Carroll Baker (actress)

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Carroll Baker (1961)
Carroll Baker on the USS Ticonderoga (1965)
Star for Carroll Baker

Carroll Baker (* 28. May 1931 as Karolina Piekarski in Johnstown , Pennsylvania ) is an American actress of Polish origin. It celebrated its greatest successes in the 1950s and 1960s.

Life

In the early 1950s, Carroll Baker was trained at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio - together with James Dean , who was the same age . From 1952 onwards she appeared in a number of productions on emerging US television. In 1953 she played her first leading role on Broadway alongside Brian Aherne . In the same year she also made her film debut alongside Esther Williams in the musical You're So Easy to Love .

Three years later, in her first major film, she met James Dean again: In Giants , she played the daughter of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor , who was nine months younger than her in real life. Warner Brothers wanted to build the blonde, attractive actress as the new Marilyn Monroe and her roles were selected accordingly. She had her breakthrough as a nanny in her third feature film Baby Doll , directed by Elia Kazan . In the scandalous film , she delivered her best acting performance for many critics at the side of Karl Malden and Eli Wallach . She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe for Best New Actress .

Although Baker starred in other successful films, their notoriety should not reach that of the Monroe. She played the fiancé of Gregory Peck in William Wyler's western Weites Land (1958) and played the title role in the melodrama The Madonna with Two Faces (1959). In 1962 she was entrusted with the central role in the lavish western epic That Was the Wild West . After the beginning of her film career, she only returned to the stage once: in 1962, Garson Kanin staged his play Come On Strong with her , in which she appeared alongside Van Johnson . In 1965 she got the title role in the film adaptation of the life of Hollywood's first sex bomb , Jean Harlow .

At the end of the 1960s she went to Europe and until the mid-1970s she made several Italian crime novels that are revered as cult films , including several films with the Italian director Umberto Lenzi . After her return to the USA, she worked in Andy Warhol 's Bad in 1976 . From the 1980s to her last role in the television series The Lyon's Den in 2003, she played increasingly in television productions. Occasionally Baker also took on supporting roles in movies, such as the aggressive mother of a dangerous criminal in the action comedy Kindergarten Cop (1990) alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger .

Carroll Baker was married in third marriage from 1982 until his death in 2007 with the actor Donald Burton. Her daughter Blanche Baker , who was married to director Jack Garfein , also became an actress.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Carroll Baker  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry at filmreference.com
personal data
SURNAME Baker, Carroll
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Piekarski, Karolina (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Johnstown , Pennsylvania , United States