Joe Don Baker is, arguably, not the greatest
actor ever to hail from
Hollywood. He is not the most
talented, certainly, and many would call him far from
conventionally handsome. He has played
bit roles in alot of
half decent movies, and been more
prominent in a few
bad ones. Joe Don Baker is one of those actors that when you realize who he is, you'll probably realize that you've
seen him at least a few times...
Still, Baker IS one of the more
prolific actors out there, with at least 50 appearances in
film, and 11
guest star appearances on
television shows.
Baker's
film career began in
1967, with
Cool Hand Luke (he was not
credited). He continued to work his way up in the
world, mostly with parts in
slightly memorable movies. His "
high point" was probably during the mid-70's, including
Walking Tall (1973, starring Baker as
Sheriff Buford Pusser),
Framed (1975), and
Mitchell (1975). The latter is one of Baker's most
famous performances (at least in some circles), as the movie was later picked up by the
Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew, who had a
love-hate relationship with Baker's performance as the
protagonist, a
hapless,
none-too-bright,
alcoholic detective named
Mitchell.
Other
notables include
Cape Fear,
Reality Bites,
Congo,
Mars Attacks, and two
Bond flicks,
Goldeneye and
Tomorrow Never Dies (as
Jack Wade, the
crude American that
Bond occasionally calls on for help). He also showed up on
Gunsmoke,
Bonanza,
Mission Impossible, and
British series
Edge of Darkness, mostly in the
50's and
60's, before he gained some weight and was
typecast into the
tough guy roles he later picked up.