Joe Don Baker
Birthday: Born in 1936-02-12 in Groesbeck, Texas, USA
Deathday: Alive
Joe Don Baker (born February 12, 1936) is an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as a Mafia hitman in Charley Varrick, real-life Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, James Bond villain Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights, and CIA agent Jack Wade in the James Bond films GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies.
TV Credits
The F.B.I.
Character: Alex Drake
The F.B.I. is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1974. It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and the characters almost always drove Ford vehicles in the series. Alcoa was co-sponsor of Season One only....
The Mod Squad
Character:
The Mod Squad was the enormously successful groundbreaking "hippie" undercover cop show that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Pete Cochren, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as Linc Hayes, and Tige Andrews as Captain Adam Greer. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas. The iconic counter-culture police series earned six Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations plus one win for Peggy ...
Gunsmoke
Character: Woody Stoner
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television....
Mission: Impossible
Character:
Mission: Impossible is an American television series that was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. A hallmark of the series shows Briggs or Phelps receiving his instructions on a recording that then self-destructs, followed by the th...
Ironside
Character:
When an assassin's bullet confines him to a wheelchair for life ending his career as Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside becomes a consultant to the police department. Detective Sergeant Ed Brown and policewoman Eve Whitfield join with him to crack varied and fascinating cases. Ex-con Mark Sanger is employed by the chief as home help but eventually becomes a fully fledged member of the team also. Officer Whitfield leaves after 4 years service, and is replaced by Officer Fran Belding....
Felony Squad
Character:
Twenty-year veteran Detective Sergeant Sam Stone is paired with rookie Briggs in a large Western metropolis....
The High Chaparral
Character: Yuma
The High Chaparral is an American Western-themed television series starring Leif Erickson and Cameron Mitchell which aired on NBC from 1967 to 1971. The series, made by Xanadu Productions in association with NBC Productions, was created by David Dortort, who had previously created the hit Bonanza for the network. The theme song was also written and conducted by Bonanza scorer David Rose, who also scored the two-hour pilot....
Lancer
Character:
Lancer is an American Western series that aired on CBS from September 1968, to May 1970. The series stars Andrew Duggan, James Stacy, and Wayne Maunder as a father with two half-brother sons, an arrangement similar to the more successful Bonanza on NBC....
The Big Valley
Character: Tom Lightfoot
The Big Valley is an American western television series which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969. The show stars Barbara Stanwyck, as the widow of a wealthy nineteenth century California rancher. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman, and produced by Levy-Gardner-Laven for Four Star Television....
Judd for the Defense
Character:
High-priced Houston lawyer Clinton Judd and his assistant Ben Caldwell take difficult cases throughout the U.S....
Edge of Darkness
Character: Darius Jedburgh
Yorkshire detective Ronald Craven is haunted by the murder of his daughter and begins his own investigation into her death....
Honey West
Character: Rocky Hansen
After her father's death, Honey West takes over his high-tech private-detective firm, assisted by rugged Sam Bolt--and her pet ocelot Bruce....
To Kill a Cop
Character: Chief Earl Eischied
Police drama concerning a maverick chief of detectives dealing with two cop killings and a spate of bank robberies. He's also fighting a back stabbing police commissioner and a revolutionary leader plotting a police massacre....
Gunsmoke
Character: Tom Butler
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television....
Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke
Character: Buck Duke
On her deathbed, Doris Duke, the world's wealthiest woman, recalls her lavish, tumultuous years as a young socialite....
Bonanza
Character: Luke Harper
The High-Sierra adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons as they run and defend their ranch while helping the surrounding community....
The Outsider
Character: Billy Joe Corey
The Outsider was the story of David Ross, a go-it-alone private investigator who's always where the action is. Darren McGavin played Ross, a man living in an off-beat, always-dangerous world. The series aired for one season on NBC and was a precursor of sorts to The Rockford Files in that it featured a loner private detective who had previously done time in prison for a crime he didn't commit and who never quite fit into a rapidly changing environment....
Movie Credits
Cool Hand Luke
Character: Fixer
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers....
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
Character: Self
Boasting an amazing selection of the most watched, most influential and most highly acclaimed programmes ever made, The 50 Greatest Television Dramas presents a long overdue assessment of the rich heritage television drama has to offer. Channel 4 invited over 200 of Britain's top television drama professionals – writers, directors, producers and commissioners – to take part in an exclusive poll to discover what they consider the finest dramas ever produced....
Cape Fear
Character: Claude Kersek
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss....
GoldenEye
Character: Jack Wade
When a powerful satellite system falls into the hands of Alec Trevelyan, AKA Agent 006, a former ally-turned-enemy, only James Bond can save the world from a dangerous space weapon that -- in one short pulse -- could destroy the earth! As Bond squares off against his former compatriot, he also battles Xenia Onatopp, an assassin who uses pleasure as her ultimate weapon....
