Nickname:	Stan
Known for:	Zulu, The Guns of Navarone, Accident
Birth name:	William Stanley Baker
Birthday:	8 February 1927, Ferndale, Rhondda Valley, Wales, UK
Height:	5' 10" 1.78 m

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Free Image Hosting - Upload your favorite celebrity pictures. Awarded a knighthood in Harold Wilson's resignation Honour's List in June 1976. At the time his knighthood was announced, Baker thought he had beaten his lung cancer following surgery in February of that year. However, although the tumour in his lung had been removed, it had spread into his chest and attached itself to his heart. Since no further surgery was possible, he had only a maximum of nine weeks to live anyway. Three weeks after the announcement of his knighthood, Baker was hospitalized in Spain with pneumonia. As he had died without making the journey to be formally knighted at Buckingham Palace, he cannot be referred to as Sir Stanley, but Queen Elizabeth II agreed that his widow Ellen Martin could use the title "Lady Baker". He was warned not to address a CND rally prior to the release of Zulu (1964), in case his left-wing political activism hurt the film's performance in the United States. In November 2006 a Lounge dedicated to his life and work was opened by his widow, Lady Ellen Baker and his sons at Ferndale Rugby club in the village of his birth. At the time of his death he had been planning to play a rapist in a film, with his Zulu (1964) co-star Michael Caine playing a detective. His wife Ellen and Richard Burton believed Baker's performance in "How Green Was My Valley" (1975) was so good because he was playing his own father. He formed Diamond Films for the making of Zulu (1964). And later Oakhurst Productions. With the success of The Criminal (1960), Baker all but displaced his polar opposite Dirk Bogarde to become Britain's most popular star. However, Zulu (1964) was his last huge success. His career was damaged by the commercial failure of Sands of the Kalahari (1965) and Robbery (1967), although the latter received favourable reviews. His father lost a leg in an accident in the mine and was thereafter unemployed until the Second World War took men away into the services. His elder brother Freddie, a miner, died of pneumoconiosis early in 1976 after many years of debilitation and sickness. He had intended to produce Zulu Dawn (1979). He was a close friend of his Violent Playground (1958) co-star Gordon Jackson, who attended his memorial service in Ferndale. Although born in Wales, Baker spent most of his formative years in England since his parents moved to London in the mid-1930s.

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