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Joe Don Baker was, for me, the original Hey! It's That Guy! Not because he as Hollywood's first character actor (far from it, having made his debut in an uncredited role in Cool Hand Luke in 1967), nor its most interesting (that would be lawyer-turned-actor-turned-Senator Fred Thompson) nor even its most HITG!-ish (that's gotta be our man, J.T. Walsh). But Joe Don Baker is the first actor that I can remember thinking of as a Hey! It's That Guy!, even before I knew to call out, "Hey! It's that guy!" every time I saw him on the screen.

Though I can't comment on it first-hand, I have no doubt that Baker shone as Mongo Nash in 1971's TV movie Mongo's Back in Town. I personally can only vouch, however, for his long and lustrous string of roles in the late '70s and through the '80s, a time during which Joe Don Baker owned -- didn't rent, nor lease, but owned -- the part of bad-ass lawman. From "Chief Earl M. Eischied" in To Kill a Cop (1978) to "Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III" in Final Justice (1984), through "Chief Karlin" in Fletch (1985), "Sheriff Onstad" in The Abduction of Kari Swenson, and "Detective Mesel" in Criminal Law (1998), there was no one better at capturing the spirit of the laconic, possibly or obviously corrupt, definitely shit-kicking, good ol' boy cop than our man, Joe to the Don to the Baker.

Joe hasn't disappeared since; far from it, in fact. He's shown up in Reality Bites and Congo and Mars Attacks! and Tomorrow Never Dies -- usually as porcine dads or big-game hunters or CIA agents or other slow-witted authority figures -- and next, you can enjoy him in The Adventures of Joe Dirt, starring David Spade. To honour Mr. Baker's achievements, and to acknowledge his contribution to the annals of HITG! lore, we ask that, while you are watching that movie during the opening weekend, you will join us in momentarily stifling your hilarious and entirely involuntary laughter at the raucous antics of the hapless but lovable Joe Dirt, and observe a moment of silent respect for J.D.B. Thank you.