1952–1957: Beginnings in 1956 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). This led to her landing roles in two
Broadway productions:
Roger MacDougall's
Escapade in the fall of 1953, and
Robert Anderson's
All Summer Long, opposite
Ed Begley, which ran from September to mid-November 1954. Baker recalled her experience on set, saying that James Dean and she were both enamored of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor while filming. Simultaneously, Baker was cast as the title character in
Elia Kazan's
Baby Doll (1956), a role initially intended for Marilyn Monroe.
Tennessee Williams, who had written and developed the screenplay based on two of his one-act plays, wanted Baker to play the part after seeing her perform a scene from his script at the Actors Studio; likewise, Kazan had been impressed by her performance in
All Summer Long on Broadway the year prior. Shot in
Benoit, Mississippi, directly after Baker had completed
Giant, her role in the film as a sexually repressed teenaged bride to a failed middle-aged cotton gin owner brought Baker overnight fame and a level of notoriety even before the film's release. During shooting, Baker was prohibited from eating around photographers in order to get better photos, bringing her weight down to just 110 pounds. In the fall of 1956, artist Robert Everheart, under contract with
Warner Bros., constructed a billboard in
Times Square promoting the film, depicting the now-iconic image of a scantily clad Baker lying in a crib sucking her thumb. The controversial advertising campaign for the film caused a pre-emptive backlash from religious groups, and on December 16, 1956, Cardinal
Francis Spellman of
St. Patrick's Cathedral denounced the film and advised his parish against seeing it. A formal condemnation by the Roman Catholic
National Legion of Decency ensued, which considered it "grievously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency". In spite of this,
Baby Doll opened to strong box-office receipts, grossing $51,232 in its first week at the
Victoria Theater. In support of Baker, Marilyn Monroe appeared at the film's premiere, working as an
usherette to help bolster ticket sales, the proceeds of which were donated to the Actors Studio. Baker received immense critical praise for her performance.
Variety said that her performance "captures all the animal charm, the naivete, the vanity, contempt and rising passion of Baby Doll", while
Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times praised Baker's ability to exhibit "a piteously flimsy little twist of juvenile greed, inhibitions, physical yearnings, common crudities and conceits".
Baby Doll established Baker as an A-list actress and would remain the film for which she is best remembered. She was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and won a Golden Globe for
Most Promising Newcomer, which she shared with
Jayne Mansfield and
Natalie Wood. The performance also earned her a Film Achievement Award from
Look, as well as the title "Woman of the Year" in 1957 from
Harvard University's
Hasty Pudding Club. She appeared on the cover of
Life Magazine in June 1956.
1958–1963: Contract disputes and independent films in
The Big Country in 1958 production of
Come on Strong in September 1962 on the cover of the November 2, 1963, edition of
The Saturday Evening Post After the success of
Baby Doll, Baker was subsequently offered parts in
The Brothers Karamazov (1958),
Too Much, Too Soon (1958), and ''
The Devil's Disciple (1959). She refused to make Too Much Too Soon
, so Warner Bros. put her on suspension, which prevented her from starring in The Brothers Karamazov
(1958) at MGM. Baker was also chosen by MGM for the lead in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and by Twentieth Century Fox for The Three Faces of Eve (1957), but her contract with Warner Bros. again prevented her from accepting the roles. Tensions between Baker and the studio escalated further when she went against their wishes by appearing in Arms and the Man on stage. Baker commented on the effect of the system on her career, saying: "I came in at the end of the big studio system. I still had a slave contract and they were willing to put you in almost anything they had." The film was well received by critics, though the shoot was described as "problematic": Baker was four months pregnant at the time and had to wear restraining garments, and director Wyler reportedly had her on the verge of tears after forcing her to repeat the same take over 60 times, only to use the first one. She followed The Big Country
with lead roles in two romances, portraying a nun in The Miracle (1959), co-starring Roger Moore, and in But Not for Me (1959), a comedy with Clark Gable. The New York Times'' praised Baker's performance in
But Not for Me, saying: "Miss Baker, being a young lady who not only has looks, but also can act, makes you understand why Mr. Gable would like to cheat a little bit on Father Time." She disliked
The Miracle so much that she bought out her contract with Warner Bros., putting her in considerable debt.
