In Memoriam: Joe Don Baker (1935–2025)

Here at Multicom, we are saddened by the news of Joe Don Baker's passing on May 7th, 2025. Baker was an important figure in American film and a familiar face in many beloved titles in our collection. His family announced last week that he passed away at the age of 89.

Joe Don Baker made a mark on Hollywood with his unmistakable Texan presence and his commanding presence. Whether playing lawmen, outlaws, or something in between, he brought an intensity to his roles that audiences never forgot...including making memorable appearances in multiple James Bond films.

He rose to fame in the early 1970s with back-to-back hit performances: first, in Junior Bonner (1972), directed by Sam Peckinpah, where he starred as the ambitious younger brother of Steve McQueen’s aging rodeo rider. Then, in Don Siegel’s Charley Varrick (1973), he turned heads as Molly, a mob enforcer who chillingly stalks Walter Matthau’s character. 

But Baker’s lead role in Walking Tall (1973) catapulted him to the status of an icon. As Sheriff Buford Pusser, a Tennessee lawman who takes justice into his own hands, Baker’s performance showed his famous intensity, solidifying his place as a symbol of Southern grit. 

Beyond his mainstream hits, Baker also dabbled in cult cinema, with performances that helped define some of the most memorable genre films of the '80s. In Wacko (1982), he embraced the absurdity of horror parody, playing Officer Dick Harbinger, a cop frantically trying to warn a disbelieving town about the return of the notorious Lawnmower Killer. His comedic timing and deadpan delivery added a layer of charm to Greydon Clark’s gory spoof, long before horror parodies became mainstream.

He followed that with Joysticks (1983), a wild comedy in which Baker played the uptight antagonist bent on shutting down a local arcade. The film has the iconic early '80s teen energy, pitting Baker’s hard-nosed persona against a cast of misfits fighting to preserve their second home and over the establishment's right to operate. 

In Mutant (1984), he returned to the horror genre as a small-town sheriff caught in a toxic nightmare. When a wave of disappearances reveals a community infected by a bloodthirsty mutation, Baker grounds the film with a sense of urgency and conviction that keeps the outlandish premise anchored in real tension.

And in Final Justice (1985), Baker’s grit stole the show yet again as Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo, a relentless lawman sent to escort a mafioso to trial in Italy. When the plane is sabotaged and the fugitive escapes in Malta, Geronimo pursues him across international borders. 

Across decades of work, Joe Don Baker remained a dynamic and versatile actor, equally at home in major studio dramas and offbeat cult favorites. His work reflects a career built on passion and presence, and we are proud to preserve and share many of those titles with new audiences! 

Rest in peace to a legend. 

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