Elder gays please tell me all about Hollywood golden era blonde sex symbol Carroll Baker

Iconic not ice!!🙈 ^^

She is in the Tennessee Williams penned “Babydoll” which is a great movie.

Thanks r2 Did that film receive critical acclaim at the time or was it panned only to be appreciated in retrospect?

Critical acclaim mostly, r3. Or at least very positive reviews.

Carroll and Mildred Dunnock were both nominated for an Oscar. So was Tennessee Williams, and cinematographer Boris Kaufman.

Thank you r4 So has Carroll retired from the limelight these days as I believe she is still alive? Was Babydoll her best work?

She was no Mamie Van Doren.

She was a classically trained actress, and a very good one. But one of her husbands put her on the Italian sex bomb tract and her career didn’t recover.

R7 Italian sex bomb tract??

A more recent picture of Carroll.

Hopefully posts this time

Still pretty.

harrowing film but a great performance. I thrilled to see old school lower east side scenes in it

I think she’s particularly beautiful in The Big Country (1958).

Had a prominent role in 1956’s “Giant” opposite Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor and James Dean.

Cheers r12 r13 r14

What would you say was her best film and did she have a colourful private life?Did the media show much interest in that side of her?

Love this photo of Carroll

OP, I don't think the "Golden Era" of Hollywood was the '50s and '60s.

Her former husband Jack Garfein just died. Btw, he also directed the homoerotic movie The Strange One

Thanks for that r18

I think she is an underrated actress who never really got to fulfill her potential. Though she had the Oscar nom for "Babydoll "(which she was great in), she never got much critical recognition after because she landed herself in a series of less-than-stellar films, primarily Italian productions after she was purportedly blackballed by Paramount. I think her best performance was in "Something Wild," hands down.

r20 Thanks for your reply Why did Paramount blackball her?Was she outspoken in some way?

Carroll was hired to play Patsy Cline’s mother in “Sweet Dreams,” and just before shooting began, they dumped her for Ann Wedgeworth.

Wedgeworth was wonderful in the part, but Carroll Baker would have looked more like she and Jessica Lange were related.

R21 from my understanding, she had disagreements with Paramount producer Jack Levine. She claimed he treated her as though he were her pimp. She eventually sued him over her contract, which led to her being branded with a scarlet letter as far as Hollywood was concerned. That was in the early '60s, so she really was one of the last victims of the studio system. I read her autobiography a few years ago and she wrote about it extensively—I can't remember all of the details.

Joe Levine, not Jack—I was mixed up, as she was married to Jack Garfein

She was in the first season of the original "Roswell" and sadly, she was really not good at all.

Pia Zadora is a better actress.

Here is a great interview with Carroll at the Friars Club from a couple of months ago. She still seems very sharp, and that voice is unmistakable.

Thank you very much r23 for your detailed reply.

So how big a star did Carroll Baker become and how big a star do you think she could have been if she hadnt of been blackmailed?

Carroll's daughter, Blanche Baker, had a weird career. She made a huge splash in "Holocaust" and won an Emmy right out of the gate at 19. She had a few more films, a couple of stage things, and then basically her career stopped.

I meant blackballed not blackmailed in r28 post

Baker being blackballed in Hollywood happened in the mid-60's (not early 60's) after she rebelled against her contract with producer Joseph E. Levine, who was not, as stated above, the head of Paramount. That studio helped finance and distributed THE CARPETBAGGERS and HARLOW, which Levine produced. Levine had his own "indie" studio called Embassy Pictures.

Baker felt Levine acted like he owned her, and while THE CARPETBAGGERS was a huge commercial hit, HARLOW was a major flop and she got the worst reviews of her career for it. So she decided to get out even though it was too late at that point for her to reverse the sex symbol image.

However, she had rebelled against Warner Brothers in the late 50's by refusing to do some rather trashy films, so the studio retaliated by refusing to loan her out to be considered for such projects as THE THREE FACES OF EVE, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, and THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. Of those three, I thin she would have been a fine Maggie without Elizabeth Taylor's screechy voice. Doubt she would have bettered Joanne Woodward in EVE, though.

Her best post-Italy performance is in IRONWEED, as Jack Nicholson's wife. She's in it briefly in the latter part, but she's excellent.

