Sir William Stanley Baker (28 February 1928 – 28 June 1976) was a Welsh actor and film producer. Known for his rugged appearance and intense, grounded screen persona, he was one of the top British male film stars of the late 1950s, and later a producer.
Born into a coal mining family in Glamorgan, Baker began his acting career in the West End. Following national service in the Royal Army Service Corps after the Second World War, he befriended actor Richard Burton and began appearing in film and television roles. He played the lead role in Hell Drivers and supporting role in The Guns of Navarone. He was producer and lead actor in the 1964 film Zulu, in which he portrayed John Chard.
Baker's performance in the 1959 film Yesterday's Enemy was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor, and he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his turn in the BBC serial How Green Was My Valley. He was awarded a knighthood in 1976, although he died before the investiture ceremony: a heavy smoker, he developed lung cancer and died in 1976.
Baker was born in Ferndale, Glamorgan, Wales, the youngest of three children. His father was a coal miner who lost a leg in a pit accident but continued working as a lift operator at the mine until his death. Baker grew up a self-proclaimed "wild kid", interested in only "football and boxing". He thought he would most likely be a miner or maybe a boxer.
His artistic ability was spotted at an early age by a local teacher, Glynne Morse, who encouraged Baker to act. When he was 14 he was performing in a school play when seen by a casting director from Ealing Studios, who recommended him for a role in Undercover (1943), a war film about the Yugoslav guerrillas in Serbia. He was paid £20 a week, caught the acting bug, and pursued a professional acting career. Six months later Baker appeared with Emlyn Williams in a play in the West End called The Druid's Rest, appearing alongside Richard Burton.
Baker worked for a time as an apprentice electrician, then through Morse's influence, he managed to secure a position with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1944. He was there for three years when he had to do his national service. He served in the Royal Army Service Corps from 1946 until 1948, attaining the rank of sergeant. Following his demobilisation Baker returned to London determined to resume his acting career. He was recommended by Richard Burton for casting in a small role in Terence Rattigan's West End play, Adventure Story (1949).
Baker began appearing in films and on television, as well as performing on stage for the Middlesex Repertory Company. He had small roles in All Over the Town (1949), Obsession (1949), Your Witness (1950), Lilli Marlene (1950), Something in the City (1950), The Rossiter Case (1951), Cloudburst (1951), Home to Danger (1951) and Whispering Smith Hits London (1952). According to Filmink "he was very castable with a great scowly face that was useful for playing sulky soldiers and lurking thugs."
His TV roles included The Tragedy of Pompey the Great (1950) and Rush Job (1951). Baker attracted attention when cast as the bosun's mate in the Hollywood-financed Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951). It was the ninth most popular film at the British box office that year.
In 1951 he toured England in a play by Christopher Fry, A Sleep of Prisoners which was part of the Festival of Britain. It was about four POWs spending a night in a bombed out church and was staged in actual churches; the rest of the cast included Denholm Elliott, Hugh Pryse and Leonard White. The project was transferred in its entirety to New York for a limited run, and also toured throughout the US.
While in New York, Baker read the novel The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat. Although the role of the cowardly officer Bennett was an Australian in the book, the Englishman Donald Sinden was originally screen-tested for the part and the Welsh Baker was screen-tested for the part of Lockhart. Subsequently, at Jack Hawkins' suggestion and after further screen-tests, the roles were swapped. The Cruel Sea was the most successful film at the British box office in 1953 and Baker was now established in films.
On television, he appeared in "A Cradle in Willow" and played Petruchio in a version of Taming of the Shrew (1952). He had a small role in a British-US co-production for Warwick Films, The Red Beret (1953), with Alan Ladd, another big hit in Britain. Warwick liked his work so much they promptly reteamed him with Ladd in Hell Below Zero (1954), with Baker billed fourth as the main villain.
Baker got another break when George Sanders fell ill and was unable to play Sir Mordred in the expensive epic Knights of the Round Table (1953), made by MGM in Britain. Baker stepped in and got excellent reviews; the movie was very popular.
He had his biggest role in a purely British film with The Good Die Young (1954), directed by Lewis Gilbert, playing a boxer who commits a robbery. Baker was cast in Twist of Fate (1954) opposite Ginger Rogers, replacing Walter Rilla, who quit the production ten days into filming. Hollywood came calling again and offered him the choice support role of Achilles in Helen of Troy (1955), shot in Italy for Robert Wise.
Most of Baker's film roles until this stage had been playing villains. His career received another boost when Laurence Olivier selected him to play Henry Tudor in Richard III (1955).
On TV he was in The Creature (1955) by Nigel Kneale, later filmed (without Baker) as The Abominable Snowman (1957). He was in another epic, playing Attalus in Alexander the Great (1956), which starred Burton in the title role and was shot in Spain for Robert Rossen. He also portrayed Rochester in a British TV adaptation of Jane Eyre (1956).
Baker's first leading role in a feature film came with Child in the House (1956), written and directed by Cy Endfield. He had a support role as a psychotic corporal in A Hill in Korea (1956), a Korean War film that also featured early performances from Michael Caine, Stephen Boyd and Robert Shaw. He was the villain in a racing car drama, Checkpoint (1956), opposite Anthony Steel. It was made by the team of Betty E. Box and Ralph Thomas for the Rank Organisation.
Baker finally broke away from supporting parts when cast as the lead in Hell Drivers (1957), a truck driving drama directed by Endfield. Before it was released he played another villain role for Box and Thomas, Campbell's Kingdom (1957), opposite Dirk Bogarde, shot in Italy (substituting for Canada). Following this he was meant to make Tread Softly Stranger with Diana Dors but George Baker was cast instead. Hell Drivers was a minor hit, and at the end of the year exhibitors voted Baker the seventh most popular British star at the British box office for 1957 (after Bogarde, Kenneth More, Peter Finch, John Gregson, Norman Wisdom and John Mills, and before Ian Carmichael, Jack Hawkins and Belinda Lee). The success of Hell Drivers saw Baker play a series of tough anti-heroes. In the words of David Thomson:
Until the early 1960s, Baker was the only male lead in the British cinema who managed to suggest contempt, aggression and the working class. He is the first hint of proletarian male vigour against the grain of Leslie Howard, James Mason, Stewart Granger, John Mills, Dirk Bogarde and the theatrical knights. Which is not to disparage these players, but to say that Baker was a welcome novelty, that he is one of Britain's most important screen actors, and that he has not yet been equalled – not even by Michael Caine.