MANILA, Philippines ? Carroll Baker was a beautiful blonde actress in the ?60s. She looked like a nymphet, for which reason director Elia Kazan cast her in ?Baby Doll,? where, as the 16-year-old bride of Karl Malden, she smoldered so effectively that she merited a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Thereafter, she acted in a string of big-budget films, including George Stevens? ?Giant,? where she appeared opposite Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean.

Serious actress

Actually, this blooming sexpot was trained at the Actors? Studio, so she was a serious actress who was trying to make it commercially. She was cast in big-budget features like ?Cheyenne,? ?The Big Country? and ?How The West Was Won.? She must have hired the wrong talent scout because, no matter how epic those films were, they didn?t take full advantage of her talent.

In the mid-?60s, she was cast in ?Sylvia and Harlow,? which was quickly shot to compete with another Jean Harlow biopic that exploited her sex appeal and the late screen star?s tragedy. It was a case of overkill, and the public didn?t go for it.

Besides, pretty as Baker was, she was not in the physical mold of Marilyn Monroe, Mamie Van Doren or Jayne Mansfield. She didn?t look like a sex symbol, because the public found her androgynous.

Eventually, she went to Europe to make films in Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom. She also appeared in Mexican features. In time, she gained weight, as evidenced by her appearance in ?Kindergarten Cop,? with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Interestingly, some 20 years later, Sharon Stone also came to Hollywood. Like Baker, Stone was talented and beautiful, and she similarly wanted to capitalize on her blonde bombshell appeal. She was not in the Monroe or Doren mold, either, but she nevertheless wanted to become a sex symbol, courtesy of her controversial appearance in ?Basic Instinct.?

But, the public didn?t buy it, either. She eventually ended up as a villain in ?Catwoman,? where she played second fiddle to Halle Berry.