James Bond star Joe Don Baker dies aged 89
The star, who featured in three 007 films and appeared alongside Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan in the blockbusters, passed away on May 7.
Baker first appeared in Bond in the 1987 movie 'The Living Daylights' as he portrayed the crazed arms dealer antagonist Brad Whitaker.
He returned to the iconic spy series in 1995's 'GoldenEye' as a good guy, playing the CIA agent Jack Wade before reprising the role in 'Tomorrow Never Dies' in 1997.
A statement from the actor's family read: "His intellectual curiosity made him a voracious reader, inspiring a great love of nature and animals, particularly cats.
"Throughout his life, Joe Don touched many lives with his warmth and compassion, leaving an indelible mark on everyone fortunate enough to know him."
It added: "As we say goodbye to Joe Don, we hold onto the memories and the love he shared with us.
"Though he may no longer be with us in body, his spirit will always remain, a guiding light in the lives he touched.
"Rest in peace, Joe Don. You will be dearly missed but never forgotten."
Before coming to prominence in the Bond films, Baker enjoyed his breakthrough role as Sheriff Buford Presser in the acclaimed 1973 vigilante action movie 'Walking Tall' and felt that the flick – which told the story of a real-life lawman who stopped crime in his Tennessee town - captured the US public's imagination at the time.
He said during the 1990s: "In those days in the early '70s, I think a lot of people wanted to take a stick to (Richard) Nixon and all those Watergate guys.
"(The film) touched a vigilante nerve in everybody who would like to do in the bad guys but don't have the power and would get in trouble if (they) did. But Buford was able to pull it off."
He also featured in the 1985 BBC programme 'Edge of Darkness', earning a BAFTA nomination.
Other credits during nearly 50 years on screen include Chevy Chase's comedy 'Fletch', Martin Scorsese's 'thriller Cape Fear' and Tim Burton's sci-fi movie 'Mars Attacks'.
Baker never had any children but was married to Maria Dolores Rivero-Torres from 1969 to 1980.
He is survived by relatives in his home city of Groesbeck in Texas.
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Yes, kids, back in 1995, pay-TV had only just started in Australia and most of us were stuck with only five channels to watch. Pride and Prejudice premiered on ABC TV on Sunday, March 3, 1996, in the hotly contested 7.30pm timeslot against 60 Minutes (following Burke's Backyard!) on Nine, Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement on Seven and US drama Party of Five on Ten. "Surprisingly erotic" is how we described the lavish costume drama back then, noting the bust-enhancing necklines of the ladies' frocks and Firth's splendid smouldering as Darcy, the aloof but handsomely wealthy romantic hero. Here's how we previewed Pride and Prejudice 30 years ago: Popping the question has rarely been as eloquent as it is in the BBC's exquisite new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. When novelist Jane Austen's well-bred, handsomely rich and most agreeably good-looking romantic hero, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, asks for the hand of outspoken country girl Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the restrained passion of the inscrutable dasher burns brightly on the screen. READ MORE: Says Darcy after exchanging one too many smouldering glances with Miss Bennet: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you ... I beg you most fervently to relieve my suffering and consent to be my wife". Darcy puts his elegant proposition at the end of the third episode of the ravishing six-part drama as he reaches the half-way point on his rocky road to wedded bliss with the gorgeous Lizzie. Set to premiere on the ABC on Sunday, March 3, at 7.30pm and released last month on ABC Video*, Pride and Prejudice went to air in Britain late last year and had critics raving and set the hearts of male and female viewers racing. While some academies and purists from the Jane Austen Society labelled the show a "romantic counterfeit" of the book, which was first published in 1813, an average audience of 10 million Britons watched the TV version of the elaborate love story unfold over six weeks. More than 100,000 fans couldn't even wait for the episodes to roll around and raced out to buy the video*. Austen's novel has been given some narrative surgery (including a new-look happy ending) in the move to TV but the compelling refinement of the story and characters, the exchanges of verbal wit and the moral remain gloriously intact. 