Bob Baker

Bob Baker (born Stanley Leland Weed; November 8, 1910 – August 29, 1975) was an American singer who had several starring roles as a singing cowboy in the late 1930s, in Hollywood films.

Early years

The son of Guy Weed and Ethel Leland Weed, Unlike most movie cowboys, Baker really worked as a cowboy in his youth, and was a rodeo champion when he was sixteen.

Early career Baker began singing professionally at the age of twenty, for the KTSM radio station in El Paso, Texas. In Chicago he spent several months with WLS. As a professional rodeo roper and rider, he competed in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Pendleton, Oregon, and Salinas, California, among other sites.

Film career

Baker won a Universal Studios screen test in 1937 in competition against Leonard Slye (Roy Rogers), and became the studio's lead singing cowboy. Known as "Tumbleweed" Baker, However, he did not have the star quality of a performer like Gene Autry.

In the 1940s, Baker's work in films was limited to performing stunts in films that included Gung Ho (1943), Phantom Lady, (1944), and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944).

Later years

After leaving the movie industry Baker served again in the army in World War II. He then became a member of the police force of Flagstaff, Arizona. He later ran a dude ranch and became an expert in leather crafts.

Death Baker had a series of heart attacks toward the end of his life and died of a stroke on August 29, 1975.

Films