Reginald Poynton Baker, MC FCA FRSA (19 July 1896 – 31 January 1985) was a British film producer and a major contributor to the development of the British film industry.
Along with his younger brother Leslie Forsyth, he played a decisive role in establishing Ealing Studios.
He was the father of Conservative MP Peter Baker.
Baker died in Australia aged 89.
From 1943 to 1946, Baker was president of the Kinematograph Renter's Society of Great Britain and Ireland (KRS) and from 1950 to 1953, president of the British Film Producers Association (BFPA).
He lived at Loddenden Manor, a 300 acres estate situated in Staplehurst, Kent until 1954.
A soldier, a successful accountant and a movie magnate, Baker was the fourth of the five children of Samuel Henry Baker (1866–1918), a manager of chemical works who lived at 44 James Lane in Leytonstone, Essex and his wife Jane Louisa Baker (1870–1955), the daughter of builder John Cort Christoffer (1834–1913). In 1917, he married Gwendolyn Emily Christabel Webb, the daughter of Arthur Webb, a Draper from Romford, Essex.
Baker was a remote relative of British Army officers Sir Arthur Borton and Brigadier general Neville Travers Borton Pasha CMG (1870–1938), Postmaster general in Egypt and British military governor of Jerusalem. Baker was also related to clergyman Neville Arthur Blachley Borton.Other family connections include John Browne, a renowned English landscape engraver.
He studied at the University of London.
At the outbreak of World War I, Baker joined the Essex Yeomanry as a Private. He served on the Western Front with the 17th (Poplar and Stepney Rifles) Battalion, London Regiment, one of the units of the 5th London Brigade, rising through the ranks, he reached Captain.
On 17 June 1939, Captain Baker (late of 17th Lond. R) was raised to the rank of Major. On 1 February 1941, Major Baker of the Territorial Army Association Cheveney, Yalding, Kent, (19th Battalion kent Farningham) was awarded the Military Cross and promoted to the Acting rank of Lieutenant colonel.
Baker fought for a seat in the House of Commons in the 1923 general election, he is described as an Independent candidate.
A co-founder of Ealing Studios and a key figure there for some 30 years, 'Major' Reginald Baker became one of Britain's best-known producers.
Following his WWI service, he worked in accountancy negotiating the purchase of Gainsborough Pictures' Islington site from Famous Players–Lasky on behalf of Michael Balcon. The studio was small but well equipped with the latest American cameras and lighting equipment and fully staffed. The staff included an ambitious young man, Alfred Hitchcock.
Before moving into film production, Baker was a partner in the firm of Berger, Baker and co, Chartered Accounts and Business Consultants at Southampton Row, London, the firm had connections in the film industry.
When theatre producer Basil Dean and actor Gerald du Maurier founded Associated Talking Pictures (ATP) in 1929, Baker was first to join the management team, quickly followed by textiles heir Stephen Courtauld. Construction costs on the company's new studios at Ealing having doubled by late 1931, he and Courtauld arranged additional finance, ensuring production continued.
All together about 60 pictures were made there over the seven years from 1931 to 1938 such as Perfect Understanding starring Gloria Swanson and Laurence Olivier, other coming stars started their careers there like Madeline Carroll, Margaret Lockwood or director Carol Reed
In 1938, with ATP struggling, he invited his former Gainsborough employer Michael Balcon (at that time, head of MGM-British) to take over the studio from Dean; Balcon subsequently hailed their 20-year partnership as the most successful of his career. An early collaboration was The Ware Case, which helped move Ealing beyond the Gracie Fields and George Formby vehicles that the studio had previously produced.