Baggot appeared in over 300 motion pictures from 1909 to 1947; wrote 18 screenplays; and directed 45 movies from 1912 to 1928, including The Lie (1912), Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1925) and The House of Scandal (1928).

[3] In 1894, King left St. Louis and went to Chicago, where he worked as a clerk for his uncle, Edward Baggot (1839–1903), whose business sold plumbing, gas and electric fixtures.

In the meantime, he sold tickets for the St. Louis Browns baseball team and worked as a clerk in the real estate business of his father.

Other plays in which he appeared include the comedy revival Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, which had a run on Broadway in 1906, Salomy Jane and In the Bishop's Carriage.

While acting in stock in St. Louis, in the summer of 1909, Baggot worked with Marguerite Clark in Peter Pan and The Golden Garter.

When the season closed, he was cast as supporting player with Marguerite Clark in the Schubert touring production of The Wishing Ring, which was adapted by Owen Davis from a Dorothea Deakin story.

At a time when screen actors worked anonymously, Baggot and Lawrence became the first "movie stars" to be given billing, a marquee, and promotion in advertising.

Pickford was hired to replace Lawrence after she and Solter broke their contracts, including the one-reel romance/drama Sweet Memories, which was directed by Thomas H. Ince.

By 1912, he was so famous that when he took the leading part in forming the prestigious Screen Club in New York, the first organization of its kind strictly for movie people, he was the natural choice for its first president.

[7] He starred in the role as Harrison Grant in the 20-part spy thriller The Eagle's Eye (1918) opposite Marguerite Snow, an adaptation of former FBI Director William J. Flynn's experiences that was produced by Leopold and Theodore Wharton,[8] and as Sheldon Steele (The Hawk) in the crime drama The Hawk's Trail (1919) opposite Grace Darmond.

He turned to playing character roles, bit parts and even jobs as an extra,[13] and appeared in scores of movies in that capacity through the 1930s and 1940s, including Mississippi (1935).

In 1933, Baggot and former leading lady Florence Lawrence, Paul Panzer and another former great star of the silent era, Francis Ford, were given bit parts in what would be former co-star Mary Pickford's last movie, Secrets.

In her Los Angeles Times gossip column on March 1, 1946, Hedda Hopper wrote, "King Baggot, who used to be one of our top directors, is working as an extra in The Show-Off.

[14] While living at the Aberdeen Hotel in Venice, California, Baggot made his final movie appearance in the uncredited part of a bank employee in the comedy My Brother Talks to Horses (1947) starring Butch Jenkins and Peter Lawford.