His mother later married Tom Denny, a butcher. His parents divorced while he was still young. Simon Baker was born to a high school English teacher, Elizabeth Labberton, and a groundskeeper/mechanic, Barry Baker, on 30 July 1969, in Launceston, Tasmania. In his film acting career, he is best known for the lead role of Riley Denbo in Land of the Dead and Christian Thompson in the film adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, based on the 2003 novel of the same name.
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In his television acting career, he is best known for his lead role in the CBS television series The Mentalist as Patrick Jane and as Nicholas Fallin in The Guardian. Who Do You Think You Are? returns to SBS on Tuesday 21 June at 7.Simon Baker (born 30 July 1969, height 5' 9¾" (1,77 m)) is an Australian actor and director. Sometimes, it’s hard for privileged people to get their head around that the vast majority of people have times of struggle.” Sometimes, with privilege, you can get to a place where you assume everyone is in a place where they have a choice. “But at the same time, my life has provided me with enough money to be financially stable. “I understood my father’s side of the family, because I grew up in a blue collar environment,” he says. But back then, if you’re going to go to the goldfields, the only way to get there is to walk.”Įach side of his family tree experienced both wealth and poverty, and their stories illustrate exactly how money can shape destiny. What people did in the past, like walking to Ballarat, can seem outrageous to us now. The luxuries that we now enjoy shape our perspective. All of the harshness of the circumstances were relative to the time. How would have Baker fared, in the circumstances of his ancestors? “I would have gone OK. I still constantly think about the ancestor who walked to Ballarat.” “All these ancestors have these stories, and some of them are so remarkable and powerful.
“Doing the show really does shine a light on your own insignificance,” Baker says. And his paternal grandmother, a particularly resilient woman who overcame poverty and raised her children alone after the second world war. There are the ancestors who walked for weeks from the Adelaide Hills to just outside Ballarat, in search of gold with their six children in tow. There’s the three times great-grandfather, an orphan with a connection to Oscar Wilde who eventually opened Melbourne’s first eye and ear hospital (now the Royal Victoria). Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningīaker delves into both sides of his family tree and each branch yields amazing stories. When I watched certain episodes of Who Do You Think You Are?, I felt a connection to that person – and with that, you don’t feel as alone.”
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The initial desire when I was young was about connecting with people, the idea of seeing someone in a story on a screen that you could identify with, and it could help you understand feelings inside you that you didn’t necessarily know how to articulate. “I’m pretty shy … But there is a kind of psychological reason in why I became an actor. Revealing the story of his parents was “challenging”, he says. “But the truth is, families have many different forms and I think if you can look at your own past and the past of your ancestors with compassion, you can carry that forward with you with a little bit more wisdom.” Photograph: SBSīefore he went on Who Do You Think You Are?, Baker “looked back at my immediate family as this sort of mess,” he says.
But the truth is, families have many different forms’ … Baker and his mother, Elizabeth. ‘I looked back at my immediate family as this sort of mess. It was a phenomenal childhood in that regard – but the personal family life was difficult.” “I felt a really strong sense of belonging in that place and still do. “It was a small community and back then it was an idyllic place to live,” Baker says.
I’ve struggled with that.”Ī reunion would take place when Baker was 18 years old, but in the meantime, the family moved to the northern NSW beach community of Lennox Head, where Baker became an avid surfer. Baker had contact with his father, but as he reveals on the show, “I didn’t know he was my dad. In the show he summarises the family’s brief time there: “They went on this incredible adventure – and they didn’t come back together.” “And soon after, my parents moved to the highlands of New Guinea, with two kids, to a remote area,” he says. She was just 19 when Baker was born, the second of the Bakers’ two children. His father, Barry Baker, was a mechanic and school caretaker, and his mother, Elizabeth, was a high school English teacher. The trailer for the 13th season of Who Do You Think You Are?īaker was born in Launceston in 1969.
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