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Firth reportedly squired the delectable Ehle during the shooting of the $12 million series and production insiders fed the British press juicy stories of "bruised lips and sexual tension" during the couple's more intimate scenes together. There is certainly a seductive chemistry evident between the pair as the pent-up affections of their characters evolve into sensuality. Pride and Prejudice sexy? You bet. Thriller writer P.D. James once described Austen's work as "Mills and Boon written by a genius". The TV critic for The Guardian observed of Darcy's suppressed lust as portrayed by Firth: "He (Darcy) stares at Elizabeth like a ravenous mastiff that has been put on its honour not to touch that sausage". Andrew Davies, the ace screenwriter who adapted Middlemarch, House of Cards and To Play the King before turning his talent to Austen's classic, described the sexual attraction between Darcy and Lizzie as "the engine that drives the plot". Indeed, producer Sue Birtwistle originally sold the idea to Davies as a story about money and sex. "It's what those wonderful old films used to be about, all smouldering glances across the room," she said. "It's sexy the first time they touch hands when they dance. Those kinds of moments are exciting and much sexier than thrashing around in bed." British underwear retailers certainly recognised the power of the series' restrained sex appeal. The bosom-enhancing cut of the Bennet sisters' frocks inspired one company to offer customers the chance to recreate "Jane Austen's classic look" with a bustier designed to give the wearer "an authentic Pride and Prejudice cleavage". Where to watch it now: Pride and Prejudice (1995) is available now to stream in Australia on Stan, BritBox and Apple TV. It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone in possession of the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD* will never want for a melting moment. Jane Austen's stately story of strong-willed young Lizzie Bennet and her elegant dance of love with the aristocratic Mr Darcy was beautifully told over six compelling hours by the BBC. It's been 10 years since we first saw Firth's uptight Darcy swap bittersweet misunderstandings with Jennifer Ehle's forthright Miss Bennet. That intensely romantic series - TV's fifth adaptation of the Austen novel - remains the costume drama against which all other literary adaptations and period pieces are measured. This lively new Pride & Prejudice is the first feature film of the book since 1940, when Laurence Olivier matched wits with Greer Garson. It's a handsome, charming and warmly amusing comedy of manners particularly notable for its big-name supporting players and director Joe Wright's willingness to forgo pretty bonnets and sitting rooms for muddy hems and outdoor settings. But the Firth version is a hard act to follow. 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Colin Firth (seen recently on the ABC in the British movie A Month in the Country) stars as Mr Darcy, Austen's tall, dark, handsome but mysteriously aloof leading man. Firth is fabulous as the character that set the standard for other famous romantic heroes like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. In Darcy's tight white trousers and brooding demeanour, Firth attained virtual pin-up status during Pride and Prejudice's run on the BBC and is bound to turn female heads Down Under. Jennifer Ehle (who played Calypso in The Camomile Lawn) is Firth's perfect match as Lizzie Bennet, Austen's bright and witty heroine, the second of the five Bennet sisters, whose embarrassingly vulgar mother (played by Alison Steadman) has made it her mission in life to "secure" rich husbands for her variously accomplished daughters. Firth reportedly squired the delectable Ehle during the shooting of the $12 million series and production insiders fed the British press juicy stories of "bruised lips and sexual tension" during the couple's more intimate scenes together. There is certainly a seductive chemistry evident between the pair as the pent-up affections of their characters evolve into sensuality. Pride and Prejudice sexy? You bet. Thriller writer P.D. James once described Austen's work as "Mills and Boon written by a genius". The TV critic for The Guardian observed of Darcy's suppressed lust as portrayed by Firth: "He (Darcy) stares at Elizabeth like a ravenous mastiff that has been put on its honour not to touch that sausage". Andrew Davies, the ace screenwriter who adapted Middlemarch, House of Cards and To Play the King before turning his talent to Austen's classic, described the sexual attraction between Darcy and Lizzie as "the engine that drives the plot". 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Jane Austen's stately story of strong-willed young Lizzie Bennet and her elegant dance of love with the aristocratic Mr Darcy was beautifully told over six compelling hours by the BBC. It's been 10 years since we first saw Firth's uptight Darcy swap bittersweet misunderstandings with Jennifer Ehle's forthright Miss Bennet. That intensely romantic series - TV's fifth adaptation of the Austen novel - remains the costume drama against which all other literary adaptations and period pieces are measured. This lively new Pride & Prejudice is the first feature film of the book since 1940, when Laurence Olivier matched wits with Greer Garson. It's a handsome, charming and warmly amusing comedy of manners particularly notable for its big-name supporting players and director Joe Wright's willingness to forgo pretty bonnets and sitting rooms for muddy hems and outdoor settings. But the Firth version is a hard act to follow. Keira Knightley (from Bend it Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean and King Arthur) pouts ever-so delicately as Lizzie, second and most sensible of the five Bennet sisters, whose insufferable, embarrassing mother (Brenda Blethyn) has made it her life's mission to marry them off. Spirited Lizzie resolves to follow her heart, never suspecting that it will lead her to Mr Darcy, a very rich and very handsome man who makes a very poor first impression. Knightley looks engagingly