George Baker

[Joenoir]

George More O'Ferrall is dead now and he had a very short film career - his nickname used to be 'More and More Awful'. I'll tell you how sensitive he was. In The Woman for Joe there was a very difficult scene where I had to pick up Jimmy Karoubi, the midget, and throw him against a caravan. Just as I was about to throw him, someone in the studio made a noise and More O'Ferrall blew his top. He yelled, 'Will you be silent! Isn't it enough that the little man's deformed?!'

William Fairchild was really a writer and he went back to writing after he directed a couple of films. He wasn't a bad director but he was a very good writer. Absolutely everybody was in that film I did with him, The Extra Day, including Richard Basehart. Basehart was quite a drawcard then because he had done Fourteen Hours and he'd just done - or been about to do - Moby Dick as Ishmael. We did an awful lot of bringing over Americans to do British films; that was when the industry had started to decline and those people were really doing 'B' pictures. I did one myself, for Don Sharp, who did some very good films like Bear Island. We did The Curse of the Fly with Brian Donlevy, who was way past his prime and couldn't handle it at all, and was having trouble with his lines, although at sixty-six he looked pretty good. He'd had great success with the Quatermass films about ten years before.

Cyril Frankel is an extraordinary man. Why he wanted to direct, I really don't know. He was rich enough not to have to work, but he directed about four or five quite good films. I think he had an idea about what theatre and films meant to him and it actually had nothing to do with the reality of what theatre and film were about.

Gordon Parry was a throwback, really. I liked Gordon and I think Tread Softly Stranger was quite a good little film. It was the first time in films that I was allowed to use an accent - I played it with a Yorkshire accent, if you remember. In a way, it helped me to step out of the mould. This was the moment the casting people in various media changed their minds about me - that I wasn't just the pretty doctor, I could actually act. Gordon was always very civilised and urbane; he was one of those people who went into the industry as a tea-boy and had moved quietly through it as though it were an office job, doing it perfectly well.



Taken from An Autobiography of British Cinema by Brian McFarlane (Methuen 1997)

[JohnB_Toronto]

Very nice - I love this sort of stuff!

[Marky B]

Has this something to do with George Baker,the actor as in Inspector Wexford.

Ta Ta

Marky B

[Joenoir]

Has this something to do with George Baker,the actor as in Inspector Wexford.

Ta Ta

Marky B

I'm not sure what it is you find confusing. It's just a piece in which George Baker (aka Inspector Wexford) talks about directors he has worked with.

[billy farmer]

I thought i would start a new Thread for one of my all time favourite Actors George Baker who played one of my favourite TV characters D.C.I. Reg Wexford in the classic ITV detective series The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987-2000), The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (featuring Wexford) is one of my all time favourite TV programmes and would definitely be in my top ten of all time favourite detective shows.



George Baker has also appeared in three of my other favourite TV programmes - Gideon's Way, Minder and Doctor Who.



George Baker has also appeared in many other TV programmes (many of which i have seen) including The Baron, The Prisoner, Paul Temple, Doomwatch, Up Pompeii, Z Cars, The Persuaders, The Fenn Street Gang, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, The Protectors, Bowler, Softly Softly Task Force, The Gentle Touch, Triangle, Hart To Hart, Robin Of Sherwood, Miss Marple, Bergerac, Coronation Street, Midsomer Murders, Heartbeat and New Tricks.



George Baker has also appeared in many films including The Ship That Died Of Shame (1955), The Dambusters (1955), A Hill In Korea (1956), The Moonraker (1958), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), and North Sea Hijack (1979).



George Baker first acted on stage and has appeared on stage many times, from 1966 - 1971 he ran his own Theatre Company, Candida Plays based at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds.



George Baker was born in Varna, Bulgaria on April 1st 1931, where his father was British Consul and his mother was a red cross nurse.



After the second World War broke out in 1939, George's parents decided it would be better for their children if they left Bulgaria, and so in 1940, George and his brothers, Frank, Patrick and Terence along with his sister Eve and their mother made a dramatic journey across war torn europe and escaped to England, just as France fell to the Nazi invasion, George never saw his father again.



