When he was 14 he was performing in a school play when seen by a casting director from Ealing Studios, who recommended him for a role in Undercover (1943), a war film about the Yugoslav guerrillas in Serbia.

He had small roles in All Over the Town (1949), Obsession (1949), Your Witness (1950), Lilli Marlene (1950), Something in the City (1950), The Rossiter Case (1951), Cloudburst (1951), Home to Danger (1951) and Whispering Smith Hits London (1952).

[11] He had a small role in a British-US co-production for Warwick Films, The Red Beret (1953), with Alan Ladd, another big hit in Britain.

Baker got another break when George Sanders fell ill and was unable to play Sir Mordred in the expensive epic Knights of the Round Table (1953), made by MGM in Britain.

[12] He had his biggest role in a purely British film with The Good Die Young (1954), directed by Lewis Gilbert, playing a boxer who commits a robbery.

Baker was cast in Twist of Fate (1954) opposite Ginger Rogers, replacing Walter Rilla, who quit the production ten days into filming.

He had a support role as a psychotic corporal in A Hill in Korea (1956), a Korean War film that also featured early performances from Michael Caine, Stephen Boyd and Robert Shaw.

Baker finally broke away from supporting parts when cast as the lead in Hell Drivers (1957), a truck driving drama directed by Endfield.

Before it was released he played another villain role for Box and Thomas, Campbell's Kingdom (1957), opposite Dirk Bogarde, shot in Italy (substituting for Canada).

[15] Hell Drivers was a minor hit, and at the end of the year exhibitors voted Baker the seventh most popular British star at the British box office for 1957 (after Bogarde, Kenneth More, Peter Finch, John Gregson, Norman Wisdom and John Mills, and before Ian Carmichael, Jack Hawkins and Belinda Lee).

In the words of David Thomson: Until the early 1960s, Baker was the only male lead in the British cinema who managed to suggest contempt, aggression and the working class.

He is the first hint of proletarian male vigour against the grain of Leslie Howard, James Mason, Stewart Granger, John Mills, Dirk Bogarde and the theatrical knights.

[17]Baker was a detective in Violent Playground (1958), a drama about juvenile delinquency from the director-producer team Basil Dearden and Michael Relph.

[18] Baker had the lead in Yesterday's Enemy (1959), a World War II drama set in Burma for Hammer Films, directed by Val Guest.

[21] He played the relatively small role of "Butcher Brown", a war-weary commando, in the Hollywood blockbuster war epic The Guns of Navarone (1961) shot in Greece.

Baker's widow later claimed that he was originally offered the role of James Bond, but turned it down not wanting to commit to a long-term contract.

While making Sodom and Gomorrah Baker struck up a relationship with that film's producer, Joseph E. Levine which enabled him to raise the $3 million budget for Zulu (1964), directed by Endfield, shot partly on location in South Africa.

[34] In the 1970s, Baker announced a number of projects as producer, including an adaptation of George MacDonald Fraser's novel Flashman, to be directed by Richard Lester, and Summer Fires with Peter Hall.

[38] Baker, Deeley, and Spikings were also part of a consortium that bought British Lion Films and Shepperton Studios, selling Alembic House to finance it.

Baker was forced to keep acting to pay the bills, often accepting roles in poor films which adversely affected his status as a star.

Doing staggeringly-bad stuff like Popsy Pop, which was an Italian–Venezuelan co-production and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin [both 1971] – a movie which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

"'[44]According to Michael Deeley, the financiers of British Lion Films were reluctant for Baker to be involved in the management of the company because they felt his focus was more on his acting career.

Towards the end of his life Baker pulled back on his business activities and worked mostly as an actor, taking roles in television including two of the BBC's Play of the Month series: The Changeling and Robinson Crusoe (both 1974),[46] plus Who Killed Lamb?

He made a series of films in Spain: Zorro (1975), starring Alain Delon, where Baker played the main villain; Bride to Be (1975), with Sarah Miles.

Baker's final British performance was in a BBC Wales adaptation of How Green Was My Valley (1975), broadcast shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer.

Glyn appeared in The Wild Geese (1978), opposite Richard Burton, and in Return of the Jedi (1983), as Lieutenant Endicott, the imperial officer who said, "Inform the commander that Lord Vader's shuttle has arrived.

[49] Baker was a socialist and an acquaintance of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and recorded television broadcasts in support of the Labour Party.

[47] On 27 May 1976, a month before his death, it was announced that he had been awarded a knighthood in the 1976 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours,[50] although he did not live to be invested in person at Buckingham Palace.

The afternoon also featured a BBC Radio Wales tribute to Stanley Baker, hosted by Owen Money and recorded live in Ferndale RFC itself.

The Sir Stanley Baker Lounge features many pictures and memorabilia from his successful career, including a wall plaque commemorating the official opening in both English and Welsh.