Trivia of Carroll Baker

 Trivia of Carroll Baker (28 May 1931)

*After completing school, she moved to Florida, where she worked as an assistant to a magician and enrolled herself in a dance company. She started performing on Broadway and later became an accomplished dramatic actress.

*Before she famous as actress, Baker enrolled at the Actors Studio and studied under Lee Strasberg.There, she was a classmate of Mike Nichols, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, and Marilyn Monroe; she also became a close friend of James Dean for the rest of his life.

*After appearing in television commercials for Winston cigarettes and Coca-Cola, Baker was featured in an episode of Monodrama Theater performing a monodramatic piece, which was broadcast in 1952 on the DuMont Network.The following year, she made her film debut with a small walk-on part in the musical Easy to Love (1953) starring Esther Williams and Van Johnson.

*She considered for the lead in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) after James Dean recommended her for the part to director Nicholas Ray, but she turned down.She later co-starring with James Dean in Giant (1956) opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.According to Baker, she had been offered numerous leading parts in feature films before that point, but chose to debut in a supporting role in Giant because she was "insecure" and "wanted to start out a little less 'profile.'Baker recalled her experience on set, saying that James Dean and she were both enamored of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor while filming.

*In 1955, she screen tested and auditioned for the lead role in Picnic, but lost the part to Kim Novak.Director Joshua Logan felt she was too young at that time.

*In 1956, Carroll Baker was Director Elia Kazan's first choice for the titular role in film Baby Doll, although writer Williams had considered Marilyn Monroe for the part.The original title this film was Mississippi Woman but Baker claims that Kazan changed the title to Baby Doll as a present to her.Baby Doll courted controversy before its release with the display of a promotional billboard in New York City that depicted Baker lying in a crib and sucking her thumb.Religious groups urged both Catholics and non-Catholics to avoid the film, deeming it a moral danger.

*When she refused to play a nymphomaniac in the trashy Too Much, Too Soon (1958), Warner Bros refused to loan her out to appear opposite Laurence Olivier, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in The Devil's Disciple (1959).Her trouble with Warner Bros continued when she declined to act in a series of movies based on books by pulp writer Erskine Caldwell. This led to her losing out on outside offers to do The Three Faces of Eve (1957) for 20th Century-Fox, and both Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and The Brothers Karamazov (1958) for MGM.