Dylan Baker

Dylan Baker

Active - 1986 - 2023  |   Born - Oct 7, 1959 in Syracuse, New York, United States  |   Genres - Drama, Crime, Comedy

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Biography by AllMovie

Born to a pair of lawyers in Syracuse, NY, and raised in nearby Lynchburg, Dylan Baker attended Georgetown Prep and William and Mary College before earning his B.F.A. at Southern Methodist University, where his passion for acting was ignited with numerous stage roles. Later refining his talents at Yale's School of Drama, Baker would turn professional with big screen roles in movies like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Delirious (1991), and Love Potion No. 9 (1992).

The mid-'90s found the increasingly busy actor dividing his time between stage, screen, and television, and Baker would soon wed actress Becky Ann Baker (the couple later appeared together in Woody Allen's Celebrity [1998]). A successful stage performance of La Bete found Baker nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards, and Baker and his wife continued to develop a close association with New York's Drama Department theater troupe. Following his remarkable performance in Happiness, Baker would appear in films such as Random Hearts, The Cell, and Thirteen Days (all 2000).

As the 2000's unfolded, Baker would remain an active force on screen, appearing in movies like The Tailor of Panama, and Along Came a Spider, and on TV shows like 24, Damages, and Hawaii Five-O.

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Factsheet

  • Was a classmate of actors Patricia Clarkson and Chris Noth at the Yale University School of Drama.
  • Won an Obie Award for his performance in the 1986 play Not About Heroes.
  • Made his big-screen debut in the 1987 comedy smash Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
  • Received an Independent Spirit Award for his role as a pedophile in Todd Solondz's controversial Happiness (1998).
  • An award-winning narrator of audio books, his work includes John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons, Michael Crichton's Next and Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography.
  • In 2012, joined the cast of Political Animals, a cable drama focusing on the lives of a former first family; he took on the role of a U.S. vice president.
  • Calls his ongoing gig as a book narrator an "actor's dream" that mixes his interests in writing and storytelling.