Joe Baker

A comedian, voice artist and character actor, Joe Baker was English and worked in British variety and television before moving to the United States. Born in London to music hall entertainer parents, he appeared on stage as a teenager with little success, then met Jack Douglas during National Service and formed a comic partnership with him, performing in pantomimes and summer season shows and on the television series Crackerjack! and New Look. Going solo, he played London nightclubs, took the lead in The Joe Baker Show and in Joe Baker's Half Dozen, and became known for impressions of American stars. From the mid-1970s he worked in America, where he was a regular on The Steve Allen Comedy Hour, appeared in Fantasy Island and Highway to Heaven, and supplied voices for The Robonic Stooges and Disney's Pocahontas. His films included Waxwork (1988) and Dumb and Dumber (1994). He died in 2001.