Carroll Baker

Carroll Baker, with Eli Wallach, in Elia Kazan’s black comedy based on a Tennessee Williams play, ‘Baby Doll’ (1956), also starring Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock, Madeleine Sherwood, and Rip Torn. This was Carroll Baker’s movie debut, and both she and Mildred Dunnock were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively. Carroll Baker, who had studied with Lee Strasberg at the ‘Actors’ Studio’, would go on to appear in George Stevens’ classic movie based on Edna Ferber’s novel, ‘Giant’ (1956), also starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Jane Withers, Mercedes McCambridge, Mercedes McCambridge, Sal Mineo, Dennis Hopper, and Earl Holliman, Walter Lang’s ‘But Not For Me’ (1959), co-starring Clark Gable, her husband Jack Garlein’s ‘Something Wild’ (1961), also starring Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, and Jean Stapleton, the Westerns, William Wyler’s ‘The Big Country’ (1958), also starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, and Chuck Connors, Henry Hathaway’s ‘How The West Was Won’ (1962), also starring Henry Fonda, James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Debbie Reynolds, John Ford’s ‘Cheyenne Autumn’ (1964), also starring James Stewart, Richard Widmark, and Edward G. Robinson. She then went on to star in Edward Dmytryk’s ‘The Carpetbaggers’ (1964), co-starring George Peppard, Gordon Douglas’ Sylvia’ (1965), also starring George Maharis and Peter Lawford, and then again in Gordon Douglas’ ‘Harlow’ (1965), also starring Red Buttons, Angela Lansbury, Peter Lawford, Mike Connors, Martin Nielsen, and Martin Balsam. Much later she starred in Bob Fosse’s ‘Star 80’ (1983), also starring Mariel Hemingway, Eric Roberts, and Cliff Robertson, Jerrold Freeman’s adaptation of Richard Wright’s novel ‘Native Son’ (1986), also starring Victor Love, Matt Dillon, and Oprah Winfrey, and Héctor Babenco’s ‘Ironweed’ (1987), also starring Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Fred Gwynn, Nathan Lane, and Tom Waits. Carroll Baker was born on this day, the 28th of May, in 1931, and turns 92 years old today. Happy Birthday Carroll Baker!