Simon Baker
Simon Baker is an Australian actor and director, best known for playing Patrick Jane on the CBS series The Mentalist, and Nicholas Fallin on The Guardian. Baker is also widely known as playing Anne Hathaway’s love interest, writer Christian Thompson in The Devil Wears Prada. He was one of People Magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful People in 2009.
Baker was born Simon Baker-Denny on July 30, 1969 (age: 53), in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, to Elizabeth Labberton and Barry Baker. Labberton was a drama school teacher and Baker was a school groundsman; the pair split when their son was only two years old. His mother later remarried Tom Denny, hence Baker’s hyphenated name. He has a sister, who went on to become a doctor, and three younger half-siblings. The family relocated to Ballina, a town on the northern coast of New South Wales, for better job opportunities and he would graduate from Ballina High School in 1986.
Growing up, Baker was an avid surfer and water polo player, becoming a state champion in the former. He also worked a series of odd jobs before becoming an actor, including bricklaying and minding a pub.
Baker started small, appearing in music videos for musicians Melissa Tkautz and Euphoria, before cutting his teeth on the television series E Street, Home and Away, and Heartbreak High. Baker would be nominated twice for a Logie Award for E Street, an Australian Soap Opera about inner-city life, once in 1993 for Most Popular New Talent and again in 2004 for Most Popular Overseas Star; he won the award in 2004.
Baker’s big break came in the United States when he was immediately booked to play bisexual actor Matt Reynolds in the award-winning film L.A. Confidential in 1997. While a small role, it paved the way for bigger opportunities and offered an opportunity to work with top actors, including Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce.
Baker’s next big role would not be on the big screen, but on television, playing troubled lawyer Nicholas Fallin on the CBS show The Guardian. A leading role, Baker would play Fallin from 2001 to 2004 and would be nominated for a Prism Award and Golden Globe for his performance.
Baker continued appearing in film during his television obligations, playing Mickey Rourke in The Ring Two, a sequel to the original horror classic. One of his more notable film roles among a younger audience was as suave writer Christian Thompson in the acclaimed film The Devil Wears Prada.
From 2008-2015, Baker was the lead on another CBS show, The Mentalist, playing Patrick Jane, fake physic turned California Bureau of Investigation consultant after his wife is murdered by a serial killer. Baker was nominated for a Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, Independent Screen Actor’s Guild Award and People’s Choice Award for the role.
In between The Mentalist, he also reunited up with L.A. Confidential castmate Kevin Spacey for a role in 2011’s Margin Call, a drama following employees of an investment bank during the 2008 financial crisis. In order to prep for the role, Baker confessed to uInterview that he had to learn about a world entirely foreign to him: Wall Street. “I pretty much have my head in the sand when it comes to the financial world, so I had a very steep learning curve. I still really don’t know anything about finances,” he revealed. “I did spend a bit of time with some people that had worked on Wall Street and were around during that time and I just sat and chatted with them, getting more of an understanding of the different personalities that exist in the world and how cutthroat the business is and how, in some instances, where there is chaos, certain people thrive.”
Baker has since transitioned into directing and has said in interviews that he used his time on The Mentalist as a “film school,” even directing a few episodes to prepare himself for handling the job. “We made 151 hours of TV and it’s sort of the speed dating of film production. You have to pull pieces together at high speed. You have to do the script development, you have to do casting, location scouting. You are always working with different people. I directed as many of those as I could physically, ” he told the Hollywood Reporter. His directorial debut, Breath, premiered at Cannes in 2015.
Recently, Baker starred in the 2020 Australian Western movie High Ground. He also starred in the 2022 film Blaze and in the 2023 mystery Limbo.
Known for his good looks, he has also branched out into commercial appearances, becoming the face of Givenchy’s ad campaign for the fragrance “Gentlemen Only.” He is also a Longines Ambassador of Elegance.
Baker was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on February 14, 2013. The previous year, he was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Baker married Australian actress Rebecca Rigg in 1998. They met in 1991 during a blind date at the Royal Hotel in Sydney. They share three children: Stella Breeze, Claude Blue, and Harry Friday. Both Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts are godmothers to Harry and Claude, respectively. Baker and Rigg divorced in 2020.
Baker was raised Catholic but has recently revealed that he is Agnostic.
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Watched The Mentalist via Prime and loved every episode. Only my imagination can finish the Series. I am sorry it was cancelled. My husband and I are retired and were able to watch all seasons in a couple months. Our daily cry when chores were done “Mentalist Time?”
Looking forward to seeing any future work you do!