Diane Baker

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Diane Baker bigraphy, stories - American actress

Diane Baker : biography

February 25, 1938 –

Diane Carol Baker (born February 25, 1938) is an American actress and producer who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959.

Career

After securing a contract with 20th Century Fox, Baker made her film debut when she was chosen by director George Stevens to play "Margot Frank" in the 1959 motion picture The Diary of Anne Frank. In the same year, she starred in Journey to the Center of the Earth with James Mason and in The Best of Everything with Hope Lange and Joan Crawford.

Other Fox films in which Baker appeared include the assassination thriller Nine Hours to Rama, Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man and The 300 Spartans. Her television work in the late 1950s and 1960s includes appearances on Follow the Sun, Bus Stop, Adventures in Paradise, The Lloyd Bridges Show, The Nurses, The Invaders (in the first episode), and Route 66.

Finally out of her contract with Fox after starring in 1960 in the fourth screen version of Grace Miller White’s novel Tess of the Storm Country, Baker appeared in The 300 Spartans (1962) and Stolen Hours, a 1963 remake of Dark Victory, and, the same year, opposite Paul Newman and Elke Sommer in The Prize. From 1963 to 1966, Baker had a recurring role on the medical drama Dr. Kildare.

In 1964, she co-starred with Joan Crawford in both Strait-Jacket, the William Castle-directed thriller about an axe murderess, and an unsold television pilot Royal Bay, released to theaters as Della. Alfred Hitchcock cast her in his film Marnie (1964) as Lil Mainwaring, the sister-in-law of Mark Rutland (Sean Connery). She co-starred with Gregory Peck and Walter Matthau in the thriller Mirage (1965), directed by Edward Dmytryk, and in Krakatoa, East of Java (1969) with Maximilian Schell. In the TV movie Western The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones (1966), she played the part of a woman who falls in love with a drifter (Robert Horton) who is deputized by a dying marshal to take two killers (one of whom is played by Sal Mineo) to a distant jail.

In August 1967, Baker had the distinction of playing David Janssen’s love interest in the two-part finale of The Fugitive, which became the most-watched show in the history of episodic television up until that time. In 1968, she co-starred with Dean Jones in the Disney film The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. In January 1970, she had the lead guest-starring female role as Princess Francesca in the only three-episode mission of Mission: Impossible. In 1973, Baker co-starred in ABC sitcom Here We Go Again. The series was canceled after one season. In 1976, she played the alcoholic daughter of the title character of the Columbo episode "Last Salute to the Commodore".

In the decades after Mirage, she appeared frequently on television and began producing films, including the 1980 drama film Never Never Land and the 1984 miniseries A Woman of Substance, in which she played Laura. She reemerged on the big screen in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) as Senator Ruth Martin ("Love your suit," Hannibal Lecter memorably said to her). Baker also appeared in the films The Joy Luck Club, The Cable Guy, The Net and A Mighty Wind. She guest starred in four episodes of House in 2005, 2008 and twice in 2012 as Blythe House, the mother of the title character.

Since August 2004, Baker has been the director of the Motion Pictures and Television major at Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Selected filmography

