Kenny Baker (entertainer)

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Kenny Baker

from the film Stage Door Canteen (1943)
Born Kenneth Laurence Baker
September 30, 1912(1912-09-30)
Monrovia, California
Died August 10, 1985 (aged 72)
Solvang, California
Occupation Film actor, singer

Kenneth Laurence "Kenny" Baker (September 30, 1912August 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 was similar to Baker's), he appeared in seventeen 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.

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