Carroll Baker (born May , ) is a retired American actress of film,
stage, and television. Throughout the s and s, Baker's range of roles
from young ingénues to brash and flamboyant women established her as
both a pin-up and serious dramatic actress. After studying under Lee
Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in
. From there she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead
in the adaptation of two Tennessee Williams plays into the film Baby
Doll in . Her role in the film as a coquettish but sexually naïve
Southern bride earned her BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best
Actress, as well as a Golden Globe award for Most Promising Newcomer
that year.Her other early film roles included George Stevens' Giant
(), playing the love interest of James Dean, and in the romantic
comedy But Not for Me (). In , Baker appeared in the controversial
independent film Something Wild, directed by her then-husband Jack
Garfein, playing a traumatized rape victim. She went on to star in
several critically acclaimed Westerns in the s and s, such as The Big
Country (), How the West Was Won (), and Cheyenne Autumn ().
stage, and television. Throughout the s and s, Baker's range of roles
from young ingénues to brash and flamboyant women established her as
both a pin-up and serious dramatic actress. After studying under Lee
Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in
. From there she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead
in the adaptation of two Tennessee Williams plays into the film Baby
Doll in . Her role in the film as a coquettish but sexually naïve
Southern bride earned her BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best
Actress, as well as a Golden Globe award for Most Promising Newcomer
that year.Her other early film roles included George Stevens' Giant
(), playing the love interest of James Dean, and in the romantic
comedy But Not for Me (). In , Baker appeared in the controversial
independent film Something Wild, directed by her then-husband Jack
Garfein, playing a traumatized rape victim. She went on to star in
several critically acclaimed Westerns in the s and s, such as The Big
Country (), How the West Was Won (), and Cheyenne Autumn ().
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