Walter Baldwin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter S. Baldwin Jr. (January 2, 1889 − January 27, 1977) was a prolific character actor whose career spanned five decades and 150 film and television roles, and numerous stage performances.

Baldwin was born in Lima, Ohio from a theatrical family and served in the First World War.

He was probably best known for playing the father of the handicapped sailor in The Best Years of Our Lives. He was the first actor to portray "Floyd the Barber" on The Andy Griffith Show.

Prior to his first film roles in 1939, Baldwin had appeared in more than a dozen Broadway plays. He played Whit in the first Broadway production of Of Mice and Men, and also appeared in the original Grand Hotel in a small role, as well as serving as the production's stage manager. He originated the role of Bensinger, the prissy Chicago Tribune reporter, in the Broadway production of The Front Page.

In the 1960s he had small acting roles in television shows such as Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. He continued to act in motion pictures, and one of his last roles was in Rosemary's Baby.

Baldwin was known for playing solid middle class burghers, although sometimes he gave portrayals of eccentric characters. He played a customer seeking a prostitute in The Lost Weekend and the rebellious prison trusty Orvy in Cry of the City. Walter Baldwin was featured in a lot of John Deere Day Movies from 1949-59 where he played the farmer Tom Gordon. In this series of Deere Day movies over a decade he helped to introduce many new pieces of John Deere farm equipment year-by-year. In each yearly movie he would be shown on his in A Tom Gordon Family Film where he would be buying new John Deere farm equipment or a new green and yellow tractor.A picture of Walter Baldwin playing Tom Gordon can be found on page 108 of Bob Pripp's book John Deere Yesterday & Today

Hal Erickson writes in Allmovie: "With a pinched Midwestern countenance that enabled him to portray taciturn farmers, obsequious grocery store clerks and the occasional sniveling coward, Baldwin was a familiar (if often unbilled) presence in Hollywood films for three decades."

Rosemary's Baby

7.8

The Best Years of Our Lives

7.8

The Lost Weekend

7.6

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

7.1

The Desperate Hours

7.0

Christmas in Connecticut

7.0

The Andy Griffith Show

7.6

The Harder They Fall

7.1

Cheyenne Autumn

6.7

They Died with Their Boots On

6.6

Dragonwyck

6.6

Thieves' Highway

7.3

Gunsmoke

6.6

All That Money Can Buy

7.0

Cheaper by the Dozen

6.3

Cry of the City

6.8

Lassie

6.1

Green Acres

7.3

The Fastest Gun Alive

6.8

The Fugitive

7.2

The Unsuspected

6.7

Mannix

6.7

The Long, Long Trailer

6.8

In This Our Life

6.8

For Me and My Gal

6.4

The Man from Colorado

6.8

Return of the Bad Men

6.3

Storm Warning

6.6

Framed

6.4

Carrie

6.4

Petticoat Junction

5.8

The Racket

6.3

Destry

6.1

The Devil Commands

6.2

Wild in the Country

6.4

Living It Up

6.4

Rachel and the Stranger

6.2

Murder, He Says

6.6

Angels Over Broadway

5.9

Arizona

6.2

Wagon Train

6.3

Come to the Stable

6.4

Wilson

5.5

Albuquerque

6.8

The Jackpot

6.9

Mourning Becomes Electra

6.3

Stranger on Horseback

5.4

The Mark of the Whistler

5.9

Sister Kenny

6.5

Ride, Vaquero!

5.9

A Stranger in Town

6.5

The Secret of Dr. Kildare

5.6

Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man

4.8

Interrupted Melody

5.5

Dark Mountain

5.3

Nanny and the Professor

6.0

Lawman

5.4

Cafe Hostess

5.5

Young Widow

4.8

The Missing Juror

6.0

The Bride Wore Boots

5.9

You Can't Run Away from It

4.7

My Mother the Car

3.6

Winter Meeting

6.5

Miss Polly

5.0

The Winning Team

5.5

After Midnight with Boston Blackie

5.7

I Want You

5.2

Scandal at Scourie

6.7

Why Girls Leave Home

5.0

Bring on the Girls

6.1

The Kansan

5.2

I'm from Arkansas

5.4

Calamity Jane and Sam Bass

5.7

Lancer

4.7

Syncopation

6.8

Scared Stiff

4.5

Casey Jones

5.5

Those High Grey Walls

6.2

Happy Land

6.2

Oklahoma Territory

6.7

Powder Town

3.7

The Ghost That Walks Alone

4.0

General Electric Theater

6.0

The Millionaire

5.0

The Dakotas

5.7

Screen Director's Playhouse

6.5

Look Who's Laughing

5.5

The Incredible Stranger

6.5

The Remarkable Andrew

8.2

Glory

5.0

Hazard

8.0

The Man Who Returned to Life

6.0

The Gay Amigo

6.5

Faces in the Fog

3.0

Frontier

5.0

Scattergood Rides High

0.0

Peaceful Relations

0.0

Special Agent

0.0

Rough Riders of Durango

0.0

Trail to Vengeance

0.0

Rhythm Round-Up

0.0

Eyes Aloft

0.0

Reconnaissance Pilot

0.0

Reckless Age

0.0