Joe Don Baker

Acting

Joe Don Baker

Born 1936-02-12 · Groesbeck, Texas, USA

Joe Don Baker (February 12, 1936 - May 7, 2025) was an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as a Mafia hitman in Charley Varrick, real-life Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, James Bond villain Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights, and CIA agent Jack Wade in the James Bond films GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies.

Acting credits

Tomorrow Never Dies poster
6.4

A deranged media mogul is staging international incidents to pit the world's superpowers against each other. Now James Bond must take on this evil mastermind in an adrenaline-charged battle to end his reign of terror and prevent global pandemonium.

Tomorrow Never Dies

1997

Mars Attacks! poster
6.4

A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.

Mars Attacks!

1996

GoldenEye poster
6.9

When a powerful secret defense system is stolen, James Bond is assigned to stop a Russian crime syndicate from using it.

GoldenEye

1995

Mud poster
7.1

Two teenage boys find a fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River and help him reunite with his lover and escape an avenging family and their armed posse.

Mud

2013

The Living Daylights poster
6.5

After a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West.

The Living Daylights

1987

Cape Fear poster
7.3

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Cape Fear

1991

Cool Hand Luke poster
7.7

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Cool Hand Luke

1967

The Dukes of Hazzard poster
5.6

Cousins, Bo and Luke Duke, with the help of their eye-catching cousin, Daisy and moonshine-running Uncle Jesse, try and save the family farm from being destroyed by Hazzard County's corrupt commissioner, Boss Hogg. Their efforts constantly find the 'Duke Boys' eluding authorities in 'The General Lee', their 1969 orange Dodge Charger that keeps them one step ahead of the dimwitted antics of the small southern town's Sheriff, Roscoe P. Coltrane.

The Dukes of Hazzard

2005

Congo poster
5.6

Eight people embark on an expedition into the Congo, a mysterious expanse of unexplored Africa, where human greed and the laws of nature have gone berserk.

Congo

1995

The Natural poster
6.9

An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league.

The Natural

1984

The Distinguished Gentleman poster
6.0

A Florida con man uses the recent death of the long time Congressman from his district, who he just happens to share a last name with, to get elected to his version of paradise, the U.S. Congress, where the money flows from lobbyists.

The Distinguished Gentleman

1992

Joe Dirt poster
5.7

Joe Dirt is a janitor with a mullet hairdo, acid-washed jeans and a dream to find the parents that he lost at the Grand Canyon when he was a belligerent, trailer park-raised eight-year-old. Now, blasting Van Halen in his jacked-up economy car, the irrepressibly optimistic Joe hits the road alone in search of his folks.

Joe Dirt

2001

Reality Bites poster
6.5

A small circle of friends suffering from post-collegiate blues must confront the hard truth about life, love and the pursuit of gainful employment. As they struggle to map out survival guides for the future, the Gen-X quartet soon begins to realize that reality isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Reality Bites

1994

Fletch poster
6.8

When investigative reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher goes undercover to write a piece on the drug trade at a local beach, he's approached by wealthy businessman Alan Stanwyk, who offers him $50,000 to murder him. With sarcastic wit and a knack for disguises, Fletch sets out to uncover Stanwyk's story.

Fletch

1985

Walking Tall poster
6.6

Ex-wrestler and Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser walks tall and carries a big stick as he tussles with county-wide corruption and moonshining thugs.

Walking Tall

1973

Panther poster
6.3

In this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as the Panthers battle for the right to exist.

Panther

1995

The Outfit poster
6.7

A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.

The Outfit

1973

Charley Varrick poster
7.4

Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large amount of money belonging to the mob. Charley must now come up with a plan to not only evade the police but the mob as well.

Charley Varrick

1973

Criminal Law poster
5.6

Ben Chase is an on-the-rise Boston attorney currently defending a wealthy client in a high-profile murder case. Martin Thiel is the wealthy young man on trial for a particularly brutal murder. The verdict sets Thiel free. Within 24 hours another grizzly and all-too-familiar murder has taken place with striking similarities to the first crime. Chase inexplicably agrees to act as his defense attorney; but this time it will be to gather evidence that will put away his client for good.

Criminal Law

1989

Guns of the Magnificent Seven poster
5.4

When Mexican revolutionary leader Quintero is left to rot in jail by the forces of President Diaz, it's up to his subordinate, Max, to bust him out. With $600 in hand, he crosses the border into America and hires Chris Adams, a mercenary of considerable skill, who uses the rest of the cash on more hired guns. After the team is rounded out by experts on close-combat fighting, explosives, and knife-throwing, they set off to free Quintero.

Guns of the Magnificent Seven

1969

The Grass Harp poster
5.9

Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in the 1940s. Becoming an orphan in 1935, Collin moves to his dad's cousins Verena and Dolly. Verena is a rich, bossy businesswoman. Dolly, Collin and the maid revolt, moving to a tree house.

The Grass Harp

1996

Strange Wilderness poster
4.9

With the ratings dropping for a wilderness-themed TV show, two animal fans go to the Andes in search of Bigfoot.

Strange Wilderness

2008

Mitchell poster
3.3

A tough-guy cop pursues two drug runners across the city to bust a large syndicate. Very much an anti-hero, Mitchell often ignores the orders of his superiors and demonstrates disdain for by-the-book development work as well as normal social graces.

Mitchell

1975

Poodle Springs poster
5.5

Private eye Philip Marlowe and his bride move to a desert town, where he uncovers a land scheme.

Poodle Springs

1998