Tomorrow Never Dies
Character: Jack Wade
A deranged media mogul is staging international incidents to pit the world's superpowers against each other. Now James Bond must take on this evil mastermind in an adrenaline-charged battle to end his reign of terror and prevent global pandemonium....
The Living Daylights
Character: Brad Whitaker
After a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West....
Poodle Springs
Character: P.J. Parker
Private eye Philip Marlowe and his bride move to a desert town, where he uncovers a land scheme....
Congo
Character: R.B. Travis
Eight people embark on an expedition into the Congo, a mysterious expanse of unexplored Africa where human greed and the laws of nature have gone berserk. When the thrill-seekers -- some with ulterior motives -- stumble across a race of killer apes....
The Distinguished Gentleman
Character: Olaf Andersen
A Florida con man uses the passing of the long time Congressman from his district, who he just happens to share a name with, to get elected to his version of paradise- Congress, where the money flows from lobbyists....
Reality Bites
Character: Tom Pierce
A small circle of friends suffering from post-collegiate blues must confront the hard truth about life, love and the pursuit of gainful employment. As they struggle to map out survival guides for the future, the Gen-X quartet soon begins to realize that reality isn't all it's cracked up to be....
Junior Bonner
Character: Curly Bonner
With his bronco-busting career on its last legs, Junior Bonner heads to his hometown to try his luck in the annual rodeo. But his fond childhood memories are shattered when he finds his family torn apart by his greedy brother and hard-drinking father....
The Dukes of Hazzard
Character: Governor Jim Applewhite
Cousins, Bo and Luke Duke, with the help of their eye-catching cousin, Daisy and moonshine-running Uncle Jesse, try and save the family farm from being destroyed by Hazzard County's corrupt commissioner, Boss Hogg. Their efforts constantly find the 'Duke Boys' eluding authorities in 'The General Lee', their 1969 orange Dodge Charger that keeps them one step ahead of the dimwitted antics of the small southern town's Sheriff, Roscoe P. Coltrane....
The Natural
Character: The Whammer
An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league....
Leonard Part 6
Character: Snyderburn
After separating from his wife, Leonard Parker (Cosby) quit the spy business and became a restaurateur. His wife refuses to speak with him, and his daughter, who changes her career more often than her clothes, has begun dating a man old enough to be Leonard's father! On top of it all, the government has asked him to come back and save the world again....
The Killing Time
Character: Carl Cunningham
After a psychopath murders a man who was on his way to a job as a deputy sheriff in a small California town, he assumes the deputy's identity and arrives in town to start his new 'job'. What he doesn't know is that the recently appointed sheriff and his mistress are plotting to murder her evil husband—and blame it on the new deputy....
Walking Tall
Character: Buford Pusser
Ex-wrestler and Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser walks tall and carries a big stick as he tussles with county-wide corruption and moonshining thugs....
Mitchell
Character: Mitchell
A tough-guy cop pursues two drug runners across the city to bust a large syndicate. Very much an anti-hero, Mitchell often ignores the orders of his superiors and demonstrates disdain for by-the-book development work as well as normal social graces....
Fletch
Character: Chief Jerry Karlin
When investigative reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher goes undercover to write a piece on the drug trade at a local beach, he's approached by wealthy businessman Alan Stanwyk, who offers him $50,000 to murder him. With sarcastic wit and a knack for disguises, Fletch sets out to uncover Stanwyk's story....
Guns of the Magnificent Seven
Character: Slater
In this third remake of legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's hugely influential The Seven Samurai, the seven gunslingers (George Kennedy, Michael Ansara, Joe Don Baker, Bernie Casey, Monte Markham, Fernando Rey and Reni Santoni) liberate Mexican political prisoners, train them as fighters and assist them in a desperate attack on a Mexican fortress in an attempt to free a revolutionary leader....
The Outfit
Character: Cody
A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother....
Charley Varrick
Character: Molly
Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large amount of money belonging to the mob. Charley must now come up with a plan to not only evade the police but the mob as well....
Joysticks
Character: Joseph Rutter
A successful businessman attempts to shut down a video arcade he believes is harmful to the mental health of children....
Strange Wilderness
Character: Bill Calhoun
With the ratings dropping for a wilderness-themed TV show, two animal fans go to the Andes in search of Bigfoot....
Criminal Law
Character: Detective Mesel
Ben Chase is an on-the-rise Boston attorney currently defending a wealthy client in a high-profile murder case. Martin Thiel is the wealthy young man on trial for a particularly brutal murder. The verdict sets Thiel free. Within 24 hours another grizzly and all-too-familiar murder has taken place with striking similarities to the first crime. Chase inexplicably agrees to act as his defense attorney; but this time it will be to gather evidence that will put away his client for good....
