Clint Walker

At 90 years old, Clint Walker has this physical status:

Norman Eugene "Clint" Walker (May 30, 1927 – May 21, 2018) was an American actor and singer.

In the ABC/Warner Bros', he was perhaps best known for his role as cowboy Cheyenne Bodie.

Cheyenne, a western series from 1955-63.

Early life

Clint Walker was born in Hartford, Illinois, on May 30, 1927; the son of Gladys Huldah (née Schwanda) and Paul Arnold Walker. His mother was Czech. Lucy, his twin sister, was born.

Walker left school to work in a factory and on a riverboat, and then joined the United States Merchant Marines in the last months of World War II at the age of 17.

He worked in Brownwood, Texas, Long Beach, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked as a doorman at the Sands Hotel. Walker had previously worked as a sheet metal worker and a nightclub bouncer.

Personal life and death

Walker had three marriages, one of whom lasted more than two decades. In 1948, Walker married Verna Garver. Valerie (born 1950) was the daughter of one child before the marriage came to an end in divorce in 1968. Valerie was one of the first female airline pilots to fly.

Giselle Hennessy, who died in 1994, married Walker in 1974. Susan Cavallari married Walker in 1997. He later took up residence in Grass Valley, California.

In the 1964 United States presidential race, Walker endorsed Barry Goldwater.

Walker barely survived death in a skiing crash at Mammoth Mountain, California, in May 1971. Walker was pierced by a ski pole in a fall from a ski lift. He was admitted to a hospital and pronounced dead. However, a doctor detected faint signs of life and rushed Walker to surgery, where his injured heart was repaired. Walker was back to work in a matter of two months. Walker has reported that he had a near-death experience during the accident.

Walker died of congestive heart disease in Grass Valley, California, on May 21, 2018, nine days before his 91st birthday.

Source

Career

Walker portrayed himself as a Tarzan-type character in a Bowery Boys film (Jungle Gents). Cecil B. DeMille had him posted in Los Angeles to serve in The Ten Commandments.

A friend in the film industry helped him get a few bits of information that attracted Warner Bros., which was putting together a Western style television show.

Walker's good looks and imposing physique (he was 6 foot, 6 inches tall with a 48-inch chest and a 32-inch waist) helped him land an audition where he would be the lead actor in the TV series Cheyenne.

He was portrayed as Cheyenne Bodie, a wandering cowboy hero in the post-American Civil War period, and was billed as "Clint Walker." In June 1955, his casting was announced.

Cheyenne was first featured on Warner Bros. Presents is a series of Kings Row and Casablanca's versions. Cheyenne was the breakout hit.

Although the series primarily capitalized on Walker's rugged physique by way of bare-chested scenes, it was also very well written and acted. For eight seasons, it was extremely popular. Walker's natural baritone singing voice appeared on the series on occasion, and Warner Brothers was able to produce an album of Walker doing traditional songs and ballads.

Warners also announced that Walker would appear in The Story of Sam Houston, the first installment in the series. It was not made.

"I don't think I'd like any other jobs" in April 1956, Walker said; "I don't think I'd like any other roles;" in April, "I'm still outdoors and active."

Fort Dobbs (1958), directed by Gordon Douglas, was a Warners cast member. Howard Thompson compared the actor to "the best-looking Western hero ever to sag a horse," with a pair of shoulders surpassing King Kong's.

The returns at the box office were modest. Warners attempted him in another Douglas-directed Western, Yellowstone Kelly (1959), co-starring Edd Byrnes from another Warners TV show, 77 Sunset Strip. It was a modest success.

A number of Cheyenne episodes were turned into feature films and theatrically in some markets, as well as a short clip of Walker galloping on horseback as Bodie was included in an episode of Maverick starring Jack Kelly. He appeared on an episode of the 77 Sunset Strip as a guest. In a third Western film directed by Douglas, Gold of the Seven Saints (1961), this time co-starring Roger Moore, who was also under contract with Warners.

Walker appeared in Kraft Suspense Theatre (episode "Portrait of an Unknown Man" with Robert Duvall). He appeared in the Rock Hudson–Doris Day parody, Send Me No Flowers (1964).

Frank Sinatra played him in the leading role in the war drama None but the Brave (1965), the only film Sinatra had directed. In Paraphrase's Western, The Night of the Grizzly (1966), he defeated a grizzly bear in The Lucy Show. Maya (1966), he appeared in a family adventure film shot in India.

When Walker played the meek convict Samson Posey in the war film The Dirty Dozen (1967), he had his highest film success to date.

With More Dead Than Alive (1969), Walker returned to Westerns. According to the New York Times, the actor is described as "a massive, fine-looking chap and about as live-looking as any man could be." His taciturn earnestness as an actor is lauded, but real emotion rarely comes through.

Walker appeared in two comedies, Sam Whiskey (1969) and The Great Bank Robbery (1969).

Walker was one of many characters in The Phynx (1970) and returned to television with the leads in several television pilots made for television movies on ABC Movie of the Week (1972), and The Bounty Man (1972).

In May 1971, he was seriously injured in a skiing crash on Mammoth Peak, but he recovered.

Walker was a mentor to Telly Savalas in the biopic Pancho Villa (1972) and appeared in a short-lived series called Kodiak in 1974, where he appeared as an Alaskan patrolman. Killdozer, a made-for-television cult film, starred the actor. Scream of the Wolf (1974) was also published in this year.

Walker appeared in Baker's Hawk (1976) and appeared in Snowbeast (1977) and The White Buffalo (1977). He appeared in the Canadian Deadly Harvest (1977) and appeared in Centennial and Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women (1979).

Source