FILMOGRAPHY

2006] Shamrock Boy
2005] The Devil Wears Prada
2006] Something New
2005] Land of the Dead
2005] The Ring 2
2004] Book Of Love
2001] The Affair of the Necklace
2001-04] "The Guardian"
2000] Red Planet
2000] Sunset Strip
1999] Secret Men's Business (TV)
1999] Ride with the Devil
1998] Love From Ground Zero
1998] Judas Kiss
1998] Restaurant
1997] Most Wanted
1997] L.A. Confidential
1996] The Last Best Place (TV)
1995-95] "Heartbreak High"
1995] "Naked"
1994] "Home and Away"
1989] "E Street"

LINKS

SimonSphere
Estatic About Simon Baker
Simon Baker Yahoo Group
IMDB

Born 30 July 1969 Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

Married to actress Rebecca Riggs since 1998.

Simons's mother Elizabeth was a teacher and his father Barry was a school caretaker. They split when Baker was two and Elizabeth married a butcher named Tom Denny; they have since divorced.

Simon's older sister Terri became a doctor and he has three younger half siblings.

As a teen Simon competed on a state level in surfing and water polo.

At 17 he studied nursing in Sydney. After he quit nursing Simon worked in a pub, as a bricklayer, a waiter and a poolboy/bellboy at Sanctuary Cove in Queensland.

Born as Simon Baker, he has used the name Simon Denny (the name of his step-father) & then Simon Baker-Denny when he learned Denny was not his bio-logical father. When his mother later divorced & Simon had children he used his birth name once again.

Simon drifted into acting with appearances in music videos, he danced in Melissa Tkautzs music video Read My Lips. Before becoming a soap star opposite his then girlfriend & now wife, actress Rebecca Riggs, in the Australian serial "E Street"

In 1992 he received a Logie award (Australia's version of the Emmy's) for Most Popular New Talent.

In 1995 Simon, his partner Rebecca & their daughter Stella headed for L.A. Soon after, Baker landed a string of movie roles, starting with a part in LA Confidential. He then returned to Sydney in 1999 to work on the telemovie Secret Men's Business.

Simon on maintaining an American accent:
"It's a bit tricky. You have to keep on top of the accent. Sometimes you can slip back. What happens is you develop quite a good ear for yourself. I can hear when it's flat. But it's not easy. It's not necessarily a technical problem, it's trying to act at the same time, to make it be truthful and honest and come from deep within you, and come out of your mouth in a different way."

Simon on changing his name:
“There was nothing Hollywood about me changing my name. It was about wanting to find out where you fit in the world and where you come from. A lot of that became more potent for me when I was about to become a father myself. So that was the beginning of the saga and it took me to 30 to change back to Baker. It was really a process of letting go a lot of emotional baggage and guilt and all that sort of stuff and realising I am of my own self who I am. So it was going full circle. Who you are and the moments that you have just before you go to sleep-if you're at peace in those moments, then nothing else matters.”

Simon on his character in The Gaurdian:
"I like the fact that he's imperfect, which is like everyone. Everyone's a bit imperfect in his own way. He's imperfect in an interesting way. He means well and wants to be a good person, I just think he's overcoming a lot of his own baggage. That's what drew me to it. It didn't seem usual. It seemed like a throwback to a period where we used to have leading characters that weren't genetically, spiritually perfect. Remember those days? Leading men were regular guys, someone you could identify with. Steve McQueen was a regular guy. Charles Bronson was a regular guy. Clint Eastwood's a regular guy."

The Gaurdian executive producer David Hollander on Australian actors:
"There's a quality that I think film loves about a certain breed of Australian actors. They embody what used to be the American Western appeal that I think the American film and television market still loves, which is independence, a relationship to the outdoors, a comfort in their masculinity. We have changed American stars into more psychological, more urban beings. The Australian actors that are hitting us over here feel wild to us and unpredictable."

Simon on his upbringing:
“I didn’t grow up with money, but I grew up with a lot of space. All I did was surf. I was committed to the ocean. That’s one thing about Australians – we have the capacity to embrace life.”