unglamorous as our heroine and Matthew MacFadyen (from TV spy show Spooks) is her telegenic match. But his aloof aristocrat Darcy comes on way too strong as an arrogant sourpuss and proves no competition (in wet shirt or dry) for Firth, though to be fair Firth had much more time on the telly to work his charms. More important, the chemistry between the leads lacks the exquisite tingle required to make us swoon when Wright rings down one of his stunning backdrops (their confrontation in a downpour, their reconciliation on a misty meadow in the golden glow of dawn). Making up for that somewhat are lovely performances by Blethyn as the cringefully improper Mrs Bennet, Donald Sutherland as her long-suffering but quietly rational husband, and Judi Dench as Mr Darcy's imperious aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Sutherland's Mr Bennet is probably the film's most engaging character, especially in the pivotal sequence in which he is touched by his favourite daughter's sense and sensibility. It's just a shame we're not as moved as he is. Where to watch it now: Pride & Prejudice (2005) is screening in selected cinemas and available now to stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel and Apple TV. Like the nerves of his wife are to Pride and Prejudice's Mr Bennet, we have high respect for these screen versions of Jane Austen. We talk, of course, of the BBC's 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and the 2005 Keira Knightley movie version of the great novelist's most popular book. To misquote Mr Bennet, these adaptations are our old friends and we have heard them mentioned with consideration these past 30 years at least. Yes, this year marks three decades since Firth's Mr Darcy steamed up TV screens in his clinging wet shirt, thrusting Austen's novels back into popular culture. And it's 20 years since director Joe Wright's big-screen Pride & Prejudice - with its noteworthy ampersand in the title - gave us Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy and that meme-worthy "hand flex" moment of emotional intensity. Both screen treatments continue to give ardent Austen fans the vapours and both, fittingly, are marking milestones in the 250th year since the great novelist herself was born. Which is all the excuse you need to revisit them - which I heartily recommend after my own recent weekend binge. With the Pride & Prejudice movie getting a cinema re-release to mark its 20th anniversary, a new Netflix screen version currently in the works and an Audible audiobook production featuring the likes of Bill Nighy and Glenn Close dropping worldwide on September 9, let's look back at which screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice wore it best: Darcy's wet shirt of 1995 or Darcy's hand flex of 2005? The Firth series premiered on UK TV screens on September 25, 1995. The Brits had already swooned for dashing Mr Darcy and lively Lizzie Bennett (played by Jenifer Ehle) by the time Australians got to see the ravishing rendition an absurd six months later. Yes, kids, back in 1995, pay-TV had only just started in Australia and most of us were stuck with only five channels to watch. Pride and Prejudice premiered on ABC TV on Sunday, March 3, 1996, in the hotly contested 7.30pm timeslot against 60 Minutes (following Burke's Backyard!) on Nine, Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement on Seven and US drama Party of Five on Ten. "Surprisingly erotic" is how we described the lavish costume drama back then, noting the bust-enhancing necklines of the ladies' frocks and Firth's splendid smouldering as Darcy, the aloof but handsomely wealthy romantic hero. Here's how we previewed Pride and Prejudice 30 years ago: Popping the question has rarely been as eloquent as it is in the BBC's exquisite new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. When novelist Jane Austen's well-bred, handsomely rich and most agreeably good-looking romantic hero, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, asks for the hand of outspoken country girl Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the restrained passion of the inscrutable dasher burns brightly on the screen. READ MORE: Says Darcy after exchanging one too many smouldering glances with Miss Bennet: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you ... I beg you most fervently to relieve my suffering and consent to be my wife". Darcy puts his elegant proposition at the end of the third episode of the ravishing six-part drama as he reaches the half-way point on his rocky road to wedded bliss with the gorgeous Lizzie. Set to premiere on the ABC on Sunday, March 3, at 7.30pm and released last month on ABC Video*, Pride and Prejudice went to air in Britain late last year and had critics raving and set the hearts of male and female viewers racing. While some academies and purists from the Jane Austen Society labelled the show a "romantic counterfeit" of the book, which was first published in 1813, an average audience of 10 million Britons watched the TV version of the elaborate love story unfold over six weeks. More than 100,000 fans couldn't even wait for the episodes to roll around and raced out to buy the video*. Austen's novel has been given some narrative surgery (including a new-look happy ending) in the move to TV but the compelling refinement of the story and characters, the exchanges of verbal wit and the moral remain