Wild Rovers
Character: Paul Buckman
Ross Bodine and Frank Post are cowhands on Walt Buckman's R-Bar-R ranch. Bodine is older and broods a bit about how he will get along when he's too old to cowboy. Post is young and rambunctious and ambitious for a better life than wrangling cows. When one of their fellow cowboys is killed in a corral accident, Post suggests a way into a better life for himself and his friend: robbing a bank. Bodine reluctantly joins in the plan and the two contrive to rob the local bank. They make good their esc...
George Wallace
Character: Big Jim Folsom
George Wallace is a 1997 television film starring Gary Sinise as George Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama. It was directed by John Frankenheimer, who won an Emmy award for it; Sinise and Mare Winningham also won Emmies for their performances. The film was based on the 1996 biography Wallace : The Classic Portrait of Alabama Governor George Wallace by Marshall Frady, who also co-wrote the teleplay. Frankenheimer's film was highly praised by critics: in addition to the Emmy awards, it receiv...
Framed
Character: Ron Lewis
Joe Don Baker plays a gambler who is framed for a crime he did not commit. A corrupt legal system leads him into a plea bargain and four years behind bars. By the time he gets out of prison, he's determined to put together the pieces of his frame-up and dole out the justice he was denied to those responsible....
The Shadow of Chikara
Character: Wishbone Cutter
Two former Confederate captains try to remove diamonds hidden in the Arkansas mountains, but a native spirit guards the sacred site against intruders....
The Grass Harp
Character: Sheriff Junius Candle
Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in the 1940s. Becoming an orphan in 1935, Collin moves to his dad's cousins Verena and Dolly. Verena is a rich, bossy businesswoman. Dolly, Collin and the maid revolt, moving to a tree house....
Ring of Steel
Character: Man in Black
A champion fencer accidentally kills an opponent in a match. Disgraced, he is blackballed from the fencing community, until a mysterious stranger saves his life one night from a gang of muggers. He soon finds himself caught up in the world of underground illegal swordfights, where combatants fight to the death....
Citizen Cohn
Character: Sen. Joseph McCarthy
As lawyer and power broker Roy Cohn lies dying of AIDS in a private hospital room, ghosts from his past visit him as he reflects on his life and loves....
Speedtrap
Character: Pete Novick
After a wave of unsolved car thefts, an insurance company calls in a private investigator to solve the case. While the chief of police isn't thrilled about having an outsider come and show up his men, one of the officers is a former girlfriend who's more than willing to help him out in any way she can....
Wacko
Character: Dick Harbinger
Thirteen years after the "Lawnmower Killer" killed her sister, high school student Mary Graves and obsessed detective Dick Harbinger are on the lookout for the killer to reappear during the annual Halloween Pumpkin Prom....
The Pack
Character: Jerry
The residents of vacation spot Seal Island find themselves terrorized by a pack of dogs -- the remnants of discarded pets by visiting vacationers....
Getting Even
Character: King R. Kenderson
A soldier-of-fortune steals some Russian nerve gas from Afghanistan, and brings it to the U.S. to be analyzed. A greedy millionaire rancher finds out about it and sets out to steal it....
Adam at Six A.M.
Character: Harvey Gavin
A disenchanted young Professor of Semantics at a California college learns of a distant relative's death in Missouri. He journeys cross-country to the funeral, then decides to spend the summer there and work as a laborer for a power-line company. In time, he meets a girl and falls in love but then faces an important decision as to which direction he wants his life to go....
Mud
Character: King
Two teenage boys find a fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River and help him reunite with his lover and escape an avenging family and their armed posse....
Welcome Home, Soldier Boys
Character: Danny
Danny, Shooter, Fatback, and the Kid. They learned a trade in the army. Killing....
That Certain Summer
Character: Phil Bonner
The first US teleplay to deal sympathetically with homosexuality. Divorced San Francisco contractor Doug Salter is looking forward to a summer visit from his fourteen-year-old son Nick, who lives in Los Angeles with his mother Janet. The boy does not know that his father is gay and committed to Gary McClain, his life partner of several years....
Checkered Flag or Crash
Character: Walkaway Madden
Hard-charging race car driver "Walkaway" Madden, nicknamed so for his history of walking away from car crashes, just wants to win the big Manilla 1000 off-road race. Photojournalist C.C. Wainwright intends to ride with him in that race. But Walkaway just wants to get rid of her. Fast-talking promoter Bo Cochran wants the race completed by any means necessary....
Golden Needles
Character: Dan Mason
An ancient Asian statue with the power to grant health and long life via secret acupuncture points is being pursued by a wealthy criminal, but his plans are put in peril when a slovenly detective is tasked with protecting the relic....
Mongo's Back in Town
Character: Mongo Nash
Professional killer is hired by his brother, a gang boss, to wipe out a rival gangster....
