Joe Don Baker, the leading man turned character actor who broke out playing Sheriff Buford Pusser in the 1973 movie “Walking Tall,” has died, his family announced online.

The Texas-born tough guy died May 7 at age 89. No cause of death was given. Baker lived in Southern California when he died.

 

“Joe Don was a beacon of kindness and generosity. … Throughout his life, Joe Don touched many lives with his warmth and compassion, leaving an indelible mark on everyone fortunate enough to know him,” his family said.
Born on Feb. 12, 1936, in Groesbeck, Texas, Baker played football and basketball well enough to earn a sports scholarship to North Texas State College — now University of North Texas — where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1958 and pledged to the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

Baker went into the U.S. Army for two years and then emerged in New York, where he studied at the Actors Studio and performed onstage. His acting career took off in the mid-1960s when he moved to Los Angeles, where he started with TV roles in shows like “The High Chaparral” and “Mission: Impossible” before taking the spotlight as a leading man in movies like “Walking Tall” and “Final Justice.”