Eddie Baker

Gangly, 6'1" screen comic Eddie Baker acted in his father's stock company before obtaining a position as a prop boy with the old Biograph Company in 1913. He went in front of the camera for the first time not as a Keystone Kop, as is often reported, but in Joker comedies starring comedian Gale Henry. Baker later worked for Hal Roach, often as a sheriff (Laurel & Hardy's Bacon Grabbers from 1929, in which he sends the boys off to serve a summons on dour Edgar Kennedy is a good example) or police detective. Offscreen, Baker became the first secretary/treasurer of the Screen Actors Guild. He continued to play minor bits in talkies through the mid-'60s, often playing a motorcycle cop, a reporter, or billed simply as "man."