Joe Don Baker, actor who wielded a big stick in ‘Walking Tall,’ dies at 89
Joe Don Baker, the leading man turned character actor who broke out playing Sheriff Buford Pusser in the 1973 movie “Walking Tall,” has died, his family announced online.
The Texas-born tough guy died May 7 at age 89. No cause of death was given. Baker lived in Southern California when he died.
“Joe Don was a beacon of kindness and generosity. … Throughout his life, Joe Don touched many lives with his warmth and compassion, leaving an indelible mark on everyone fortunate enough to know him,” his family said.
Baker went into the U.S. Army for two years and then emerged in New York, where he studied at the Actors Studio and performed onstage. His acting career took off in the mid-1960s when he moved to Los Angeles, where he started with TV roles in shows like “The High Chaparral” and “Mission: Impossible” before taking the spotlight as a leading man in movies like “Walking Tall” and “Final Justice.”
When he aged into character actor work, he played Claude Kersek in the 1991 Robert DeNiro remake of “Cape Fear,” Olaf Anderson in Eddie Murphy’s 1992 movie “The Distinguished Gentleman” and Tom Pierce in 1994’s “Reality Bites.” Baker played a villain in the 1987 James Bond movie “The Living Daylights,” featuring Timothy Dalton as Bond, and then CIA agent Jack Wade in two Bond films starring Pierce Brosnan: “GoldenEye” in 1995 and “Tomorrow Never Dies” in 1997.