1967 The Fugitive Jean Carlisle

Year Title Role Notes
1959 The Diary of Anne Frank Margot Frank
1959 Playhouse 90 Shelia Cass Episode: "In Lonely Expectation"
1960 DuPont Show of the Month Nurse Leora Tozer Episode: "Arrowsmith"
1960 The Wizard of Baghdad Princess Yasmin
1961 Follow the Sun Helen Henderson Episode: "Journey Into Darkness"
1961 Adventures in Paradise Veronica Sanders Episode: "Vendetta"
1962 Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man Carolyn
1962 The 300 Spartans Ellas
1963 The Doctors and the Nurses Marjorie Ford Episode: "Field of Battle"
The Prize Gary
Mr. Novak Mrs. Chase Episode: "A Feeling for Friday"
1964 The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre Vivia Mandour Television movie
Wagon Train Alice Whitetree Episode: "The Alice Whitetree Story"
Marnie Lil Mainwaring
1965 Mirage Shela
1965 The Big Valley Hester Episode: "By Fires Unseen"
1966 Sands of Beersheba Susan Alternative title: Thunder Over Israel
1966 Hawk Mary Wheelis Episode: "The Longleat Chronicles"
1967 The Invaders Kathy Adams Episode: "Beachhead"
1967 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Laney Episode: "Free of Charge"
1968 The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit Suzie ‘S.J.’ Clemens
1969 The Name of the Game Elaine Brennan Episode: "Give Till It Hurts"
1969 D.A.: Murder One Mary Brokaw Television movie
1970 The Interns Sheila Carmichael Episode: "The Quality of Mercy"
1970 The Old Man Who Cried Wolf Peggy Pulska Television movie
1971 Sarge Carol Swanson Episode: "The Badge or the Cross"
1971 Bonanza Norma O’Casey Episode: "Cassie"
1972 Killer by Night Tracey Morrow Television movie
1972 Love, American Style Segment: "Love and the Small Wedding"
1973 Wheeler and Murdoch Karen Television movie
1973 Love Story Angie Burnett Episode: "The Youngest Lovers"
1974 Medical Center Three-Cornered Cage Episode: "Three-Cornered Cage"
1974 The ABC Afternoon Playbreak Diana Episode: "Can I Save My Children?"
1975 Lucas Tanner Jessica Atkins Episode: " Why Not a Happy Ending?"
1975 The Streets of San Francisco Inspector Irene Martin Episode: "The Cat’s Paw:
1976 Police Woman Cynthia Lambert Episode: "The Pawn Shop"
1976 Baker’s Hawk Jenny Baker Television movie
1977 Barnaby Jones Pat Halston Episode: "The Wife Beater"
1977 Kojak Irene Van Patten 2 episodes
1978 The Love Boat Ruth Newman Episode: "Pacific Princess Overtures.."
1978 ABC Afterschool Special Carrie Williams Episode: "One of a Kind"
1980 The Pilot Pat Simpson
1980 Fugitive Family Ellen ‘Ellie’ Roberts Television movie
1981 Trapper John, M.D. Mrs. Forsyte Episode: "The Albatross"
1982 The Blue and the Gray Evelyn Hale Miniseries
1983 Fantasy Island Fran Woods Episode: "Saturday’s Child.."
1985 A Woman of Substance Laura O’Neill Miniseries
1987 CBS Schoolbreak Special Helen Welker-Summers Episode: "Little Miss Perfect"
1990 The Closer Beatrice Grant
1991 The Silence of the Lambs Senator Ruth Martin
1991 The Haunted Lorraine Warren Television movie
1992 Mann & Machine Delores Peterson Episode: "Water, Water Everywhere"
1992 Murder, She Wrote Mary Forsythe Episode: "A Christmas Secret"
1993 Twenty Bucks Ruth Adams
1993 The Joy Luck Club Mrs. Jordan
1995 A Walton Wedding Charlotte Gilchrist Television movie
1995 Chicago Hope Ellen Rolston Episode: "Rise from the Dead"
1996 The Cable Guy Steven’s Mother
1996 Courage Under Fire Louise Boylar
1997 Murder at 1600 Kitty Neil
1998 About Sarah Lila Hollingsworth Television movie
1998 The Nanny Roberta Episode: "Sara’s Parents"
2000 ER Louise Duffy Episode: "The Domino Heart"
2000 Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Rose Kennedy Television movie
2001 Harrison’s Flowers Mary Francis
2001 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Margo Nelson Episode: "Inheritance"
2002 First Monday Arlene Braken 3 episodes
2002 On the Roof Mrs. Arnott
2003 Dragnet Rebecca Barton Episode: "The Brass Ring"
2003 A Mighty Wind Supreme Folk Defense Lawyer
2005 The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam Miss Taylor
2005 Unscripted Diane 5 episodes
2008 Harrison Montgomery Mrs. Cutsworth
2010 Lie to Me Judge Quinn Episode: "The Whole Truth"
2012 Hemingway & Gellhorn Mrs. Gellhorn

1969 A love to Remember, The Virginian

Early life

Baker was born and raised in Hollywood, California. She is the daughter of Dorothy Helen Harrington, who had appeared in several early Marx Brothers movies, and Clyde L. Baker. Baker has two younger sisters, Patti and Sheri. At the age of 18, Baker moved to New York to study acting with Charles Conrad and ballet with Nina Fonaroff.