Sharon Baird

Infobox Actor
name = Sharon Baird


imagesize = 200px
caption = Sharon Baird on The Mickey Mouse Club
in 1957
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1943|08|16
location = Seattle, Washington
spouse = Lee Thomas (1964-1969)
yearsactive = 1950 - 1995

Sharon Baird (born August 16, 1943) is an American actress and dancer who is best known for having been a Mouseketeer.

Early life

Sharon Baird was born in Seattle, Washington, to Eldon Baird, an aerospace worker, and Nikki Marcus, a future talent agent. She has one younger brother, also a former child actor, named Jimmy Baird. Sharon began dance lessons at age three, and at five, won a "Little Miss Washington" contest. Her mother took her to California for the national competition and fell in love with the climate. ["Forever Hold Your Banner High", by Jerry Bowles, 1976, pg 113 ISBN 0-385-11622-5] So the family relocated to Los Angeles, where Sharon continued her dance lessons with tap great Louis da Pron among others.

Career

Sharon Baird appeared in her first film, "Bloodhounds of Broadway", in 1950. At age nine she began regular appearances on "The Colgate Comedy Hour" television show with Eddie Cantor. She did episodes of several different television shows, and an unbilled song and dance number with Dean Martin in "Artists and Models" (1955), just before being selected for the "Mickey Mouse Club".

Contrary to the impression given by Disney publicity, many kids hired for the "Mickey Mouse Club" had some prior experience in films and television. Sharon Baird was among the most experienced of these professionals, and performed with the show's "Red Team", or first-string unit, for all three seasons of original programming (1955-1958). Her specialty was tap, but she did other forms of dancing, as well as singing and acting on the show.

After filming completed in 1958, Sharon finished high school at Hollywood Professional School, then attended Los Angeles Valley College where she made the National Honor Society and was president of her class. She briefly interrupted her education in May 1959 for a short performing tour of Australia with the Mouseketeers, then graduated from college in 1963 with degrees in mathematics and secretarial science.

In 1964 Sharon Baird married singer Dalton Lee Thomas, and with a male friend of his, worked up a nightclub act called "Two Cats and a Mouse", which faded out, along with the marriage, by 1969. ["Forever Hold Your Banner High", by Jerry Bowles, 1976, pg 115 ISBN 0-385-11622-5] During the seventies she worked extensively as a live "puppet" for Sid and Marty Krofft among others, doing children's shows such as "New Zoo Revue", "H.R. Pufnstuf", and "Land of the Lost".

Sharon Baird also did rotoscoping work for Ralph Bakshi's late seventies film of "The Lord of the Rings". She was the live-action model for the part of Frodo Baggins, for which she did not receive screen credit.

In 1980, Sharon, along with the other Mouseketeers, did a television special for The Wonderful World of Disney, reprising her famous tap-dancing while jumping-rope routine. She then joined a smaller number of her colleagues in performing live shows at Disneyland on weekends for several years during the early 1980s.

Later life

In 1984, Sharon Baird did an on-stage appearance in the Gallagher: Over Your Head [http://imdb.com/title/tt0284138/] comedy show. She did a tap-dancing routine and assisted Gallagher during his famous Sledge-O-Matic routine. For the critically-panned cult film Ratboy, she played the title character under heavy makeup, being credited as S. L. Baird to hide the fact "Ratboy" was really "Ratgirl".

Though she still makes appearances with the Mouseketeers, Sharon Baird gradually ceased doing professional engagements in the 1990s. She relocated from Southern California to Reno, Nevada about the same time, where she still lives in semi-retirement.

Filmography

* "Bloodhounds of Broadway" (1950) ... as Little Elida (uncredited)
* "Artists and Models" (1955) ... as Dancer (uncredited)
* "The Lord of the Rings" (1978) ... as Frodo Baggins (uncredited)
* "Ratboy" (1986) ... as Ratboy (credited as S. L. Baird)

Television credits

* "Colgate Comedy Hour:" recurring performer (1952-1954) ....as Sharon Baird
* "Death Valley Days:" "Lotta Crabtree" (1954) ....as Actress
* "Damon Runyon Theater:" "There's No Forever" (1955) ....as Suzy
* "The Donald O'Connor Show:" 1 episode (1955) ....as Sharon Baird
* "Disneyland:" 3 episodes (1955-1957) ....as Mouseketeer Sharon
* "The Mickey Mouse Club:" series regular (1955-1958) ....as Mouseketeer Sharon
* "The Wonderful World of Disney:" "The Mouseketeer Reunion" (1980) ....as Mouseketeer Sharon
* "H.R. Pufnstuf" series regular (1969-1970) ....as Lady Boyd/Judy Frog/Stupid Bat/Shirley Pufnstuf/Toadinov
* "New Zoo Revue" series regular (1972) ....as Charlie the Owl
* "Land of the Lost" series regular (1974) ....as Sa
* "The Mickey Mouse Club Story" documentary (1995) ...as Sharon Baird

References

External links

*imdb name|0047922
* [http://www.originalmmc.com/sharon.html Sharon Baird profile]