Carroll Baker

Overview

Carroll Baker was born on May 28, 1931 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a traveling salesman, William W. Baker. She attended community college for a year and then worked as a dancer and magician's assistant. After a brief marriage, she had a small part in Easy to Love (1953), did TV commercials, and had a bit part on Broadway. She studied at the Actors Studio and was married to director Jack Garfein (one daughter, Blanche Baker). Warner Brothers, sensing a future Marilyn Monroe, cast her in Giant (1956), Baby Doll (1956) (Oscar nomination for her thumb-sucking role), The Carpetbaggers (1964) and Harlow (1965) (title role). Moving to Italy, she made films there and in England, Germany, Mexico and Spain . After returning to American films, she married Donald Burton in 1982 and resided in Hampstead, London in the 1980s. They remained together until Burton's death from emphysema in their home in Cathedral City, California in 2007.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

After she refused to play a nymphomaniac in the trashy Too Much, Too Soon (1958), Warner Bros. refused to loan her out to appear opposite Laurence Olivier, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in The Devil's Disciple (1959).
Her trouble with Warner Bros. continued after she declined to act in a series of movies based on books by pulp writer Erskine Caldwell. This led to her losing out on outside offers to do The Three Faces of Eve (1957) for 20th Century-Fox, and both Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and The Brothers Karamazov (1958) for MGM.
Spent several years--from the late 1990s to 2007--caring for her third husband, who suffered from emphysema. She remained retired from acting since being widowed in 2007.
Despite playing the daughter of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor in Giant (1956), she was just nine years younger than Hudson and nine months older than Taylor.
Following the death of Debbie Reynolds in December 2016, she is - as of March 2026 - one of two surviving cast member of the 24 credited actors in the epic Western How the West Was Won (1962). The other surviving cast member is Russ Tamblyn.

When Clark Gable kissed me, they had to carry me off the set.
Bad directors are the ones who want to tell you every move, and think they're a better actor than you.
After Baby Doll (1956) I did some Westerns. I would try to do something so far away from "Baby Doll".
I was very young when I saw Gone with the Wind (1939), but I fell in love with Clark Gable. And when I got to work with him, I couldn't believe it. I still had a crush on him. He was quite an old man by then; he must have seen that I was head over heels, even though I was married.
The big one I missed out on was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). MGM wanted me for it, and Warner Bros. wouldn't give me permission to do it.