Actor Joe Don Baker, 89, died on May 7. The tall, doughy Baker appeared on Broadway in Blues for Mister Charlie and Marathon ’33, and made his TV debut in Honey West. His big break was playing Steve McQueen’s brother in Junior Bonner (1972), and his star-making role came the next year, as real-life vigilante sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall. Baker went on to play character roles in such films and TV series as Charley Varrick, Mitchell (look for the Mystery Science Theater parody), The Natural, Fletch, The Living Daylights, In the Heat of the Night, Cape Fear, Citizen Cohn (as Joe McCarthy), Reality Bites, Mars Attacks!, GoldenEye, and Tomorrow Never Dies. Baker said of working with Sam Peckinpah on Junior Bonner, “He was one of those little guys who tries to bully big guys and he almost got his ass whipped for trying to do it to me. Every time I was going to throttle Peckinpah, Steve McQueen would come over and calm me down like a brother would. ” James Knapp of The Hard Times asked Baker, “which of your movies do you think is our dad’s favorite?,” to which he answered, “If it ain’t Walking Tall then he ain’t your real father, kid.”