George Baker has been married three times, he met his first wife Julia Squire while doing his national service, they married in 1950 and had four children together (all Daughters), George Baker had a fifth Daughter by Actress Sally Home in 1967 while he was still married to Julia Squire, George Baker divorced Julia Squire in 1974 and married Sally Home the same year, they remained married until her death in 1992, the following year George Baker married Louie Ramsay who played his on-screen wife Dora Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.



Any other fans of this great Actor on Brit Movie.

[Santonix]

An excellent thread, recognizing one of Britain's finest actors. Apart from his many film and tv credits listed by billy above, I seem to recall he also did a screen test for the title role in William Wyler's epic film Ben Hur.

[billy farmer]

Here is the link to a site where you will find lots of interesting information about one of my all time favourite TV programmes The Ruth Rendell Mysteries - Inspector Wexford | Tabard Road

[Gerald Lovell]

George Baker was James Bond. Well, kind of. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, while Bond is pretending to be Baker's character of Sir Hilary Bray, George Lazenby's voice is dubbed by George Baker.

[SirOllyBolly]

George Baker was James Bond. Well, kind of. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, while Bond is pretending to be Baker's character of Sir Hilary Bray, George Lazenby's voice is dubbed by George Baker.

He did actually play James Bond - in an episode of "Up Pompeii"



"My name is Bondus, Jamus Bondus"

[Gerald Lovell]

He did actually play James Bond - in an episode of "Up Pompeii"



"My name is Bondus, Jamus Bondus"

Yes, you're quite right - I'd forgotten that! One of the best episodes.

[didi-5]

George Baker was almost in Ben Hur, wasn't he? He was fun in The Moonraker and I always enjoyed his Inspector Wexforrrrrd with the burrrr. Good actor.

[drumbeg]

Yes, totally agree with you,billy, George Baker is a fine actor with a really impressive film and television pedigree. George starred in one of my all time favourite British films,The Moonraker, which I never tire of watching. How sad that after leaving Bulgaria at the outbreak of World War II, George was never to see his father again. Really enjoyed reading your thread, billy.

[Toscana]

Here is the link to a site where you will find lots of interesting information about one of my all time favourite TV programmes The Ruth Rendell Mysteries - Inspector Wexford | Tabard Road

His autobiography is a good read The Way To Wexford ISBN0747253811. I had a quick look on AbeBooks.co.uk and you can get a signed 1st edition for under £15.00p. Might be a nice one to put on your Christmas list.

[billy farmer]

A screencap of George Baker as Bobby Altman in the episode You Gotta Have Friends (1980) from the classic Comedy Drama series Minder.

[billy farmer]

Here is the link to a site where you will find interesting information about George Baker and also Flight Lieutenant D.J.H.Maltby who was played by George Baker in The Dambusters (1955) - Happy birthday! | Dambusters Weblog

[John Hamilton]

Curse of the Fly... well I liked it, sort of

[billy farmer]

A TVS publicity photograph of Christopher Ravenscroft and George Baker as D.I. Burden and D.C.I. Wexford for the four-part Wexford pilot Wolf To The Slaughter (1987).

[billy farmer]

Here is the link to a site where you will find lots of interesting information about George Baker - GEORGE BAKER: A CHIEF INSPECTOR CALLS | A TELETRONIC BIOGRAPHY

[billy farmer]

A screencap of George Baker as Terry Bailey in the episode The Great Plane Robbery (1965) from the classic 1960's Crime Drama series Gideon's Way.

[Windthrop]

Good thread about a fine actor.



Hope George and Louie are doing well after their recent health scares.



Last saw him on Celebrity Cash In The Attic where he was auctioning off possesions for charity. Louie couldn't take part because she was recovering from a stroke - Veteran_Devizes_TV_actor_in_hospital



Sadly recent reports indicate that Louie is now suffering from dementia.