Stanley Baker - Later Career

Later Career

In the 1970s Baker expanded his business interests. He was one of the founder members of Harlech Television and continued to be a director of it up until his death. With Michael Deeley and Barry Spikings, he formed Great Western Enterprises, which were involved in a number of projects in the entertainment field, notably music concerts, and bought a large building on the River Thames. They were also part of a consortium that bought British Lion Films and Shepperton Studios, selling their building in order to finance it. Baker said in 1972 that:

I love business for the activity it creates, the total commitment. The acting bit is great for the ego, (but) all the real excitement is in business... I'm still surprised how good I am at business.

However Baker was the victim of bad timing. The British film industry went into serious decline at the end of the 1960s, and a number of Oakhurst films were unsuccessful at the box office; plans to make a costume drama, Sunblack, directed by Gordon Flemyng, did not come to fruition. His expansion into music festivals was ultimately disastrous, with the Great Western Bardney Pop Festival in Lincoln ending up losing ₤200,000. The British stock market crashed at the end of 1973, throwing the over-leveraged British Lion into turmoil. Baker was forced to keep acting to pay the bills, often accepting roles in poor films which adversely affected his status as a star. His son Glynn later said that:

My dad had to accept any and everything to keep the companies afloat. Doing staggeringly-bad stuff like Popsy Pop, which was an Italian-Venezuelan co-production and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin – a movie which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. At the slowest period, Stanley still had a payroll of at least 100 in his employ. So it was, “Here we go – take the money, make this trash, hopefully no one will ever see it.” Famous last words.

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 the 1974 BBC Play of the Month The Changeling, Robinson Crusoe (1974), and also in a BBC Wales adaptation of How Green Was My Valley (1975). However he was planning on producing a sequel to Zulu, Zulu Dawn, shortly before his death.