But Not for Me was made at Paramount. Baker went on to make the experimental film
Something Wild (1961), directed by her then-husband
Jack Garfein. In this independent production, she plays a young college student from
the Bronx who is raped one night in St. James Park, and later held captive by a Manhattan mechanic (
Ralph Meeker), who witnessed her subsequent suicide attempt. In preparation for her role, Baker lived alone in a boarding house in New York's
Lower East Side, and gained employment as a department-store salesgirl; her
Method approach to the role was profiled in
Life magazine in 1960. Critical reaction to the film was largely negative, though
Film Quarterly cited it as "the most interesting American film of its quarter", and the most underrated film of 1961. However, its controversial depiction of rape led to critical backlash and public criticism, and the film has been credited by historians as nearly halting Baker's career. She subsequently appeared with Maasai warriors on the cover of
Lifes July 1964 issue.
1964–1966: Sex symbol roles Baker portrayed a
pacifist Quaker schoolteacher in
John Ford's
Cheyenne Autumn (1964), and received critical acclaim for the role. She then had a supporting role as
Saint Veronica in
George Stevens'
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and portrayed a cynical, alcoholic movie star in
The Carpetbaggers (1964), which brought her a second wave of notoriety in spite of the film's lackluster reviews.
The New York Times called the film "a sickly sour distillation" of the source novel, but said Baker's performance "brought some color and a sandpaper personality as the sex-loaded widow." In 1965, she became an official celebrity spokesperson for
Foster Grant sunglasses and appeared in advertisements for the company. Baker likened this era of her career to "being a beauty contest winner [as opposed to] an actress". Despite much prepublicity,
Harlow received a lukewarm response from critics:
Variety referred to Baker's portrayal of Harlow as "a fairly reasonable facsimile, although she lacks the electric fire of the original." Relations between Baker and Levine soured; in a 1965 interview, Baker sardonically commented: "I'll say this about Joe Levine: I admire his taste in leading ladies", which led the press to suspect a rift between the actress and producer. Baker sued Levine in 1966 over her contract with Paramount Pictures, and was ultimately fired by Paramount and had her paychecks from
Harlow frozen amid the contentious legal dispute; this left Baker hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt (however, she was eventually awarded $1 million in compensation). Cecil Smith of the
Los Angeles Times wrote of the production: "The beautiful Miss Baker's vehicle becomes a hearse." The play was also performed at the
Tappan Zee Playhouse in
Nyack, New York in June 1966.
1967–1975: European films '' (1968) Baker separated from her second husband, Jack Garfein, in 1967, and moved to Europe with her two children to pursue a career there after struggling to find work in Hollywood. As with
Paranoia, the majority of the films she made in Italy received poor critical reception in the United States, though they afforded Baker—who had left Hollywood in debt and with two children to support— an income, as well as fame abroad. In retrospect, Baker commented on her career in Italy and on her exploitation film roles, saying: "I think I made more films [there] than I made in Hollywood, but the mentality is different. What they think is wonderful is not what we might ... it was marvelous for me because it really brought me back to life, and it gave me a whole new outlook. It's wonderful to know about a different world." She followed her roles in Lenzi's films with a leading role in
Corrado Farina's
Baba Yaga (1973) as the titular witch, alongside
Isabelle De Funès and
George Eastman.
TV Guide referred to the film as an "exceptionally handsome example of 1970s Italian pop-exploitation filmmaking sweetened by Piero Umilani's lounge-jazz score", and praised Baker's performance, but noted that she was "physically wrong for the role; her elaborate lace-and-beribboned costumes sometimes make her look more like a fleshy
Miss Havisham than a sleekly predatory sorceress".
