Diane Baker

Diane Baker
Guest starring in The Virginian, 1969
Born	Diane Carol Baker (1938-02-25) February 25, 1938 Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, producer
Years active	1959–present
Website	www.ebakerstreet.com

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

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.

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 TV and filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1959	The Diary of Anne Frank	Margot Frank
1959	Journey to the Center of the Earth	Jenny Lindenbrook
1959	The Best of Everything	April Morrison
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
1960	Tess of the Storm Country	Tess Maclean
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"
	Nine Hours to Rama	Sheila
	The Prize	Emily Stratman
	Mr. Novak	Mrs. Chase	Episode: "A Feeling for Friday"
	Route 66	Elisa	Episode: "The Cruelest Sea of All"
1964	The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre	Vivia Mandour	Television movie
	Wagon Train	Alice Whitetree	Episode: "The Alice Whitetree Story"
	Marnie	Lil Mainwaring
	Strait-Jacket	Carol Harbin
1965	Mirage	Shela
1965	The Big Valley	Hester	Episode: "By Fires Unseen"
1966	The Virginian	Linda Valence	Episode: "Linda"
1966	Sands of Beersheba	Susan	Alternative title: Thunder Over Israel
1966	Hawk	Mary Wheelis	Episode: "The Longleat Chronicles"
1967	The Fugitive	Jean Carlisle	Episodes: "The Judgement - Parts I & II"
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	Krakatoa, East of Java	Laura Travis
1969	The Virginian	Julie Oakes	Episode: "A love to Remember"
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	The Virginian	Nan Allen	Episode: "Nan Allen"
1971	Sarge	Carol Swanson	Episode: "The Badge or the Cross"
1971	Bonanza	Norma O'Casey	Episode: "Cassie"
1971	Night Gallery	Lynn Alcott	Segment: "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"
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	Marcus Welby, M.D.	Sister Anne	Episode: "The Medea Factor"
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

External links

• Official website
• Diane Baker at the Internet Movie Database
• Diane Baker at AllMovie