Born: 27 October, 1916, in London.
Died: 30 September, 2009, in London, aged 92.HE CREATED one iconic series for independent television in the 1960s and made others that were widely watched; he also made a star out of a littl
e-known actor called Roger Moore. Robert Baker was part of the energy and brains behind ITV's The Saint and then The Persuaders!, Gideon's Way and The Return of the Saint. The Saint, based on the novels of Leslie Charteris, fast became a cult series and was one of TV's longest-running adventure series. It sold widely abroad thanks to the glamour and pizzazz Baker brought to the series. The numerous "international" settings were all filmed at Pinewood. But the programme combined high drama, derring-do and an insouciant comedy that ensured huge viewing figures.
Robert Sidney Baker (born Sidney Baker) was brought up in Hendon, north London. He won a photographic competition and got a job as an assistant director at a film studio in 1937. He joined the Royal Artillery when war broke out two years later and rose to the rank of sergeant. He saw action in the desert during the El Alamein campaign, after which Baker transferred to the Army Film and Photographic Unit, becoming a combat cameraman and shooting scenes during the Allied landings in Sicily and Italy, and later in Belgium and Germany.
With typical bravado, during the advance through Germany, Baker found an abandoned motorcycle in July 1945 and rode it into Berlin. There he took some historic shots of himself amidst the ruins of Hitler's Reich Chancellery, gazing at a toppled swastika. The photographs are now held at the Imperial War Museum in London.
During the war he had worked with Monty Berman and they formed a partnership as film producers when they were demobbed . Their first film, A Date With a Dream, starring Terry Thomas, came out in 1948 and several minor films followed. It was not until the early 1960s that serious commercial success came their way. Baker and Berman concentrated on making films based on true events: the first, Jack the Ripper (1959), was followed by The Siege of Sidney Street (1960), with Donald Sinden, and The Hellfire Club (1961), with Peter Cushing. Cushing also starred (along with Donald Pleasance) in The Flesh and the Fiends, based on the Burke and Hare story, which captured the back streets of Edinburgh with a grizzly reality.
The adventures of Simon Templar, alias the Saint, had already been on the radio and seen in the cinema but not on television. Baker had lengthy negotiations with Charteris over the royalties, then offered the programme to Associated Rediffusion, which turned it down. Baker, so legend has it, waited at the office of Lew Grade from 7am in the morning to offer him The Saint. Grade knew a good project when he saw one and gave Baker the go-ahead within minutes. It was screened in Britain from 1962-69, shown worldwide and made both men a fortune.
With Moore's debonair good looks and suave screen manner, the programme also had cliff-hanging plots plus catchy intro music and stylish graphics. In fact, Grade had wanted Patrick McGoohan for the lead role – he had just enjoyed success in Danger Man – and Charteris lobbied strongly for David Niven. But Baker had spotted Moore in the series of Ivanhoe and considered he had the beguiling charm that was needed for Simon Templar.
The Saint was followed by Gideon's Way, another detective series – this one more family- oriented – starring John Gregson, and then Baker produced The Baron, based on the exploits of an spy working undercover as an antiques dealer.
Baker, now on his own, produced The Persuaders!, a light-hearted adventure series that teamed Moore (with whom Baker had formed a production company) and Tony Curtis as international playboys. The series found success in the UK but never caught on in the United States. Baker and Moore also made a film, Crossplot, in 1969, which was set in swinging Sixties London and centred on an assassination attempt in Hyde Park, with Moore at one point finding himself in a psychedelic disco.
In 1978 Baker made The Return of the Saint, with Ian Ogilvy taking over Moore's role. It lacked the vim and vigour of the original and, although it had a good run, it demonstrated how fashion had changed in TV drama.
Baker and Moore had a long business partnership and were great personal friends. The actor described Baker as "one of the kindest men I have ever had the privilege of working with".
Baker's wife, Alma, predeceased him; he is survived by two daughters.
