Actor. His professional career spanned ten years, from 1969 until 1979 and is best remembered for his performance in the 1977 musical “I Love My Wife,” that won him a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. Born Leonard Joel Baker, he graduated in 1962 from Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts and attended Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, where he received his Bachelor’s Degree. While in college, he spent several summers at the O’Neill Center’s National Playwrights Conference in Waterford, Connecticut and continued to devote himself to the production of new plays there after graduating from college. Moving to New York City, New York in 1969, he appeared in several Off-Broadway plays for the Joseph Papp Public Theater, Mitzi Newhouse Theater, Fortune Theater, Players Theater, and the New York Shakespeare Festival, including, “Conerico Was Here To Stay” (1969), “Summertime” (1969), “Paradise Gardens East” (1969), “The Year Boston Won The Pennant” (1969), “Barbary Shore” (1973), “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” (1974), “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (1974), “Henry V” (1976), and “Measure For Measure” (1976). In 1974 he made his Broadway debut in “The Freedom of the City,” and performed in repertory in “Secret Service” and “Boy Meets Girl,” and with the Joseph Papp New York Shakespeare Festival in “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Henry V,” and “Measure for Measure.” His film appearances include “The Hospital” (1971), “A.W.O.L.” (1972), “The Paper Chase” (1973), “Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood’ (1973), and the lead role as ‘Larry Lapinsky’ in “Next Stop, Greenwich Village” (1976, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award). His television credits include “Pueblo” (1973 television movie) along with appearances in episodes of “Kojak” (1974), “Starsky and Hutch” (1979), “The Rockford Files” (1979), and “Taxi” (1979). He died from cancer at the age of 37. (bio by: William Bjornstad)