Bob Baker (actor)
Bob Baker | |
---|---|
Born | Stanley Leland Weed November 8, 1910 |
Died | August 29, 1975 | (aged 64)
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Actor, singer |
Known for | Singing cowboy in films |
Bob Baker (born Stanley Leland Weed;[1] November 8, 1910 – August 29, 1975) was an American singer who had several starring roles as a singing cowboy in the late 1930s, in Hollywood films
Early years
The son of Guy Weed and Ethel Leland Weed,[2] Unlike most movie cowboys, Baker really worked as a cowboy in his youth, and was a rodeo champion when he was sixteen.[3]
Early career
Baker began singing professionally at the age of twenty, for the KTSM radio station in El Paso, Texas.[3] In Chicago he spent several months with WLS.[4] As a professional rodeo roper and rider, he competed in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Pendleton, Oregon, and Salinas, California, among other sites.[5]
Film career
Baker won a
Fuzzy Knight worked with Baker as a sidekick on his first four films. Starting with The Last Stand (1938) Baker rode Apache, a pinto he had bought in Arizona. A well-trained horse, Apache tolerated his signature trick of vaulting over the horse's rear into the saddle.[3] Between work on the sets, Baker had to tour and perform at movie theatres, in part to promote the pictures and in part to earn extra income.[8] Bob Baker accompanied his singing with a Gibson Advanced Jumbo guitar.[9] He did not make any recordings.[4]
In a poll of 1939, Baker was rated tenth in a list of moneymaking Western stars.[citation needed] However, he did not have the star quality of a performer like Gene Autry.[10]
In the 1940s, Baker's work in films was limited to performing stunts in films that included Gung Ho (1943), Phantom Lady, (1944), and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944).[6]
Later years
After leaving the movie industry Baker served again in the army in World War II.[3] He then became a member of the police force of Flagstaff, Arizona.[4] He later ran a dude ranch and became an expert in leather crafts.[4]
Death
Baker had a series of heart attacks toward the end of his life and died of a stroke on August 29, 1975.[6]
Films
Year | Star? | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1937 | * | Courage of the West | Jack Saunders | |
1937 | * | The Singing Outlaw | Bob 'Scrap' Gordon | |
1938 | * | Border Wolves | Rusty Reynolds | |
1938 | The Last Stand | Tip Douglas posing as the Laredo Kid | ||
1938 | * | Western Trails | Bob Mason | |
1938 | * | Outlaw Express | Captain Bob Bradley | |
1938 | * | Black Bandit | Sheriff Bob Ramsay / Don Ramsay | |
1938 | * | Guilty Trails | Bob Higgins | |
1938 | * | Prairie Justice | U.S. Marshal Bob Randall, aka Bob Smith | |
1938 | * | Ghost Town Riders | Bob Martin | |
1939 | * | Honor of the West | Sheriff Bob Barrett | |
1939 | * | The Phantom Stage | Bob Carson | |
1939 | * | Desperate Trails | Clem Waters | |
1939 | Oklahoma Frontier | Tom Rankin | ||
1939 | Chip of the Flying U | Dusty | ||
1940 | West of Carson City | Nevada | ||
1940 | Riders of Pasco Basin | Bruce Moore | ||
1940 | Bad Man from Red Butte | Gabriel 'Gabby' Hornsby | ||
1941 | – | Along the Rio Grande | Deputy Bob | Uncredited |
1941 | – | Arizona Bound | Marshal Bat Madison | Uncredited |
1942 | – | Ride 'Em Cowboy | Ranch Cowhand Driving Bus | Uncredited |
1942 | Overland Mail |
Bill Cody [Chs.1,14] | ||
1943 | Wild Horse Stampede | Marshal Bob Tyler | ||
1944 | – | Oklahoma Raiders | Cowhand in Saloon / Lyncher with Rope | Uncredited |
1944 | – | Mystery Man |
Bar 20 Cowhand | Uncredited, (final film role) |
References
Citations
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Publisher's Perspective – Volume 5, Issue 1". Iowa History Journal. Iowa Publishing Corp. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e Driscoll 2008, p. 42.
- ^ a b c d Tribe 2006, p. 62.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ ISBN 978-1476614700. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
- ^ Fitzgerald & Magers 2009, p. 106.
- ^ Stanfield 2002, p. 91.
- ^ Aldrich, Dregni & Murray 2003, p. 51.
- ^ Stanfield 2002, p. 98.
Sources
- Aldrich, Margret; Dregni, Michael; Murray, Charles Shaar (2003). This Old Guitar. Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0896586314. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
- Driscoll, Jim (2008). "Warblin' Bob". Reflections of a B-Movie Junkie: A Tribute To, and Homage Of, the B-Movie Genre Films of the Saturday Matinees, of Primarily the '40's and '50's. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 978-1462838202. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
- Fitzgerald, Michael G.; Magers, Boyd (2009). Ladies of the Western: Interviews With 25 Actresses from the Silent Era to the Television Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786439386. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
- Stanfield, Peter (2002). Horse Opera: The Strange History of the 1930s Singing Cowboy. University of Illinois Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0252070495. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
- Tribe, Ivan M. (2006). Country: A Regional Exploration. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0313330261. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
External links
- Bob Baker at IMDb