Joe Don Baker, who rose to fame in the ’70s starring in Westerns like Junior Bonner and Walking Tall, has died. The actor’s family announced today that Baker passed away on May 7, describing him as a “beacon of kindness and generosity” whose “intellectual curiosity made him a voracious reader, inspiring a great love of nature and animals.” Though Junior Bonner was his breakout, Baker’s career reached new heights when he starred in three separate Bond movies. After appearing as villain Brad Whitaker opposite Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights (1987), Baker returned to the franchise—this time as a good guy—when Pierce Brosnan took on the mantle, portraying CIA Agent Jack Wade in GoldenEye (1995) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Born in 1936 in Groesbeck, Texas, Baker started his career performing on Broadway with New York’s Actor’s Studio and in bit parts in ’60s Westerns like films Cool Hand Luke and Guns of the Magnificent Seven and series Bonanza and Gunsmoke. He continued to play grizzled Southern characters and corrupt former cops in Westerns and crime dramas throughout the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, including Wild Rovers, The Outfit, Charley Varrick, and Cape Fear.
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