Joe Don Baker, dead at 89.

"Lies spread by my competitors to discredit me."

A line I use often.

R.I.P.

Not the WHAMMER!

Another sad day for the cast of Fletch.

"My, my, my, MITCHELL!"

My son and I recently watched Walking Tall just a week or so ago. That movie is great and still stands up today in my opinion.

I was always sad he didn't do the sequels.

RIP

I'm probably the only person on the planet who knows him best as the asshole corporation owner in Congo.

Love that terrible movie.

I've been reading Cinema Speculation, and it's a little surprising that Tarantino never found a role for him.

So recognizable. RIP. One role of his that most stands out for me was him playing "Senator Joe McCarthy" in Citizen Cohn" on HBO.

Movies just don't take the time to do this sort of scene anymore. Thank God for Joe Don Baker!

I'll be sure to pour a little scotch on the ground tonight in his honor. Like about a quart.

Mitchell has been in my watchlist for a while. Might as well check it out tonight.

Walking Tall is always the first to come to mind. Second, the sadistic mob enforcer Molly in Charlie Varrick.

Never heard of it but suddenly I feel a need to watch this movie.

Oh, ho, ho, HO!

Do yourself a tremendous favor: watch the original film, then watch the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, which also happens to be original host Joel Hodgson's final episode. You're in for a seedy 70s treat!

Loved the book (read it in one night)... movie was such a letdown.

Bummer... he was in a lot of stuff.

The scene you posted just doesn't work without Tom Servo yelling "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

ETA: The clip:

I love that flick too.

RIP though sounds bad I thought he passed years ago.

I felt bad for him in Cape Fear (1991).

You're not! Lol, I read almost every Crichton novel after Jurassic Park in those two years. (as I'm sure many did)

I prefer him yelling “Piss off, kid!” Instead of “Buzz off, kid!”

I’m too young to remember a lot of his older, 70s movies. Most of my memories of him are when he was older playing supporting parts in the Bond movies and Congo.

Baker deserves credit for making junky Greydon Clark films even remotely watchable.





As a fan of Hong Kong cinema and the city itself (before China ruined it), I was always happy to see American stars like Baker popping over there for a fun gig. GOLDEN NEEDLES is from the ENTER THE DRAGON team, and Baker’s really solid in it with good backup from Jim Kelly, Elizabeth Ashley, Burgess Meredith, and HK legend Roy Chiao (among other local faces). It’s got a cool DRAGON-esque score by Lalo Schifrin, too. Kino put out a decent Blu-ray with bonus features.



Baker’s FRAMED is the textbook definition of underrated. It’s from the same folks that made WALKING TALL with him, and very much in the same vein. Olive slipped this out on Blu-ray with little fanfare (as usual for them) and it instantly became one of my favorites of his. I’m not sure a decent trailer even exists anymore, but there’s no shortage of noteworthy scenes in the movie, including Baker’s double getting nicely toasted in this train vs car stunt, a sequence which also has a great punchline moments later. Hopefully Kino reissues this one at some point.


Baker is a lot of fun in CHECKERED FLAG OR CRASH, a Philippines-shot rally race movie with some wild stunts. It’s another one with production ties to ENTER THE DRAGON. The overall race isn’t particularly well-delineated, but the ‘good ol’ boy’ camaraderie and seemingly reckless driving make up for it. Kino has the Scorpion Blu-ray which looks great, but the movie is on YouTube along with the amusing trailer:


And finally, Baker was an awesome villain in CHARLEY VARRICK.

It took me a second to realize that while I did not immediately recognize the name, the nano second I saw the face it hit me that yes, I have seen this beloved character actor is a jillion films. He is so great and memorable in each film he was in, regardless of the size of his role.

He was great at playing a government / military type character, or a someone you want to love to hate. I just rewatched the end battle between Bond and him in The Living Daylights and posted this comment: One of my all time favorite Bond film end battles because it is hard to beat a good old fashioned brief but intense gun battle. RIP Joe Don Baker (end copy/paste)

It bears repeating, that is an incredibly underrated final confrontation between Bond and a villain. You can see how stressed Bond looks and feels as he is fighting this nutball armed with really cool automatic fire weapons and live cannon balls at his disposal. I will take a brief but really cool gun battle at the end of any film vs an action scene that should be 5-10 minutes long (if that) but long overstays its welcome (long operatic gun battles in John Woo's The Killer and Hard Boiled are two obvious exemptions to the gun fights should be intense but brief rule).

A real loss to the acting community, as he will be truly missed by many actors and fans.

I re-watched this last night and never noticed (During the club shoot-out) that Bruce Glover's character (Who also recently passed) reacts as if he gets fatally wounded. Looks like there were plans to originally kill him off, but glad they kept him alive.

I think Servo's reaction is appropriate regardless.

I actually saw this in the theater, back with a bunch of my high school friends.

I remember seeing this when it was broadcast on NBC, as a 10-year old kid, excited to see anything related to car racing. Especially if there were crashes.

This one I need to see.

Is JDB a big enough name to earn a "tribute day" on TCM like say, Gene Hackman recently did? Hard to say, as he was mostly a heavy ("literally" - Crow T. Robot) and/or character actor. I'd imagine if TCM does honor him, this would be a movie they'd show.