Baker was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in the original production of La Bête in 1991. He made his directorial debut with the film 23 Blast in 2013.
During the short-lived 2007 series Drive, Baker played the role of John Trimble, a father with a terminal illness. In 2009, Baker played William Cross in NBC's Kings, in which his wife Becky Ann Baker played Jessie Shepherd, the mother of protagonist David Shepherd. Baker also guest starred in an episode of Monk, playing a theater critic in "Mr. Monk and the Critic". Baker guest starred in the November 2010 House episode "A Pox on Our House". Baker guest starred in the season four finale of Burn Notice as Raines, an old spy friend of Michael's. He reprised the role in the season five premiere, and also permitted his likeness to be used in the Burn Notice graphic novel "A New Day". In 2010, Baker played Hollis B. Chenery in Secretariat.
Baker performed with Helen Mirren on Broadway in The Audience, a play that depicted meetings between Queen Elizabeth II and important historical figures. Baker played former Prime Minister John Major. The play opened on March 8, 2015.[3]
Baker portrays corrupt DEA Agent Bill Peterson in the seventh season on The Mentalist.
In 2016, Baker had a memorable recurring role as deep-cover KGB agent William Crandall, a morally conflicted biological weapons expert, on Season 4 of FX series The Americans.[4]
In September 2017, it was announced that Baker would be joining the cast of the Showtime drama Homeland for the show's 7th season, as Sen. Sam Paley, a 'maverick' who is leading an excessive investigation of the administration of new President Elizabeth Keane.[5]
He starred in the 2020 series Hunters, in which his wife had a supporting role.
He received the 2002 Audie Award for Abridged Fiction for his reading of The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. He has also recorded Franzen's 2015 novel Purity.[7]
Personal life
Baker married actress Becky Gelke, now known professionally as Becky Ann Baker, in 1990. They have a daughter and reside in New York City.
On September 1, 2015, Baker tried to save the life of his neighbor, Broadway and movie actress and dancer Vivien Eng, after her apartment caught fire in the New York City high-rise where they both lived at the time. Unfortunately, he was driven back by smoke and flames. Firefighters eventually got the seriously injured woman out of the apartment and rushed her to the hospital, where she died two days later.[8]
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