{"id":9900,"date":"2025-05-18T05:43:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T00:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pni.net.pk\/us\/?p=9900"},"modified":"2025-05-18T22:43:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T17:43:01","slug":"texas-born-actor-joe-don-baker-who-wielded-a-big-stick-in-walking-tall-dies-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pni.net.pk\/us\/texas-born-actor-joe-don-baker-who-wielded-a-big-stick-in-walking-tall-dies-at-89\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas-born actor Joe Don Baker, who wielded a big stick in \u2018Walking Tall,\u2019 dies at 89"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Don Baker, the leading man turned character actor who broke out playing Sheriff Buford Pusser in the 1973 movie \u201cWalking Tall,\u201d has died, his family announced online.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\u201cJoe Don was a beacon of kindness and generosity. \u2026 Throughout his life, Joe Don touched many lives with his warmth and compassion, leaving an indelible mark on everyone fortunate enough to know him,\u201d his family said.
\nBorn on Feb. 12, 1936, in Groesbeck, Texas, Baker played football and basketball well enough to earn a sports scholarship to North Texas State College \u2014 now University of North Texas \u2014 where he earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration in 1958 and pledged to the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cThe High Chaparral\u201d and \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d before taking the spotlight as a leading man in movies like \u201cWalking Tall\u201d and \u201cFinal Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Joe Don Baker, the leading man turned character actor who broke out playing Sheriff Buford Pusser in the 1973 movie \u201cWalking Tall,\u201d 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.   \u201cJoe Don […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-memorial"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas-born actor Joe Don Baker, who wielded a big stick in \u2018Walking Tall,\u2019 dies at 89<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Joe Don Baker, the leading man turned character actor who broke out playing Sheriff Buford Pusser in the 1973 movie \u201cWalking Tall,\u201d has died, his family\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pni.net.pk\/us\/texas-born-actor-joe-don-baker-who-wielded-a-big-stick-in-walking-tall-dies-at-89\/\" 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