Hubbry Logo
logo
Lenny Baker
Community hub

Lenny Baker

logo
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Contribute something to knowledge base
Hub AI

Lenny Baker AI simulator

(@Lenny Baker_simulator)

Lenny Baker

Leonard Joel Baker (January 17, 1945 – April 12, 1982) was an American actor of stage, film, and television, best known for his Golden-Globe-nominated performance in the 1976 Paul Mazursky film Next Stop, Greenwich Village and his 1977 Tony Award-winning performance in the stage play I Love My Wife.

Baker was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the middle child of William, who owned his own plumbing business, and Bertha (née August) Baker. He had two brothers, Alan and Malcolm, and described his upbringing as "middle-middle class."

As the middle child, he referred to himself as "the pickle in the middle" and dreamed of being in musicals. He began acting in kindergarten, where he was cast as an elephant in a school play, and from fourth grade on, he was "constantly" on stage, eventually becoming the vice president of Brookline High School's dramatic society.

While his brothers followed his father into plumbing, Baker stuck to acting. After graduating from high school, in 1962, he went to Boston University, where he majored in acting. He graduated in 1966. Throughout college, he appeared in the Spa Music Theatre in Saratoga Springs, New York, with Boston University's Theatre Division, and with the Harvard Summer Players at the Loeb Drama Center.

Baker described himself as a "skinny, silly shlump." He played offbeat characters, which he described as being "long, skinny funny-looking goofy types."

Coming out of college, Baker claimed to have offers to do theatre in New York, which he turned down out of fear of being reduced to "a spear carrier." Instead, he accepted an offer from Richard Block, the director of the Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) in Kentucky, to be a journeyman, rounding out its 10 principal cast members:

...I jumped at it [the chance to join ATL]. Decided it would be much better to play bigger roles...to be a big fish in a little pond."

In September 1966, he made his acting debut, playing Tom Stark in All the King's Men, at ATL. The following year, he made Actors' Equity and earned the minimum, $125 per week (approximately $950 in 2019). He remained at ATL through May 1968.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.