Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is a former American actress who has enjoyed popularity as both a serious dramatic actress and, particularly in the 1960s, as a movie sex symbol. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in the adaptation of two Tennessee Williams plays into the film Baby Doll in 1956. In the mid-1960s, as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, Baker became a sex symbol after appearing as a hedonistic widow in The Carpetbaggers (1964). The film's producer, Joseph E. Levine, cast her in Sylvia before giving her the role of Jean Harlow in the biopic Harlow (1965). Despite significant prepublicity, Harlow was a critical failure, and Baker relocated to Italy in 1966 amid a legal dispute over her contract with Paramount and Levine's overseeing of her career. In Europe, she spent the next 10 years starring in hard-edged giallo and horror films, including Romolo Guerrieri's The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968), a series of four films with Umberto Lenzi beginning with Orgasmo (1969) and ending with Knife of Ice (1972), and Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973). Baker appeared in supporting roles in several acclaimed dramas in the 1980s, including the drama Star 80 (1983) as the mother of murder victim Dorothy Stratten, and the racial drama Native Son (1986), based on the novel by Richard Wright. Through the 1990s Baker had guest roles in several television series, such as Murder, She Wrote; L.A. Law, and Roswell. She formally retired from acting in 2003.

Filmography

• The Lyon's Den — Jack's Mother
• 2000Another Woman's Husband — Laurel’s mother
• Roswell — Claudia Parker
• 1998Nowhere to Go — Nana
• 1998Rag and Bone — Sister Marie, Tony's Aunt
• 1997Heart Full of Rain — Edith Pearl Dockett
• 1997North Shore Fish — Arlyne
• 1997Skeletons — Nancy Norton
• 1997The Game — Ilsa
• 1996Dalva — Naomi
• E! True Hollywood Story
• 1996Just Your Luck — Momie
• 1996La signora della città — Martha Sheppard
• 1995In the Flesh — Elaine Mitchelson
• 1995Storie di seduzione — Diana's Mother
• Chicago Hope — Sylvie Tannen
• 1994Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage — Baby Doll Meighan (archive footage)
• 1993A Kiss to Die For — Mrs. Graham
• 1993Judgment Day: The John List Story — Alma List
• 1993Men Don't Tell — Ruth
• 1992Cyber Eden — Madame
• 1991Blonde Fist — Lovell Summers
• P.S. I Luv U — Victoria
• 1990Gipsy Angel — Pheobe
• Grand — Viva
• 1990Kindergarten Cop — Eleanor Crisp
• Tales from the Crypt — Mother Paloma ("segment "The Trap")
• 1987Ironweed — Annie Phelan
• 1987On Fire — Maureen Leary
• L.A. Law — Rae Morrison
• 1986Native Son — Mrs. Dalton
• 1985Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil — Gerda Hoffman
• 1985What Mad Pursuit — Louise Steinhauser
• Murder, She Wrote — Sibella Stone
• Sharing Time — Fran Haley
• 1984The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud — Mama Freud
• 1983Red Monarch — Ellen Brown
• 1983Star 80 — Dorothy's Mum
• American Playhouse — Mrs. Dalton
• Nobody's Perfect — Phyllis Nash
• 1980The Watcher in the Woods — Helen Curtis
• 1979The World Is Full of Married Men — Linda Cooper
• 1978Cyclone — Sheila
• 1977Bad — Hazel Aiken
• 1976Blackmail Chase — Polly Pott
• 1976Confessions of a Frustrated Housewife — Laura
• 1976Shattered Dreams — Carol
• 1975The Next Victim — Sandy Marshall
• 1975The Private Lesson — Laura Formenti
• 1975The Sky is Falling — Treasure
• 1975Valentina... The Virgin Wife — Lucia
• 1974The Body — Madeliene
• 1973Baba Yaga — Baba Yaga
• 1973The Flower with Petals of Steel — Evelyne Graffi
• Thriller — Sandy Marshall
• 1972Knife of Ice — Martha Caldwell
• 1971Captain Apache — Maude
• 1971The Devil with Seven Faces — Julie Harrison / Mary Harrison
• 1971The Fourth Victim — Julie Spencer / Lillian Martin
• 1970A Quiet Place to Kill — Helen
• 1969Paranoia — Kathryn West
• 1969So Sweet... So Perverse — Nicole Perrier
• W. Somerset Maugham — Sadie Thompson
• 1968The Sweet Body of Deborah — Deborah
• 1967Jack of Diamonds — Carroll Baker
• 1967The Harem — Margherita
• 1965Harlow — Jean Harlow
• 1965Mister Moses — Julie Anderson
• 1965Sylvia — Sylvia: West (Karoki, Kay, Carlyle)
• 1965The Greatest Story Ever Told — Veronica
• 1964Cheyenne Autumn — Deborah Wright
• 1964The Carpetbaggers — Rina Marlowe Cord
• 1963Station Six-Sahara — Catherine
• 1963The Paradise Suite — Lena Roland
• 1962How the West Was Won — Eve Prescott Rawlings
• 1961Bridge to the Sun — Gwen Terasaki
• 1961Something Wild — Mary Ann Robinson
• 1959But Not for Me — Ellie Brown / Borden
• 1959The Miracle — Teresa
• 1958The Big Country — Patricia Terrill
• Armchair Theatre — Lena Roland
• 1956Baby Doll — Baby Doll Meighan
• 1956Giant — Luz Benedict II
• 1953Easy to Love — Clarice

Appearances as themselves (24)

• 2017Carroll Baker: Vom Baby Doll zur Lady Glamour — Self
• 2011Hollywood Scandals — Self
• 2009Western Legenden - Made in Hollywood — Self
• 2008You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story — Self
• 2006Baby Doll: See No Evil — Self
• 2003Time Machine: When Cowboys Were King — Self
• 2002Cinerama Adventure — Self
• 2002Heart of the Festival — Self (archive footage)
• 1998Memories of Giant — Self
• 1997Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western — Self
• 1996Clark Gable: Tall, Dark, and Handsome — Self
• 1996Return to 'Giant' — Self
• 1995Charlton Heston: For All Seasons — Self
• 1995Roger Moore: A Matter of Class — Self
• 1987Hollywood Uncensored — Self
• 1975James Dean: The First American Teenager — Self
• 1967Lionpower from MGM — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
• The Merv Griffin Show — Self
• The Mike Douglas Show — Self
• 1958Fun in the Big Country — Self
• Cinépanorama — Self
• 1956New York Premiere Telecast 'Giant' — Self
• The Oscars — Self
• What's My Line? — Self - Mystery Guest