1976–1987: Return to American films; theater in ''
Andy Warhol's Bad'' in 1977 Baker's first American film in over 10 years came in the
Andy Warhol–produced
black comedy Bad (1977), in which she plays the lead role of a
Queens beauty salon owner who provides
hitmen with jobs, starring alongside
Susan Tyrrell and
Perry King. "You can hardly call making an Andy Warhol movie a 'comeback'", said Baker. "It's more like going to the moon! The subject is totally unique." She followed
Bad with a part in the low-budget surrealist thriller
The Sky Is Falling (1979) with
Dennis Hopper, playing a washed-up actress living among expatriates in a Spanish village. The 1970s also had a return to the stage for Baker, where she appeared in British theater productions of
Bell, Book, and Candle;
Rain, an adaptation of a story by
W. Somerset Maugham;
Lucy Crown, an adaptation of the novel by
Irwin Shaw; and
Motive. In 1978, while touring England and Ireland in productions of
Motive, Baker met stage actor
Donald Burton, who became her third husband. After an appearance in the British television film
Red Monarch (1983), she played the mother of murdered
Playboy model
Dorothy Stratten (played by
Mariel Hemingway) in the biopic
Star 80 (1983). She also appeared as the mother of
Sigmund Freud in the historical comedy
The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984) with
Carol Kane and
Klaus Kinski. Baker featured in ''
Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (1985), a coming-of-age drama set against Nazi Germany, as well as in the drama Native Son'' (1986), based on
the novel by
Richard Wright, which featured
Matt Dillon,
Geraldine Page, and a young
Oprah Winfrey. In the latter Baker plays a 1930s Chicago housewife, mother of a teenage girl accidentally killed by an African American chauffeur, who attempts to cover up the accident. Critic Roger Ebert praised Baker's performance, noting her "powerful" scene with Winfrey during the film's finale. Following
Native Son, Baker had a critically acclaimed lead role as the wife of a
schizophrenic drifter (played by
Jack Nicholson) in
Ironweed (1987), alongside
Meryl Streep. Her performance in the film was praised by Ebert, who said: "Nicholson's homecoming [in the film] is all the more effective because Carroll Baker is so good as his wife ... she finds a whole new range. It may seem surprising to say that Baker holds the screen against Jack Nicholson, and yet she does".
1988–2003: Later roles and retirement In 1990, Baker played the role of Eleanor Crisp—described by Roger Ebert as "an effective bitch on wheels"—in
Ivan Reitman's comedy
Kindergarten Cop, starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger, which she filmed in
Astoria, Oregon, in the summer of 1990. The film was a huge financial success, grossing over $200 million worldwide. Her film and television work continued throughout the '90s, and she acted in many
made-for-television movies, including the true-crime story
Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993),
Witness Run (1996), and
Dalva (1996) with
Farrah Fawcett. In 1997, Baker was cast in a supporting role in
David Fincher's thriller
The Game, in which she plays a housekeeper to a billionaire San Francisco banker (played by
Michael Douglas) who becomes embroiled in a sadistic game by his antagonistic brother, played by
Sean Penn. In an interview with the
New York Post following the film's release, Baker commented on her role, saying: "It's an important movie and I'm honored to be in it. Of course, I'd like to be the romantic lead, and I'm actually closer to Michael's [Douglas] age than
Deborah Kara Unger is, [but] I think it's always worked that way in Hollywood. When I was in my 20s, I played opposite Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum, and Clark Gable, all of whom were old enough to be my father."
The Game proved to be a major success among Baker's later films, performing successfully at the box office and garnering widespread critical acclaim. In addition to her work in big-budget productions, Baker also appeared in small, independent films, such as
Just Your Luck (1996) and
Nowhere to Go (1997). The 1990s also had Baker more frequently appearing on television series, including episodes of
Grand (1990),
Tales from the Crypt (1991, opposite
Teri Garr in a segment directed by
Michael J. Fox),
Murder, She Wrote and
L.A. Law (both 1993);
Chicago Hope (1995), and
Roswell (1999). In 2000, she appeared in the
Lifetime film ''Another Woman's Husband
. In 2002, Baker appeared in the documentary Cinerama Adventure, and guest-starred in an episode of The Lyon's Den'', playing the mother of
Rob Lowe's character. Her role in ''The Lyon's Den'' was Baker's last screen appearance before she formally retired from acting in 2003. Her acting career spanned 50 years, and more than 80 roles in film, television, and theater. She has, however, sometimes participated in retrospective documentaries, including an interview for the 2006 DVD release of
Baby Doll, which includes a documentary featuring Baker reflecting on the film's impact on her career. Baker has also been featured in documentaries about several of her co-stars, including Clark Gable,
Roger Moore,
Sal Mineo, and James Dean, including the 1975
James Dean: The First American Teenager, and a 1985 BBC Radio 2 tribute marking the 30th anniversary of the actor's death. Her memories of James Dean at the Actors Studio and later in
Giant were recalled on BBC Radio 2 in 1982, when she guested on ''You're Tearing Me Apart'', Terence Pettigrew's documentary which commemorated the 25th anniversary of Dean's death in a car accident in 1955. Also on the program were singer-actor
Adam Faith and the screenwriter
Ray Connolly. ==Writing==