CARROLL BAKER BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Carroll Baker was born on May 28th, 1931 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania with the birth name Karolina Piekarski.  Her father worked as a traveling salesman.  

After completing High School, Baker went to community college for one year and then dropped out to work as a dancer and an assistant for a magician.  Carroll also won Miss Florida Fruits and Vegetables in 1949.  She began her film career in 1953 with a small role in the film, "Easy to Love".  She also found work doing a number of television commercials and also took a try working on stage in various Broadway productions such a small part in the play, "All Summer Long".    

To improve her acting skills, she studied for a while at the Actors Studio and paid for her tuition by working as a nightclub dancer.  Upon completing there, Warner Brothers took an interest in her and felt they could possibly make her the next Marilyn Monroe.  They chose to cast her in a number of films such as, "Baby Doll" (1956), "The Carpetbaggers" (1964) and "Harlow" (1965).  She is best remembered for her role in, "Baby Doll" for which she was nominated for the Academy Award For Best Actress. 
 
Due to her role in the film, "The Carpetbaggers" she began to be known in Hollywood as a movie sex symbol and was therefore cast in the title role of two other three, "Potboilers" and "Sylvia" and "Harlow" (all 1965).  
 
Baker  then began to have some disagreements with Warner Brothers after the studio wanted her to participate in some movies based on some books by writer, Erskine Caldwell.  She was not interested in the project and therefore, briefly moved overseas doing some films in Italy, Spain, Germany and Mexico working on such films as, "The Sweet Body of Deborah" (1968), "Paranoia" (1969) and "Baba Yaga" (1973).  She then returned back to America to work as the lead role in the film "Bad" (1977) followed by some stage work and a couple more films, "Ironweed" (1987) and "Kindergarten Cop" (1990). 
 
Carroll Baker was a beautiful woman and desired by many men throughout her career.  She married three times, first briefly to Louie Ritter from January 1953 through August 1953.  Carroll then married Jack Garfein from 1955 through 1969 and they had two children together, Blanche and Herschel.  Her third and final marriage was to Donald Burton from March 10th, 1982 through December 8th, 2007 when he passed away from emphysema in their home in Cathedral City, California.
 
Carroll Baker was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to the Motion Picture Industry and was also a decent author writing three books, Baby Doll, A Roman Tale and To Africa, With Love. 
 

Filmography

2003 The Lyon's Den
2002 Rag and Bone 
2000 Another Woman's Husband 
1999 Roswell 
1998 Nowhere to Go 
1997 Heart Full of Rain 
1997 The Game 
1997 North Shore Fish 
1997 Skeletons 
1996 Just Your Luck 
1996 Witness Run 
1996 Dalva 
1995 Chicago Hope
1995 In the Flesh 
1993 A Kiss to Die For 
1993 L.A. Law
1993 Murder, She Wrote
1993 Men Don't Tell 
1993 Judgment Day: The John List Story 
1992 Cyber Eden 
1992 Davis Rules
1992 Gipsy Angel
1991 P.S.I. Luv U
1991 Blonde Fist
1991 Tales from the Crypt
1990 Grand
1990 Kindergarten Cop 
1987 Ironweed 
1987 On Fire 
1986 Native Son 
1985 What Mad Pursuit? 
1985 Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil 
1984 Sharing Time
1984 The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud 
1983 Red Monarch 
1983 Star 80 
1980 The Watcher in the Woods 
1979 Bloodbath
1979 The World Is Full of Married Men 
1978 Cyclone 
1977 Bad 
1976 Bait
1976 La moglie di mio padre 
1976 Thriller
1976 At Last, at Last
1975 Private Lessons
1975 Wide World Mystery
1974 The Body 
1973 The Flower with the Deadly Sting 
1973 Baby Yaga, Devil Witch 
1972 Knife of Ice
1971 The Devil Has Seven Faces
1971 Deathwork
1971 Death at the Deep End of the Swimming Pool
1970 W. Somerset Maugham 
1970 A Quiet Place to Kill 
1969 So Sweet... So Perverse 
1969 Paranoia
1968 The Sweet Body of Deborah 
1967 Her Harem
1965 Harlow 
1965 Mister Moses 
1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told 
1965 Sylvia
1964 Cheyenne Autumn 
1964 The Carpetbaggers
1963 Armchair Theatre
1962 Station Six-Sahara
1962 How the West Was Won 
1961 Something Wild
1961 Bridge to the Sun 
1959 The Miracle 
1959 But Not for Me 
1958 The Big Country
1956 Baby Doll
1956 Giant 
1955 Danger 
1954 The Web
1953 Easy to Love 
1952 Monodrama Theater