Fay Baker

Fay Baker (born Fay Schwager; January 31, 1917 – December 8, 1987) was an American stage, film and television actress, and a successful author under the pen name Beth Holmes. Her novel, The Whipping Boy, made the Los Angeles Times bestseller list in 1978. She also published, under her own name, My Darling, Darling Doctors.

Fay Baker
Born	Fay Schwager (1917-01-31)January 31, 1917 New York City, U.S.
Died	December 8, 1987(1987-12-08) (aged 70) Sleepy Hollow, New York, U.S.
Other names	Beth Holmes
Years active	1938–1965
Spouse(s)	Arthur Weiss ​ ( m. 1940; div. 1965)
Children	2

Early years

Baker's father was a surgeon, and her mother was a pharmacist. She attended Smith College.[1]

Career

Roles on radio soap operas provided Baker's early professional acting experience.[1] Her Broadway career began in 1938 with a role in Danton's Death. Her final Broadway role was in Wonderful Journey (1946).[2] She changed her name to Baker (from her mother's family) in 1944 in Another Love Story at New York's Fulton Theatre. She was "discovered" by Alfred Hitchcock in 1946 and given the role of Ethel in Notorious. While the part was minor, she told her daughter that Hitchcock made her stay on the set for the entire film shoot. The director felt that she should be standing by at all times because he was paying her salary. She claimed she had a larger role in the film but that much of her work had been cut from the final film.[3]

Baker remained in Hollywood for nearly two decades, acting in two dozen films, including star billing in The House on Telegraph Hill (1950).[4] She had one of the leading roles in the 1950 crime drama Double Deal, and later played one of Ethel Barrymore's two daughters trying to seize control of and sell editor Humphrey Bogart's newspaper in the 1952 drama Deadline - U.S.A..

During her California years, she also appeared frequently on television. She is credited with guest parts on 30 different series beginning with Your Show Time in 1949 up to her final performance on Dr. Kildare in 1963. Her roles included comedy sitcoms (Hazel, The Donna Reed Show), drama (Perry Mason), and westerns (Have Gun - Will Travel). In 1958, she made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, playing Marian Newburn in "The Case of the Demure Defendant" and Stephanie Sabin in "The Case of the Perjured Parrot".

Prior to 1963, Baker began writing when a problem with her back prevented her from acting. She began work on a book and sold some nonfiction pieces to magazines, in addition to receiving $50,000 from a producer for one of her stories.[5]

Personal life

Baker married writer/producer Arthur Weiss[5] on August 3, 1940 in New York City. They had two children, her son Jonathan's being born in 1950, before divorcing in 1965. While Weiss remained in California working for Irwin Allen, she returned to New York City with her two children and began a new career as an author.

After her son Jonathan died from a drug overdose in 1971, Baker dedicated herself to the topic of how parents enable bad behavior in children. This inspired her most successful novel, The Whipping Boy (1978), which focused on the "emotional abuse" of children.[3] She used the pen name "Beth Holmes" to shield her family from being compared with fictional characters in the novel.

Baker was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1972 and described the experience humorously in her book My Darling, Darling Doctors in 1975. She lost her 15-year battle with breast cancer on December 8, 1987 at age 70.

