a film.

That changed with the production and release of Hell Drivers (1957.) He was top-billed as a truck transport driver who rebels against virtually impossible and highly dangerous quotas and conditions. Baker was an entirely new and distinct type of British leading man; a complete turnabout from the gentile, refined and proper gents who most often won moviegoers' hearts.

Looking most hunky in his leather jacket, Baker made quite an impact and for the first time wound up in the list of Top Ten most popular British stars as voted on by exhibitors. Note the presence third from the left of a young Sean Connery. Hell Drivers was directed by an expatriate American named Cy Endfield, who'd already directed Baker once before and who would prove to be a fruitful collaborator for him.

Campbell's Kingdom (1957) found him as the antagonist for Dirk Bogarde. The slender Bogarde was attempting to give his image a more robust feel, but up against the hearty Baker that wasn't really to be, though the film was a hit in Britain.Their seen here between takes of the climactic dam burst.

Baker, along with a bunch of other men, finds himself on the receiving end of a crumbling dam, yet does take time out to engage in fisticuffs with Bogarde as the water all but washes them away (and crumbling rock descends with force!)

Endfield cast him again, this time in Sea Fury (1958) as a tug boat captain and salvage seeker. A young Robert Shaw also appeared, as seen here.

His love interest in this was future Bond girl Luciana Paluzzi. In the rather insular world of British film-making, he would often be paired with performers who were (or would later be) known for the Bond franchise.

When The Angry Hills (1959), starring Robert Mitchum, was filmed in Greece, Baker was given a costarring role, affording American audiences to see him on screen again. Among the female cast was Gia Scala, with whom Baker would later appear.

He worked again for Val Guest in the gritty Yesterday's Enemy (1959), playing a driven and relentless army captain. He received his one and only BAFTA nomination for this role, though the award went to Peter Sellers in I'm All Right Jack.

That same year, he portrayed a different sort of captain, the pilot of an aircraft in Jet Storm. Richard Attenborough played a despairing passenger who's chosen this flight in order to kill the man who slayed his daughter in a hit and run.

Another expatriate American director, Joseph Losey, was casting Blind Date (aka - Chance Meeting, 1959) and sought Peter O'Toole for the role of a Scotland Yard detective investigating the murder of a young lady. Producers preferred Baker. The role wound up being one of Baker's own favorites and also led to a fertile collaborative relationship with Losey. Seen here is costar Hardy Kruger.

Having witnessed the harsh, poor conditions of life in a mining village during his childhood, Baker was sympathetic to the political leanings of blacklisted directors like Endfield and Losey (even while climbing the ladder of success and enjoying the financial benefits that came with it.)

After another detective role in Hell Is a City (1960), Baker worked for Losey again in The Criminal (1960), seen here with Margit Saad. This would be another of Baker's favorite parts as a convict who attempts to engineer an escape involving a prison riot.

Next came one of Baker's most famous movies, if not a famous role in it. He played a commando named Butcher Brown in the massive hit The Guns of Navarone (1961.) Guns starred Gregory Peck, with whom Baker had worked a decade before on Horatio Hornblower, along with David Niven, Anthony Quinn and Gia Scala.

With the other top-billed stars, there was little room to make a significant impact, but Baker was always welcome in any project, never once phoning anything in. Because the filming went over schedule, he was forced to drop out of This Sporting Life (1963), with Richard Harris scoring a hit in his place.

A further misstep occurred about this time when Baker was approached to play a secret agent in an upcoming movie called Dr. No (1962.) No one could know that the picture would inspire an extraordinarily popular series of James Bond films that continues to this day! Because the offer came as a three-picture deal, Baker turned it down, affording one-time costar and friend Sean Connery the opportunity of a lifetime. Baker was, however, highly praising of Connery's work in the franchise.

Director Losey came calling again, this time to costar opposite French star Jeanne Moreau in Eva (1962.) The story involved a call girl and a successful author with Virna Lisi as another corner of a love triangle. Baker sang in this film for the only time on film.

Another stab at epic costume drama came when Robert Aldrich used him in the rather negligible Sodom and Gomorrah (1962.) Baker played the Prince of Sodom, but the movies title - and Baker's role - suggested more than anything that ever occurred on screen.

Teamed with Jean Seberg for In the French Style (1963), this was an attempt by novelist Irwin Shaw to produce his own movies based upon his stories in order to protect their integrity. It made little impact, though, and Shaw declined to proceed in this vein again.

During the making of Sodom, Baker had befriended producer Joseph E. Levine, who was taken with the actor and his work ethic. He told Baker he would help to back any project he desired and what Baker desired was a rousing action picture set in Africa, based on true events. Zulu (1964) would emerge as a monumental undertaking and a massive hit. It helped to boost the career of one of Baker's Hell in Korea costars, Michael Caine, seen second from the right here.

From the moment it begins, with John Barry's stunning music, until the nail-biting conclusion, Zulu is a gripping film, chock full of excellent actors and suspense. Baker's close associate Cy Endfield was again at the helm with pal Richard Burton providing the opening narration.

Almost in the realm of a disaster movie, with neatly-appointed characters being besieged and distressed by a virtually unavoidable cataclysm, Zulu is one of those movies that, once it enters my consciousness for any reason, I feel like I need to experience all over again (same for The Towering Inferno, 1974.) Without a granule of CGI (like a later rip-off Starship Troopers, 1997, for example), Baker & Co. are set upon by teeming hordes of fed-up native warriors. I can't recommend the movie (in widescreen, please!) enough.

