Leonard Joel Baker (January 17, 1945 – April 12, 1982) was an American actor of stage, film, and television, best known for his Golden-Globe-nominated performance in the 1976 Paul Mazursky film Next Stop, Greenwich Village and his 1977 Tony Award-winning performance in the stage play I Love My Wife.

"[2] Coming out of college, Baker claimed to have offers to do theatre in New York, which he turned down out of fear of being reduced to "a spear carrier.

"[8]In September 1966, he made his acting debut, playing Tom Stark in All the King's Men, at ATL.

[8] He followed with three plays by Israel Horovitz at the Manhattan Theatre Club, a performance in The Year Boston Won the Pennant at Lincoln Center, as well as roles in Summertree and The Real Inspector Hound.

[8] In 1974, Baker went to Paris, where he performed two Israel Horovitz one-act plays: Hop Scotch and Spared.

In 1976, he performed with the Phoenix Company in Secret Service, Boy Meets Girl, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Beyond Broadway, Baker performed in other regional theater productions in Chicago, St. Louis, and his native Boston.

[2] He called his time at the O'Neill Theatre his "best training," stating that watching the deaf taught him to be "so brazen with the comic use of his body.

[4]Baker appeared in a number of television shows, such as Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files, and Taxi.

He was knob-kneed and was described as a "long, lean and lanky, stringbean of a chap with the most formidable nose in entertainment since Jimmy Durante.

[5] Later in his career, he expressed wanting to become a playwright and forming a repertory company with Paul Mazursky and Leonard Nimoy.

[14] Ehrenstein's 2003 LA Weekly essay includes a quote from actor Anthony Holland that indicates that Baker lived in Los Angeles in 1980.

[15] There is no reliable source to confirm that his illness was HIV-related, and HIV is not mentioned anywhere in Baker's death certificate.

His performance in Next Stop, Greenwich Village was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture" category.