I saw Blanch in a very small budget gay movie recently. She played the same part played Gilmore Girl in theHandmaid’s Tale movie. Her character just disappeared very early in the movie.

Thanks for the details r31

[quote]Baker being blackballed in Hollywood happened in the mid-60's...

When she started fucking Negroes.

Really?? r34

R34, That was Jean Seberg, not Carroll Baker.

Carroll's second husband and father of her two children, director Jack Garfein, just died on December 30th.

No, it was definitely Baker. Fucked Jim Brown his last year with Cleveland.

R38, Lucky bitch. Can you blame her?

Jesus Christ, yes.

R40, Check out his 1970s Playgirl spread.

I never stated Levine was the head of Paramount, R31.

R38, I couldn't find anything on the net about this relationship. I'd be very surprised.

R43, I seriously doubt any relationship with Jim Brown. He only dated very young girls, Carroll would have been in her thirties. Plus, she was happily married to Jack Garfein from 1955-1969.

Bless all of your little, retarded hearts. Bazinga!

I remember reading her autobiography years ago. In the 1950s her career was interesting, she was smart and working with the best people (Elia Kazan, Tennessee Williams) and then it all went away and suddenly she was having Movie Star Problems and appearing in big, trashy/splashy films. She went from artist to commodity so quickly--it was sad.

r46 What was her trashiest work?

Bad directed by Andy Warhol!

Thanks r48

I love Carroll and most of her movies......especially The Carpetbaggers....but always lots of fun. And the recent interviews she's been giving promoting the mystery book she's written are interesting - even though she tells the same stories in the same words over and over.... But then again - it is what it is.

BAD!

No movie should have a scene with a baby being thrown out the window. The movie could have redeemed itself if it had a full frontal Perry King.

[quote]No movie should have a scene with a baby being thrown out the window.

Thank God, you can use one as a battering ram on television.

Too bad the movie was crap.....Carroll could have done a nice job if they had told the truth.

R53 Harlow was pretty awful—they got the makeup wrong too, which was really distracting. There are press photos of Carroll that were taken before the production began, and in them she is made up to appropriately look like Jean Harlow—the makeup and everything was spot-on. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, when it came down to filming, they completely changed the look and she ended up hardly resembling Harlow at all. This is one of several photos taken where Carroll is properly done up as Jean.

at least the old girl got to get old

R55 Marilyn was actually friends with Carroll--they knew each other through the Actors Studio. Marilyn showed up at the premiere of Babydoll and volunteered as an usherette to help promote the film (Marilyn had been the original choice for the role, not Carroll).

R54, the weird thing about "Harlow" is, with the exception of Harlow, Mama Jean, and Paul Bern, who were all dead by then, all the other characters are fictitious, none of her famous films are mentioned, and the fantasy Majestic Studios stands in for MGM. Styling Baker like a '50s-'60s glamour girl rather than a '30s sex siren seems to be just another reminder that this half-assed biopic is only loosely based on Harlow.

R64 yup those early test photos are just a hint at what might have been.

R54 that is.

How could Carol Lynley’s Version be worse ?

R60: That one couldn’t even afford film!

It's on YouTube R60 - see if you can watch more than ten minutes or so...... As R61 said....shot on video tape.

Tom Lisanti wrote a fun book called Dueling Harlows about the making of the two films....although Baker refused to be interviewed.

Carol Lynley as Harlow.

Thanks for all the information so far everybody!Please keep it coming!👍🙂 It is appreciated.

THE CARPETBAGGERS is actually good trashy fun. HARLOW is a bore and Baker is barely trying.

I've only seen a couple of her Italian films: PARANOIA (the U.S. title; the European title was ORGASMO) and BABA YAGA, and they're both awful. One odd note: The aforementioned PARANOIA (ORGASMO) was made in 1969 and the next year she made another film with the same schlock director called PARANOIA (in Europe) and A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (in the U.S.). Never seen it but you can imagine the two get mixed up.

I recall being surprised she showed up in a Disney film in the late 70's - THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS, with Bette Davis. Pretty lousy and she doesn't have much to do as the story centers around the characters of her two daughters. She's also good as Dorothy Stratton's mother in STAR 80.

They gutted that Disney film and refused to restore it even after they proved it could be done, R65.

