Her father was a traveling salesman. She attended community college for a year, then worked as a dancer and magician's assistant. After a brief marriage she had a small part in Easy to Love, did TV commercials and had a bit part on Broadway. She studied at Actors Studio and was married to director Jack Garfein (one daughter, Blanche Baker). Warner Brothers, sensing a future Marilyn Monroe, cast her in Giant, Baby Doll - Oscar nomination for her thumb-sucking role - The Carpetbaggers, and the title role in Harlow. Moving to Italy, she made films there, Spain, Germany, Mexico and England. After returning to American films, she married Donald Burton in 1982.



L'harem (1967): $60,000 + 50% of U.S. gross
Harlow (1965/I) (1967): $200,000

Mother of Blanche Baker and Herschel Garfein. Her trouble with Warner Bros. continued when she declined to act in a series of movies based on books by pulp writer Erskine Caldwell. This led to her losing out on outside offers to do The Three Faces of Eve (1957) for 20th Century-Fox, and both Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and The Brothers Karamazov (1958) for MGM. While in Hollywood to test for Giant (1956), director Nicholas Ray met with her on James Dean's suggestion to discuss playing the Natalie Wood role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Baker's new husband Jack Garfein insisted that she return to New York once the test was shot, and negotiations were broken off. Measurements: 35B-24-35 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine). To raise money for her tuition at the Actors Studio, she became a nightclub dancer.