Simon on his wife actress Rebecca Rigg:
“I have a certain element of self destruction, self-loathing and the fact that I have a family and a wife has given me a sense of responsibility and a purpose and I owe a lot of where I am to that. My wife has always been a real rock for me.”

Simon on choosing to do Book Of Love (Nights in Phnom Penh):
"I read a lot of scripts during the year in the hope of being able to work on something during the hiatus, just to have something else to do creatively other than being that little prick, Nick Fallin. I'm drawn to stuff that is not necessarily commercial. I figure I work on commercial television, I don't need to do a big cheesy, commercial movie."

Simon on his career:
"Every time I'd do a film, I'd come back and have to hit the pavement again and audition for other films. I didn't get the Hugh Jackman ride, or the Heath Ledger ride: one movie and click. In America, it has so much to do with money. If you're involved in a film that makes a lot of money, suddenly you're a star. But you never know how a film's going to turn out when you're making it. You always hope for the best. People don't set out to make shitty movies. You do the best you can and you hope."

Simon on missing Australia:
"I miss meat pies – they don't have them in LA. Actually, all I think about the whole time I'm in America is what I'm missing out on in Australia"

Simon on the aussie way:
"I love the stoic nature. Growing up in Australia, I saw so many of those people. You watch a football game in Australia and someone scores a try under the post and you don't see too much self-congratulatory behaviour. It's sort of, well, OK, put your head down, try not to smile. You're playing pool and you sink the black after sinking seven balls, and the other guy hasn't sunk a ball yet, and you put the black down with a tremendous shot, you don't go 'Yeah!' and Tom Cruise-ify it. That, to me, is interesting. I think Russell Crowe played a South Sydney footballer in Gladiator. You know that shot where he runs on to the field? He was a bloody footballer going out for the Grand Final. For me, it was fantastic. I loved to see that. It's so Australian. I mean, c'mon, high-fives and all that crap? It's not our way."

Simon on his on-set attitude:
"You tend to collaborate more (on Australian sets). It was something that I was blessed with, growing up as an actor working in Australia. We tend to discuss and share ideas. I also find that in Australia, when actors collaborate, they're not trying to do it for their own benefit, which is often a big flaw with American actors: the vanity gets in the way of what they're actually there for. I'm very direct at work, I'm very honest and I'm very much about increasing the quality of the product, of strengthening the story, making it more interesting. It's not ever about me. I don't need to do that on the show: I am The Guardian. I actually want other people to have more screen time so that I can have a break sometimes."

Simon on taking a compliment:
“From my early TV days here I always had this sense of being second-rate. That what I was doing wasn’t much good. That it was inferior. To be honest, I had a chip on my shoulder. I found it difficult to accept a compliment.”

Simon on Sydney:
"As I’ve got older, I’ve started to crave the familiar, have more respect for the simplicity of the lifestyle you can have in this city, the sense of community. This is a pretty great city where you can sit in the pub and have a beer next to a guy who makes millions, while the guy on the other side is on the f---ing dole queue, you can all still have a conversation. I hope that continues. We’ve just got to get rid of Johnny Howard."

Simon on his 'overnight success':
“People always say I was an overnight success. No way! I've done nine movies – some of them were good and some of them were @#%$. When I left Australia I was unemployed. Now I’m gainfully employed and fortunate to be working on something that’s successful and of which I’m extremely proud. Truth is, I’ve worked damned hard over there for eight years.Was it an easy ride to get here? No. Was it a fairytale existence? No. It was a damned hard slog. At times, a really tough struggle. I wasn’t here on my own. I’ve always had a family to support. So in a practical sense, the greatest feeling that comes with being associated with a successful show is one of relief.”

Simon reflecting on his career:
"I've never, ever looked at this like, 'I'm on a hit TV series in America: I've made it.' I've never approached it like that. For me it's always been about the personal fulfilment in what I'm doing at the time."