RIP Joe Don Baker

[garrow]

Died eight days ago, only now made public. He was 89.

Always fun to watch.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/joe-don-baker-dead-walking-tall-1236217866/

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

He apparently threatened the MST3K people over this.

 

[Songbird]

Played the chief in the best comedy of the '80s.



I tried to replicate the Lasorda moment at Sarge's Deli about 10 years ago.

Waitress wouldn't punch the photo but did pose by it.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Buford

 

[Bubbler]

He apparently threatened the MST3K people over this.

Probably apocryphal … though believable as he was a pretty serious man.

That's the best MST3K episode. HOT MERGING ACTION!

Joe Don was easy to make fun of, but he was legitimately great in "Charley Varrick" as a mob heavy. One of the most underrated movies of the 70s.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Probably apocryphal … though believable as he was a pretty serious man.

That's the best MST3K episode. HOT MERGING ACTION!

Joe Don was easy to make fun of, but he was legitimately great in "Charley Varrick" as a mob heavy. One of the most underrated movies of the 70s.

Total agreement. Walter Matthau as anti-hero, Baker as the heavy, and Dean Wormer guy as assistant heavy. Great caper/action flick.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Along with "Mitchell," I thought "Final Justice" was another of the great MST3K episodes. Joel/Mike and the Bots were relentless with him (and I could totally see him threatening to whup their asses over it).

(Apropos of nothing, I watched the non-MST3K version of "Final Justice" and oh my goodness, there was a shower rape scene in that film that thankfully was cut out of the MST3K version because it was incredibly over-the-top horrendous.)

I guess when you're as prolific an actor as JDB was, you will have some turkeys along the way.

 

[garrow]

Let's not forget his role as menacing police chief Karlin in the legendary journalism movie Fletch.

 

[Bubbler]

Total agreement. Walter Matthau as anti-hero, Baker as the heavy, and Dean Wormer guy as assistant heavy. Great caper/action flick.

Love this scene.



If journalists are trained to write good ledes, Don Siegel was masterful at scene endings.

Several gems in Varrick, including that bizarro, never explained scene where Joe Don slaps Sheree North and then they join arms. Obviously, she’s a masochist or there’s some dom-sub thing going, but it comes out of nowhere and then it’s never referenced again.

 

[dixiehack]

God needed someone to drive the ghost of Buford Pusser’s Death Car.

Seriously, I can’t explain what a touchstone that story is to Tennesseans of a certain age. If you were a country kid or just raised by country parents, that movie was considered an important part of cultural immersion.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

Probably apocryphal … though believable as he was a pretty serious man.

That's the best MST3K episode. HOT MERGING ACTION!

Joe Don was easy to make fun of, but he was legitimately great in "Charley Varrick" as a mob heavy. One of the most underrated movies of the 70s.

If he really did threaten them I wonder if they ever patched things up.

MST3k is one of my all-time favorite shows and Mitchell is my favorite episode.