TV appearances

TV
TV Show	Role	Episode	Year
Your Show Time		The Necklace	1949
Fireside Theatre		Dinner for Three	1950
Dangerous Assignment	Countess Todesca	The Knitting Needle Story	1952
The Doctor		The Hiding Place	1952
Cavalcade of America		A Romance to Remember	1952
Sky King	Lucille Bradley	Wings of Justice	1952
Rebound		Quiet Sunday	1953
The Millionaire	Margaret Browning	The Margaret Browning Story	1955
The Loretta Young Show	Pat Wadlington	Let Columbus Discover You	1955
Damon Runyon Theatre	Adele Salisbury	Old Em's Kentucky Home	1955
Four Star Playhouse	Claire Dumont	Man in the Cellar	1954
	Nadine	The Case of Emily Carmeron	1956
State Trooper	Judith Andrews	Weep No More O'Grady	1957
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Sylvia	The Girl in the Grass	1957
The Ford Television Theatre	Laura Van Cleve	Singapore	1957
The Adventures of Jim Bowie	Charlotte De Vaux	A Fortune for Madame	1957
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp	Marie Burden	Bad Woman	1957
San Francisco Beat	Elsie Folger	The Jealous Mambo Dancer Case	1958
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer	Margaret Green	Letter Edged in Blackmail	1958
The Court of Last Resort	Mrs. Laura Barclay	The Stephen Lowell Case	1958
M Squad	Helen Greville	Day of Terror	1958
Perry Mason	Marian Newburn	The Case of the Demure Defendant	1958
	Stephanie Sabin	The Case of the Perjured Parrot	1958
Have Gun - Will Travel	Mrs. Grayson	Lady on the Stagecoach	1959
The David Niven Show	Sarah Winter	The Promise	1959
Maggie	Annie Bradley	Unsold Pilot	1960
The Donna Reed Show	Hope	Donna Goes to a Reunion	1960
77 Sunset Strip	Caroline Kinares	Strange Bedfellows	1961
The Ann Sothern Show	Mildred Holliday	Five Year Itch	1959
	Louise	The Roman Hatter	1960
	Miss Norton	Pandora	1961
This Is the Life		The Sin of Silence	1961
The Roaring 20's	Carlotta La Salle	No Exit	1961
Hazel	Madeleine Van Dyke	Number, Please?	1962
Dr. Kildare	Mrs. Tucker	A Very Infectious Disease	1963

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1946	Notorious	Ethel
1948	Trapped by Boston Blackie	Margie O'Reilly, alias Sandra Doray	IMDb
	The Gentleman from Nowhere	Catherine Ashton
	The Saxon Charm	Mrs. Noble	Uncredited
	No Minor Vices	Mrs. Felton	Uncredited
	Family Honeymoon	Fran Wilson	Uncredited
1949	Manhattan Angel	Vi Langdon	IMDb
	Black Midnight	Martha Baxter	IMDb
	Tell It to the Judge	Valerie Hobson
1950	Chain Lightning	Mrs. Willis
	Father of the Bride	Miss Bellamy (Stanley's secretary)	Uncredited
	Double Deal	Lilly Sebastian
1951	The Company She Keeps	Tilly Thompson
	The House on Telegraph Hill	Margaret
	Reunion in Reno	Miss Pearson	IMDb
1952	Deadline - U.S.A.	Alice Garrison Courtney
	The Star	Faith, Margaret's sister
1953	The Blue Gardenia	Switchboard Monitor	Uncredited
	Invaders from Mars	Mrs. Wilson	Uncredited
1954	Phffft!	Radio Actress as 'Nurse Serena'	Uncredited
1955	I Died a Thousand Times	Woman in Tropico Lobby	Uncredited
1956	Don't Knock the Rock	Arlene MacLaine
1957	She Devil	Evelyn Kendall	IMDb
	Sorority Girl	Mrs. Tanner
1965	The Slender Thread	Telephone Supervisor	Uncredited, (final film role)

Playlist

Plays
Year	Play	Role	Notes
1946	Wonderful Journey	Julia Farnsworth	Dec 25, 1946 - Jan 1, 1947
1944	Violet	Crystal	Oct 24, 1944 - Nov 11, 1944
1943	Another Love Story	Celia Hale	Oct 12, 1943 - Jan 8, 1944
1942	The Sun Field	Mildred Deagon	Dec 9, 1942 - Dec 12, 1942
1942	Journey to Jerusalem	The Greek Woman	Oct 5, 1940 - Oct 19, 1940
	The Taming of the Shrew	Bianca	Feb 5, 1940 - Feb 10, 1940
1938	Danton's Death	Voice in the Street	Nov 2, 1938 - Nov 1938

References

1. "Sinister Governess Role Boosts Fay Baker Stock". Independent Press-Telegram. California, Long Beach. April 1, 1951. p. 10. Retrieved September 30, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
2. "Fay Baker". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on September 30, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
3. Baker's personal life
4. Allmovie.com profile
5. "Hollywood Script Teasers". The Los Angeles Times. California, Los Angeles. November 10, 1963. p. 533. Retrieved September 30, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

• Fay Baker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Fay Baker on IMDb