Fay Baker

Fay Baker
File:Fay Baker Portrait.jpg
Born	Fay Schwager (1917-01-31)January 31, 1917 New York City, U.S.
Died	Sleepy Hollow, New York, U.S.
Years active	1938–1963
Spouse(s)	Arthur Weiss (1940–1965; divorced); 2 children

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.

Career

Fay Schwager's career began in New York with roles on Broadway in the early 1940s. 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 since he was paying her salary, she should be standing by at all times. She claimed she had had a larger role in the film but that much of her work ended up on the cutting room floor.

Baker remained in Hollywood for nearly two decades, acting in two dozen films with star billing in The House on Telegraph Hill (1950). She had one of the leading roles in the 1950 crime drama Double Deal, and later played one of publisher 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".

Personal life

Baker married writer/producer Arthur Weiss on August 3, 1940, in New York City. They had two children, her son Jonathan 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, Fay 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. She used the pen name "Beth Holmes" to shield her family from being compared with fictional characters in the novel.

Fay was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1972 and described the experience humorously in her first published 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
Dr. Kildare	Mrs. Tucker	A Very Infectious Disease	1963
Hazel	Madeleine Van Dyke	Number, Please?	1962
The Roaring 20's	Carlotta La Salle	No Exit	1961
This Is the Life		The Sin of Silence	1961
The Ann Sothern Show	Miss Norton	Pandora	1961
	Louise	The Roman Hatter	1960
	Mildred Holliday	Five Year Itch	1959
77 Sunset Strip	Caroline Kinares	Strange Bedfellows	1961
The Donna Reed Show	Hope	Donna Goes to a Reunion	1960
Maggie	Annie Bradley	Unsold Pilot	1960
The David Niven Show	Sarah Winter	The Promise	1959
Have Gun - Will Travel	Mrs. Grayson	Lady on the Stagecoach	1959
Perry Mason	Stephanie Sabin	The Case of the Perjured Parrot	1958
	Marian Newburn	The Case of the Demure Defendant	1958
M Squad	Helen Greville	Day of Terror	1958
The Court of Last Resort	Mrs. Laura Barclay	The Stephen Lowell Case	1958
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer	Margaret Green	Letter Edged in Blackmail	1958
San Francisco Beat	Elsie Folger	The Jealous Mambo Dancer Case	1958
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp	Marie Burden	Bad Woman	1957
The Adventures of Jim Bowie	Charlotte De Vaux	A Fortune for Madame	1957
The Ford Television Theatre	Laura Van Cleve	Singapore	1957
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Sylvia	The Girl in the Grass	1957
State Trooper	Judith Andrews	Weep No More O'Grady	1957
Four Star Playhouse	Nadine	The Case of Emily Carmeron	1956
	Claire Dumont	Man in the Cellar	1954
Damon Runyon Theatre	Adele Salisbury	Old Em's Kentucky Home	1955
The Loretta Young Show	Pat Wadlington	Let Columbus Discover You	1955
The Millionaire	Margaret Browning	The Margaret Browning Story	1955
Rebound		Quiet Sunday	1953
Sky King	Lucille Bradley	Wings of Justice	1952
Cavalcade of America		A Romance to Remember	1952
The Doctor		The Hiding Place	1952
Dangerous Assignment	Countess Todesca	The Knitting Needle Story	1952
Fireside Theatre		Dinner for Three	1950
Your Show Time		The Necklace	1949

Filmography

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

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

External links

• Fay Baker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Fay Baker at the Internet Movie Database