Joe Don Baker

He was either blest or cursed to always be remembered for one signature role. Joe Don Baker was actually a good character actor who had good parts  in several good movies. But when his name was called, directors, producers, casting directors and audiences called up one name: Buford Pusser.

Walking Tall (1973) seemed tailor made for the burly, gruff Baker. Based on a real person, sheriff Buford Pusser of Tennessee, he became a hero for all those tired of whiny liberals and apologists for bad people. I’m betting the MAGA crowd would love him. At his wife’s behest, Pusser retires from professional wrestling and returns home to Tennessee to work in his father’s logging busness. When he catches the house cheating at craps, he is beaten and cut by local thugs. Seeing the rampant corruption in the county, he decides to run for sheriff. He wins and starts cleaning up the county sometimes within the law, sometimes not. But with his honesty and his eye on the prize he keeps going. 

Charley Varrick (1973) is a low level crook who lucks up when he robs a small bank, thinking it’s a piddling amount and escapes with three-quarters of a million dollars. Ah, but this money belongs to the mob and they want it back. They send a thug named Molly (Joe Don Baker) who has no boundaries. He roughs up several people, kills others, and even upends a poor man in a wheel chair. But the elusive Varrick sets up and gets rid of Molly and hatches a plan to keep the money. 

The Outfit (1973) is a criminal gang that kills the brother of Earl Macklin (Robert Duvall). Seeking revenge he joins up with his old friend, diner owner Cody (Joe Don Baker), The two escape various ambushes set by the Outfit and continue to come out on top, also enriching themselves by stealing some of the Outfit’s nefarious money. In a final gunfight Cody is wounded but escapes in an ambulance, aided by Macklin who disguises himself as a doctor.

The Natural (1984) is baseball fairy tale of a movie with Robert Redford as the legendary Roy Hobbs and Glenn Close as The Woman In White. Joe Don Baker has a good part, appearing  early in the movie as “The Whammer”, a character obviously based on Babe Ruth. Hobbs bets the crowd that he can strike out The Whammer in three pitches and proceeds to do exactly that. Then Hobbs is seriously injured and out of baseball for years. But he returns in middle age and hits the titanic home run that wins the game and the season for his team. 

Joe Don Baker can also be seen to good advantage (though almost always as either a criminal or a crooked lawman) in several other films. He is a somewhat bent Chief of Police in Fletch (1985), is one of the bad guys in the remake of Cape Fear (1991). 

All of the films in this article are available somewhere. All are for grown-ups.