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Joe Don Baker, greatest remembered for his breakthrough efficiency within the movie “Strolling Tall,” has died at 89.
Baker’s family members introduced his loss of life in a public obituary, stating he died Might 7.
It learn, partly, “It’s with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Joe Don, a famous member of the Performing Arts Neighborhood… Joe Don was a beacon of kindness and generosity. His mental curiosity made him a voracious reader, inspiring an ideal love of nature and animals, significantly cats. All through his life, Joe Don touched many lives along with his heat and compassion, leaving an indelible mark on everybody lucky sufficient to know him.”
Baker was born in Groesbeck, Texas, on February 12, 1936.
Together with an uncredited look within the traditional “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), his early performing gigs have been in westerns, together with “Weapons of the Magnificent Seven” (1969) and “Wild Rovers” (1971).
In 1973, he performed Sheriff Buford Pusser in “Strolling Tall,” a vigilante-driven motion movie that raked in over $40M on the field workplace on a $500,000 price range, however skipped the sequels.
Baker was an in-demand performer for years, showing within the movies “Charley Varrick” (1973), “Golden Needles” (1974), “Mitchell” (1975), “The Pure” (1984), “Fletch” (1985), “Cape Concern” (1991), “Actuality Bites” (1994), “Congo” (1995), “Mars Assaults!” (1996), “Joe Dust” (2001), and “The Dukes of Hazzard” (2005).
He additionally performed two totally different characters throughout three James Bond movies — “The Residing Daylights” (1987), “GoldenEye” (1995), and “Tomorrow By no means Dies” (1997).
Amongst his many TV appearances, he acted on episodes of “Honey West” (1965), “Bonanza” (1968), and “Gunsmoke” (1966 & 1969), and was acclaimed for his work within the TV films “Energy” (1980) and “Citizen Cohn” (1992). He was BAFTA-nominated for his work within the British miniseries “Fringe of Darkness” (1985) and Satellite tv for pc Award-nominated for his efficiency within the miniseries “George Wallace” (1997).
In 1989, when sequence lead Carroll O’Connor was out having surgical procedure, he performed Chief Tom Dugan on 4 episodes of the hit sequence “Within the Warmth of the Night time.”
His closing TV work got here on a 2009 episode of the sequence “The Cleaner,” and his final film was 2012’s “Mud.”
Baker was married for 11 years, however didn’t remarry after his 1980 divorce. He had no youngsters.
A funeral service to honor his life is scheduled for Might 20, 2025, at Utter McKinley Mortuary in Mission Hills, California, at 10:00 a.m. Family and friends are welcome.