Army Veteran and 'Walking Tall' Actor Joe Don Baker Dies at 89

When was the last time you stood up and applauded a movie? That's the question the trailer for the vigilante film "Walking Tall" asked American audiences in 1973. The movie was a smash hit for Cinerama and made its lead actor, Joe Don Baker, an equally instant hit.

Baker had been a mainstay supporting actor in film and television westerns, like "Bonanza" and "Guns of the Magnificent Seven." After "Walking Tall," he would star alongside the likes of Robert Redford, Robert Duvall and, much later in his more than 40-year onscreen career, Matthew McConaughey.

Baker, a former Texas football player who served two years in the U.S. Army before making his television debut, died on May 7, 2025, in Los Angeles, according to a family announcement. He was 89 years old.

He was born in Groesbeck, Texas, less than an hour's drive from Waco, on Feb. 12, 1936. An only child, Baker's father managed a gas station to pay the bills. His mother died when he was 12 years old, and he was raised by his aunt, Anna Thompson. As a teenager, he worked long hours at a local ice plant, moving blocks that weighed more than 300 pounds, according to friends.

At school, Baker played football and worked as a stagehand for drama productions. Sometimes, he was an extra, but he was never the star of the show. After high school, Baker went to North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas), where he tried out for his first acting role, for a play the college was putting on.

"I went up just acting like I was coming there to see my friend," Baker told Geeks. "And then they said, 'Anybody else want to try out?' and I raised my hand, and that was the biggest moment of my career I suppose: when I realized I wanted to be an actor."

He graduated from college with a business degree in 1958, but served two years in the Army before joining adult civilian life. He served those two years in Washington, D.C., and spent his free time taking acting classes. After leaving the Army, he went to New York. At the time, the city was filled with future leading men, including Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall.

Like many of his contemporaries who would become onscreen stars, Baker started out on Broadway, premiering in a 1963 production of "Marathon '33" and then "Blues for Mister Charlie" the following year.

Baker made the jump to television screen in a 1965 episode of the detective series "Honey West" and officially into movies in 1967's "Guns of the Magnificent Seven." He caught the eyes of movie producers as the younger brother of an aging rodeo star played by Steve McQueen in Sam Peckinpah's 1972 film "Junior Bonner," but it was his role telling the story of the real-life Sheriff Buford Pusser in 1973's "Walking Tall" that made him a household name.

Pusser was the sheriff of Adamsville, Tennessee, a small town not far from the Mississippi state line. A former professional wrestler who tried to join the Marine Corps (he was discharged for asthma), Pusser waged a one-man war against the State Line Mob's gambling, prostitution and bootlegging rings during the 1960s. Pusser was an adviser on the set of "Walking Tall." The final cut, along with Baker's portrayal of Pusser, led the former sheriff to declare the film "80% real."

Audiences loved it, even if critics were mixed. The film's release was backward by today's standards: It was released in rural areas first, but the reaction it received led to distribution in major markets. It would draw in $40 million on a budget of $500,000. Baker's time as a leading man, however, was short-lived, but he made an incredible career as a character actor, playing hero and villain alike. He would be nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for his role in the 1985 BBC miniseries "Edge of Darkness."

Baker played a corrupt cop opposite star Chevy Chase in 1985's "Fletch" and stood in for the legendary Carroll O'Connor on the award-winning series "In the Heat of the Night." He also appeared in two different roles in the James Bond franchise, "The Living Daylights" and "GoldenEye." His career includes "The Natural," "Cape Fear," "Reality Bites," "Joe Dirt," "Mars Attacks!" and his final film role in 2012's "Mud."

"God speed my friend," wrote Carl Pusser, nephew of Sheriff Buford Pusser, on Baker's legacy page. "Remember the times in [Tennessee] when you were filming Walking Tall. I know Uncle Buford was proud."

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