Kenny Baker (entertainer)
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| Kenny Baker | |
 from the film Stage Door Canteen (1943) |
|
| Born | September 30, 1912 Monrovia, California |
| Died | August 10, 1985 Solvang, California |
Kenneth Laurence "Kenny" Baker (September 30, 1912 – August 10, 1985) was an American singer/actor who first gained notice as the featured singer on Jack Benny's radio shows during the 1930s.
At the height of his radio fame, and after leaving the Benny show in 1939 (succeeded by Dennis Day, whose lilting tenor compared to Baker's), he appeared in a dozen or so film musicals (At the Circus, The Harvey Girls) and later co-starred with Mary Martin in the original Broadway production of Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash's One Touch of Venus. He returned to radio as a regular performer on Fred Allen's Texaco Star Theater program of 1940-1942. Baker also recorded a number of hymn albums for his church. After retiring from performing in the early 1950s, he became a Christian Science practitioner and motivational speaker.
He died of a heart attack in Solvang, California.
