Sam Baker (actor)


Sam Baker, born Samuel D. Baker, was an American actor who usually performed with Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin.
This Indiana-born actor played the Link in the film The Missing Link, whose imposing presence combined with the era's casual racism and its attendant limitations, made him a natural for early jungle flicks. His most easily recalled role may have been Hugo in Sherman S. Krellberg's notorious serial The Lost City. His most memorable role was Queequeg in The Sea Beast.
Baker's filmography is brief, as the sound era saw him move quickly from featured roles as African chieftains to bits as black convicts. His first screen appearance was in a genre project: he was the sworder in Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad. In John Barrymore's The Sea Beast, a silent Moby Dick, he played Queequeg. In the sound remake of The Island of Lost Ships, he played himself and received the smallest mention.
He died in Abilene, Kansas, in early May 1982.