Carroll revealed in her autobiography that Franco Nero kept his socks on during sex.

r67 Oh I'm not a fan of that!Barefoot sex for me please!😁

Blanche Baker is best known as Molly Ringwald’s wedding-bound sister in Sixteen Candles.

Carroll is really evil as the bad guy’s mother in Kindergarten Cop

"Sylvia" is my favorite! Campy and has hottie George Maharis in it.

Excellent in a small-ish role in Bob Fosse’s “Star 80”. And terrific in “Ironweed”. So fresh and pretty in her 1950s films, and a respected actress — both her looks and credibility took a hit during her 1960s manufactured sex symbol period.

Carroll's promoting "The Carpetbaggers" on WML? at 16:10.

She had a really intriguing voice besides her great beauty. Her combination of beauty, acting ability, and voice made her a very compelling actress.

R71 that drag queen in SYLVIA is Paul Gilbert - the adoptive father of Melissa and Jonathan and step father to Sara......

r74 Do you feel she is underated or underappreciated?

R76 I think she is a bit of both.

Without a good director, she could be very wrong and rely on her Method tricks to get her through. But she was very good in a handful of films....and entertaining in most of them.

Thank you for your reply r77 Would you say she was a better more talented actress than acting peers such as Arlene Dahl, Angie Dickinson, Shirley Maclaine, Joan Collins?

Dahl and Collins were known for their beauty more than any acting prowess.

Baker is more talented than Dickinson. MacLaine had a much better career than Baker so it's hard to compare them since it's hard to say how Baker might have developed as an actress had she made different choices.

All of that is true.

And MacLaine had that annoying "kook" quality that she used in most of her fifties and sixties roles....and even later on. You knew what you were going to see when you saw a MacLaine movie....and you had usually seen it all before.

Baker never really played to type so the audiences never really got to see what she was like - she was more a character actress even in her earliest roles.

Was she an FAS baby, before we knew about FAS.

Her features scream: “Strong possibility!”

Blanche was super scary in "The Girl Next Door". She was remarkably wooden in it but that made her character even creepier.

r82 Sounds like a film I should check out!

Interesting take r80 So you feel that Shirley Maclaine is overrated and a bit of a one trick pony?I'm not disagreeing with you but I've not heard many people say it.

Actually I do, but as you say, not many folks agree.....

Gosh 90 next year. I bet she could tell some tails about old Hollywood!!

MacLaine’s “kook” (forerunner of the manic pixie) was poignant in “Some Came Running” and less kooky than sweet but wounded in “The Apartment,” both among her best, most genuine work. By the time of “Sweet Charity” the character just seemed stupid and annoying. Her return in a different archetype in “Terms of Endearment” was a wonderful mid/late-career turn, balancing comedy (including some that verged on slapstick) with the Demeter-Persephone tragedy. But after that, she pretty much descended into dour camp (not fun—she plays Ouiss the way the least funny dowager in your community theatre would have played Miss Daidy). I don’t think she was as great in Pistcards as others do—I wish they’d just cut to the chase and had Debbie Teynolds play herself—and then Debbie might have gotten the late career Oscar she should have had for Mother, where she brought subtlety and nuance to what could have been a cartoon.

I always liked Baker, especially for her voice and attitude. Excellent in the guilty pleasure epic “How the West was Won” (imagine that as a title today!) and, as others have pointed, quite moving in “Itonweed,” my favorite “most depressing imaginable” film.

she got to pretend fuck george peppard, which is something we all wanted to do

well she managed to keep her head on straight

[quote]Her former husband Jack Garfein just died. Btw, he also directed the homoerotic movie The Strange One —Anonymous

which starred sexy ben gazzara and the smoking george peppard

R87: The pixie and the more brittle characters she played later on are basically the same character. You can't play naive easily in middle age, but she just found a different way of being a grown-up version of the ditsy character she played before. She plays the eccentric regardless. She's really not much of an actress and clearly a self-absorbed fuckedup human being.

r91 What makes you say she is self absorbed and fucked up?

Have you read anything about how her daughter was raised? Or followed her dim witted past lives nonsense.

No I haven't r93

Several of Carroll’s movies disturbed me like Something Wild. I saw it as a kid and the eye thing was awful. Never liked Babydoll, another weird thing. And I don’t care how much you like ASND who names their child Blanche.

"Hollywood Golden Era" and "Carroll Baker"?

Oh, my sides.