Staying on in South Africa for a time, he filmed Dingaka (1964), about an African tribesman who seeks revenge on the people responsible for the death of his daughter. Baker played his dedicated defense attorney with Juliet Prowse as his pregnant wife.

Still in Africa, Baker produced and costarred in another movie I love, Sands of the Kalahari (1965.) Stuart Whitman, in a sort of movie conceit I find irresistible, had his clothing continuously ravaged until he was in nothing but some teensy cut-off shorts.

Kalahari was intended for the triumvirate of Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Baker, who were still friends to this point. The roles meant for the super-couple wound up being essayed by Whitman and Susannah York. The failure of Dingaka and Kalahari to make money signaled the end of Baker's association with Cy Endfield and not long after this, Baker and Burton's friendship cooled, with Baker ultimately feeling that Burton had lost himself since the union with Taylor.

Following a few television projects, Baker returned to the screen in 1967 for what would mark his final movie for Joseph Losey, Accident. He costarred with Dirk Bogarde and worked alongside newcomer Michael York, playing a professor who becomes involved - among others - with a sexy female student.

Forming his own production company, but working with familiar producer Joseph E. Levine, he put forth Robbery (1967), about a gang of thieves planning to relieve a train of some valuable jewels. His on screen wife this time was Joanna Pettet.

While Robbery was not a box office sensation, it was directed by Peter Yates and included a high-speed chase which was viewed as Steve McQueen was looking for a director to helm his latest movie. Yates was hired for Bullitt (1968) and it included a frenetic car chase that stood for a long time as a benchmark in that category.

Baker next costarred with Monica Vitti in the Italian comedy The Girl with the Pistol (1968.) A huge hit in its parent country, it wasn't a success elsewhere, though it was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language film. (The aware went to the gargantuan Russian epic, War and Peace.)

His next film, Where's Jack? (1969) had him in an almost Javert-like role as a thief-catcher, chasing down Tommy Steele. The handsomely-mounted film was a considerable box office flop.

Where's Jack? never even saw release in the U.S. Part of the problem was that a similar 1969 film, Sinful Davey, had come out and cut into an already niche-level appeal (despite the success of Tom Jones, 1963, several years prior.) Still the authoritative and handsome Baker had been in the Top Ten listing of British stars the year before.

Having coproduced several films, only some of which were successful, Baker felt it necessary to act in other peoples' projects, some good, some less so. In The Games (1970), he played an exacting coach, relentlessly driving young Michael Crawford to attempt victory at the Olympic games.

His character's obsessiveness over his pupil had an element of petulance and tantrum-throwing that lent an air of homo-eroticism to it. When let down, he seemed much like a spurned lover rather than a disappointed coach. 

Next came The Last Grenade (1970) opposite young Alex Cord as two soldiers of fortune who eventually wind up on opposite sides of an issue. Richard Attenborough and Honor Blackman were also among the cast.

With Perfect Friday (1970), another heist flick, he was able to costar with Ursula Andress, who'd been the first Bond girl in the movie he passed on, Dr. No.

Baker's efforts at running a production company (which earlier included The Italian Job, 1969, with former costar Michael Caine) meant that close to 100 people relied on him for their livelihood. When the British film industry took a downward turn and some of his projects ran into trouble, he found himself having to act in movies he might not ordinarily have done, such as The Butterfly Affair (1971), opposite an uncharacteristic looking Claudia Cardinale.  

A Lizard in Woman's Skin (1971) - released in the U.S. as Schizoid, had him playing a Scotland Yard detective investigating a stabbing amid drug & sex-fueled hippy gatherings. That's Florinda Bolkan underneath all the hat, though Jean Sorel and Leo Genn also had roles in it.

He played another secret agent (in a movie several reviewers compared to James Bond) in Innocent Bystanders (1972) with Geraldine Chaplin. She played one of the title figures, a woman who is kidnapped by mistake at the same time Baker is tracking down a defecting Russian scientist.

For creative fulfillment, it took television productions such as BBC Play of the Month in order to offer up something truly worthwhile to him. In "The Changling," he starred with Brian Cox and Helen Mirren, still cutting a fine figure in period clothing.

Another installment had him enacting the famous shipwreck victim "Robinson Crusoe."

Then to pay the bills it was off to Spain for Bride to Be (1975) opposite Sarah Miles and Zorro (1975), which had a jaunty Alain Delon as the title character with Baker in military finery as his nemesis. Neither Baker, nor anyone else, knew that in the end these would be his final motion pictures.

The little boy from a Welsh mining town made his final acting appearance in a television miniseries version of How Green Was My Valley as the family patriarch. The always-wonderful Sian Phillips played his wife. This production would earn Baker the only Emmy nomination he ever received, though it would come posthumously (the award going to Christopher Plummer in The Moneychangers in the end.) Later, Richard Burton would remark that Baker had been so good because he was basically portraying his own father.

You might have noticed that in practically every candid shot of Baker, he had a cigarette in his hand or mouth. He was a lifelong heavy smoker and by late-1975 he'd begun to notice some unpleasant symptoms. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent surgery for it. Though he believed all of it to be caught, it had, in fact, spread to his heart and on June 28th of 1976, following the contraction of pneumonia, he was gone. He was 48 years old.

We salute the incredible talent of this sexy, soulful, diligent, dedicated and arresting actor. In early 1976, he was named to the list of those who would be knighted by Queen Elizabeth, but he died before he could officially be known as Sir Stanley Baker. At his 1976 funeral, a floral tribute arrived from Chief of the Zulu tribe describing Baker as "the most decent white man I have ever met."