gloriously intact. Colin Firth (seen recently on the ABC in the British movie A Month in the Country) stars as Mr Darcy, Austen's tall, dark, handsome but mysteriously aloof leading man. Firth is fabulous as the character that set the standard for other famous romantic heroes like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. In Darcy's tight white trousers and brooding demeanour, Firth attained virtual pin-up status during Pride and Prejudice's run on the BBC and is bound to turn female heads Down Under. Jennifer Ehle (who played Calypso in The Camomile Lawn) is Firth's perfect match as Lizzie Bennet, Austen's bright and witty heroine, the second of the five Bennet sisters, whose embarrassingly vulgar mother (played by Alison Steadman) has made it her mission in life to "secure" rich husbands for her variously accomplished daughters. Firth reportedly squired the delectable Ehle during the shooting of the $12 million series and production insiders fed the British press juicy stories of "bruised lips and sexual tension" during the couple's more intimate scenes together. There is certainly a seductive chemistry evident between the pair as the pent-up affections of their characters evolve into sensuality. Pride and Prejudice sexy? You bet. Thriller writer P.D. James once described Austen's work as "Mills and Boon written by a genius". The TV critic for The Guardian observed of Darcy's suppressed lust as portrayed by Firth: "He (Darcy) stares at Elizabeth like a ravenous mastiff that has been put on its honour not to touch that sausage". Andrew Davies, the ace screenwriter who adapted Middlemarch, House of Cards and To Play the King before turning his talent to Austen's classic, described the sexual attraction between Darcy and Lizzie as "the engine that drives the plot". Indeed, producer Sue Birtwistle originally sold the idea to Davies as a story about money and sex. "It's what those wonderful old films used to be about, all smouldering glances across the room," she said. "It's sexy the first time they touch hands when they dance. Those kinds of moments are exciting and much sexier than thrashing around in bed." British underwear retailers certainly recognised the power of the series' restrained sex appeal. The bosom-enhancing cut of the Bennet sisters' frocks inspired one company to offer customers the chance to recreate "Jane Austen's classic look" with a bustier designed to give the wearer "an authentic Pride and Prejudice cleavage". Where to watch it now: Pride and Prejudice (1995) is available now to stream in Australia on Stan, BritBox and Apple TV. It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone in possession of the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD* will never want for a melting moment. Jane Austen's stately story of strong-willed young Lizzie Bennet and her elegant dance of love with the aristocratic Mr Darcy was beautifully told over six compelling hours by the BBC. It's been 10 years since we first saw Firth's uptight Darcy swap bittersweet misunderstandings with Jennifer Ehle's forthright Miss Bennet. That intensely romantic series - TV's fifth adaptation of the Austen novel - remains the costume drama against which all other literary adaptations and period pieces are measured. This lively new Pride & Prejudice is the first feature film of the book since 1940, when Laurence Olivier matched wits with Greer Garson. It's a handsome, charming and warmly amusing comedy of manners particularly notable for its big-name supporting players and director Joe Wright's willingness to forgo pretty bonnets and sitting rooms for muddy hems and outdoor settings. But the Firth version is a hard act to follow. Keira Knightley (from Bend it Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean and King Arthur) pouts ever-so delicately as Lizzie, second and most sensible of the five Bennet sisters, whose insufferable, embarrassing mother (Brenda Blethyn) has made it her life's mission to marry them off. Spirited Lizzie resolves to follow her heart, never suspecting that it will lead her to Mr Darcy, a very rich and very handsome man who makes a very poor first impression. Knightley looks engagingly unglamorous as our heroine and Matthew MacFadyen (from TV spy show Spooks) is her telegenic match. But his aloof aristocrat Darcy comes on way too strong as an arrogant sourpuss and proves no competition (in wet shirt or dry) for Firth, though to be fair Firth had much more time on the telly to work his charms. More important, the chemistry between the leads lacks the exquisite tingle required to make us swoon when Wright rings down one of his stunning backdrops (their confrontation in a downpour, their reconciliation on a misty meadow in the golden glow of dawn). Making up for that somewhat are lovely performances by Blethyn as the cringefully improper Mrs Bennet, Donald Sutherland as her long-suffering but quietly rational husband, and Judi Dench as Mr Darcy's imperious aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Sutherland's Mr Bennet is probably the film's most engaging character, especially in the pivotal sequence in which he is touched by his favourite daughter's sense and sensibility. It's just a shame we're not as moved as he is. Where to watch it now: Pride & Prejudice (2005) is screening in selected cinemas and available now to stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel and Apple TV.
