Early film stardom Baker's first film was
The Intruder (1953). He made his name in
The Dam Busters (1955), and his first starring role was in
The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) with
Richard Attenborough. Baker also starred as a leading man in
The Woman for Joe (1955) opposite
Diane Cilento;
The Feminine Touch (1956), playing a handsome doctor in a film about nurses;
A Hill in Korea (1956), playing a heroic soldier, with
Robert Shaw and
Stanley Baker in support; and
The Extra Day (1956), a comedy. The same year he appeared in the
West End in
Agatha Christie's play
Towards Zero. Baker was also the lead in
These Dangerous Years (1957), an attempt to make a film star of
Frankie Vaughan. He was a doctor again in
No Time for Tears (1957) and played a royalist swashbuckling hero of the
English Civil War in
The Moonraker (1958). He supported
Diana Dors in
Tread Softly Stranger (1958). However, he never quite became a movie star. Baker's later films include
Lancelot and Guinevere (1963) and
Curse of the Fly (1965).
Television work Over time, Baker became better known as a television actor. He had the heroic lead in
Rupert of Hentzau (1964), played security chief Thallon in
Undermind (1965), and was the second (to
Guy Doleman) of many actors to portray the role of "Number Two" in the series
The Prisoner, appearing in the series' first episode. He portrayed the character of George King in
Dennis Potter's
The Bone Grinder (1968), a metaphor for the decline of the
British Empire and the rise of American power in the post-war world. He appeared in his own television comedy series
Bowler. He was also in the first episode of ''
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'', playing a company boss interviewing the show's hapless main character. In the acclaimed 1976 drama serial
I, Claudius, Baker played the emperor
Tiberius Caesar.
George R. R. Martin, author of the book series
A Song of Ice and Fire, which was later adapted into TV's
Game of Thrones, has stated that the historical Tiberius and Baker's performance in particular were part of the inspiration for his character
Stannis Baratheon. He also appeared in an episode of
Get Some In!. In 1977, he starred as Inspector
Roderick Alleyn in the
Ngaio Marsh Theatre, comprising four adaptations of the crime and mystery novels of
Ngaio Marsh with
New Zealand settings, in a production for New Zealand television. From 1987 to 2000, he played
Inspector Reg Wexford in numerous television adaptations of mysteries by
Ruth Rendell, and this is probably the role for which he became best known. In 1993, following the death of his second wife, he married the actress Louie Ramsay, who played Mrs Wexford in the same television series. He also appeared in
The Baron,
Survivors,
Minder in Series 1's '"You Gotta Have Friends",
Coronation Street (as brewery owner
Cecil Newton), in the
Doctor Who story
Full Circle and as twin brothers in a 2005 episode of
Midsomer Murders titled "The House in the Woods". Baker also appeared in the British comedy television series
The Goodies' episode "
Tower of London" as the "Chief Beefeater", as well as in the sitcom
No Job for a Lady, and he is popularly known for playing Captain Benson, the
James Bond ally in the film
The Spy Who Loved Me, and for playing Sir Hilary Bray, a heraldry expert, in ''
On Her Majesty's Secret Service''. Later, when Bond, played by
George Lazenby, impersonates Bray to gain access to
Blofeld, Baker's voice was dubbed in place of Lazenby's to provide the accent. Baker also played an (uncredited) NASA engineer in
You Only Live Twice.
Ian Fleming considered Baker to be the ideal candidate to play
James Bond in the films, but the role went to
Sean Connery, because Baker had prior commitments. He played a character called "Jamus Bondus" in an episode of the 1970s farcical sitcom
Up Pompeii!. Baker's first theatre work was in repertory at
Deal, Kent. His major stage credits include a season with The Old Vic company (1959–61), where he played Bolingbroke in
Richard II, Jack in
The Importance of Being Earnest and Warwick in
Saint Joan. In 1965, he started his own touring company, Candida Plays, based at the
Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. He was Claudius in
Buzz Goodbody's celebrated, modern-dress
Hamlet for the
Royal Shakespeare Company in 1975. In 1980, Baker wrote
Fatal Spring, a play for television dealing with lives of poets
Wilfred Owen,
Siegfried Sassoon and
Robert Graves; this appeared on
BBC Two on 7 November 1980. It won him a United Nations peace award. His other writing credits included four of the
Wexford screenplays. Baker was the subject of
This Is Your Life in 1995 when he was surprised by
Michael Aspel during a photo shoot on board a boat at Port Solent on the Hampshire coast. He also appeared on ''
Lily Savage's Blankety Blank''. ==MBE==