Felony
Character: Donovan
A reality cop show films a police raid on a drug ring that goes awry and results in the massacre of 11 policemen. All of this gets taped by the cameraman who tries to sell the tape to the gangsters and gets killed for his efforts. Meanwhile the film commentator gets pursued by the cops, the gangsters, and some crooked FBI agents. All are after the film which he doesn't have....
Defrosting the Fridge
Character: Hunter McCall
The Lowesthorpe Trawlers an English, American football team, hire American coach Hunter McCall and persuade local firm Salty Sea Fish Foods to be their sponsors, in an attempt to improve their game....
Abduction
Character: Sheriff Onstad
Based on the shocking true story of Olympic medalist Kari Swenson who was abducted by two "Mountain Men" while jogging in the foothills of the Rockies in Montana....
Joe Dirt
Character: Don, Brandy's Dad (uncredited)
Joe Dirt is a janitor with a mullet hairdo, acid-washed jeans and a dream to find the parents that he lost at the Grand Canyon when he was a belligerent, trailer park-raised eight-year-old. Now, blasting Van Halen in his jacked-up economy car, the irrepressibly optimistic Joe hits the road alone in search of his folks....
Complex of Fear
Character: Det. Frank Farrel
Condominium residents are terrified when they learn that two of their neighbors have been brutally raped and that the culprit may be living in their midst. A police manhunt ensues. One officer, who actually lives in the complex, is particularly troubled, for not only do the incidents cause his wife to admit that she was a victim of date rape, he is also the one who had a chance to kill the rapist and didn't....
Panther
Character: Brimmer
Panther is a semi-historic film about the origins of The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The movie spans about 3 years (1966-68) of the Black Panther's history in Oakland. Panther also uses historical footage (B/W) to emphasize some points....
The Siege at Ruby Ridge
Character: Gerry Spence
A mini-series dramatization of the controversial 1992 attack by federal agents on the Idaho home of Randy Weaver, a white seperatist. The ten-day siege, begun over a minor gun charge, resulted in the deaths of Weaver's son, wife and dog, and a U.S. Marshall. The incident caused major public outcry against the FBI and U.S. Marshals....
To Dance with Olivia
Character: Horace
A lawyer trying to cope with his son's accidental death takes on a case where a farmer is charged with booby trapping a watermelon patch with a shotgun which went off and injured a young boy. But in choosing to defend the farmer, he puts himself at odds with the boy's father, an old friend who is politically influential. In dealing with this case, he is forced to confront his own son's death and his wife's slippage into being a virtual recluse....
Power
Character: Tommy Vanda
Loosely based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa, this traces the rise of Tommy Vanda (Joe Don Baker) from a Chicago dock worker to an influential labor leader who, like Hoffa, finds himself behind bars in a federal prison, and not long after, taken for a ride by shady men never to be seen again....
The Underneath
Character: Clay Hinkle
A recovering gambling addict attempts to reconcile with his family and friends but finds trouble and temptation when caught between feelings for his ex-wife and her dangerous hoodlum boyfriend....
Mars Attacks!
Character: Glenn Norris
A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation....
The Children
Character: Cliffe Wheater
Rose Sellars is a middle-aged woman who falls in love with a widower. However, his children believe that their father is too old to start a new relationship....
Inside The Living Daylights
Character: Self
The making of the film that introduced Timothy Dalton as James Bond, who gave Bond a darker edge for a new generation....
Vegas, City of Dreams
Character: Dylan Garrett
When the body of Gabrielle Garrett is found on Lake Mead on a Christmas day, the coroner rules it as suicide. However, her three sisters begin their own investigation, which leads them to Byron Lord and the dark Las Vegas underworld....
The Valachi Papers
Character: Irish member of Valachi gang (uncredited)
When Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese, he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence....
Inside 'The Living Daylights'
Character: Self
A behind the scenes look at the James Bond film "The Living Daylights"...
The Commission
Character: Rep. Hale Boggs
Using transcripts from the Warren Commission Report, this film documents the workings of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963....
Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade
Character: Self (archive footage)
An account of the life and work of American film director Sam Peckinpah (1925-84), a tortured artist whose genius and inner demons changed the Western genre forever....
To Kill a Cop
Character: Chief Earl M. Eischied
Earl Eischied is a man with his hands full. As the Chief of Detectives in New York City he is trying to break up a group of black militants that are on a crime spree including the killing of a police officer. He is also trying to battle with a mayor and police commissioner that want him out of his job....
Final Justice
Character: Geronimo
Due to his violent past, Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III has been transferred to a rural outpost. When two thugs kill the sheriff, Geronimo shoots one of them, and the other vows revenge. Unfortunately for Geronimo, that thug turns out to be a mob boss, and the court orders Geronimo to extradite him back to his home in Sicily. When their plane is hijacked, the adversaries find their roles reversed....