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Dennis Weaver

Dennis Weaver

Actor · 1924 – 2006 · Joplin, Missouri, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Billy Dennis Weaver (June 4, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American actor and president of the Screen Actors Guild, best known for his work in television and films from the early 1950s until just before his death in 2006. Weaver's two most famous roles were as Marshal Matt Dillon's deputy Chester Goode on the western Gunsmoke and as Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud on the police drama McCloud. He starred in the 1971 television film Duel, the first film of director Steven Spielberg. He is also remembered for his role as the twitchy motel attendant in Orson Welles's film Touch of Evil (1958). Weaver was born June 4, 1924, in Joplin, Missouri, the son of Walter Leon "Doc" Weaver and his wife Lenna Leora (née Prather). Weaver wanted to be an actor from childhood. He lived in Shreveport, Louisiana, for several years and for a short time in Manteca, California. He studied at Joplin Junior College, then transferred to the University of Oklahoma at Norman, where he studied drama and was a track star, setting records in several events. During World War II, he served as a pilot in the United States Navy, flying Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft. After the war, he married Gerry Stowell (his childhood sweetheart), with whom he had three children. Under the name Billy D. Weaver, he tried out for the 1948 U.S. Olympic team in the decathlon, finishing sixth behind 17-year-old high school track star Bob Mathias. However, only the top three finishers were selected. Weaver later commented, "I did so poorly [in the Olympic Trials], I decided to ... stay in New York and try acting. Career Weaver's first role on Broadway came as an understudy to Lonny Chapman as Turk Fisher in Come Back, Little Sheba. He eventually took over the role from Chapman in the national touring company. Solidifying his choice to become an actor, Weaver enrolled in the Actors Studio, where he met Shelley Winters. In the beginning of his acting career, he supported his family by doing odd jobs, including selling vacuum cleaners, tricycles, and women's hosiery. In 1952, Shelley Winters helped him get a contract from Universal Studios. He made his film debut that same year in the movie The Redhead from Wyoming. Over the next three years, he played in a series of movies, but still had to work odd jobs to support his family. In 1955 he appeared in an episode of The Lone Ranger "The Tell-Tale Bullet", which is viewable on YouTube. While delivering flowers, he heard he had landed the role of Chester Goode, the limping, loyal assistant of Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) on the new television series Gunsmoke. It was his big break; the show went on to become the highest-rated and longest-running live action series in United States television history (1955 to 1975), an honor now held by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 1970, Weaver landed the title role in the NBC series McCloud, for which he received two Emmy Award nominations. The show, about a modern Western lawman who ends up in New York City, was loosely based on the Clint Eastwood film Coogan's Bluff. Weaver married Gerry Stowell after World War II, and they had three sons: Richard, Robert, and Rustin Weaver. Gerry died April 26, 2016, at 90. Death Weaver died from prostate cancer at his home in Ridgway, Colorado, on February 24, 2006, at age 81. CLR

Movies24

  • Movie6.1

    Home on the Range

    2004 · 2.2K votes

  • Movie7.4

    Duel

    1971 · 2.1K votes

  • Movie7.7

    Touch of Evil

    1958 · 1.6K votes

  • Movie6.4

    Duel at Diablo

    1966 · 122 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Ten Wanted Men

    1955 · 30 votes

  • Movie6.6

    The Man from the Alamo

    1953 · 43 votes

  • Movie5.7

    War Arrow

    1953 · 24 votes

  • Movie5.6

    Chief Crazy Horse

    1955 · 26 votes

  • Movie6.1

    A Man Called Sledge

    1970 · 41 votes

  • Movie5.7

    Law and Order

    1953 · 18 votes

  • Movie6.3

    The Redhead from Wyoming

    1953 · 14 votes

  • Movie6.7
  • Movie6.7

    The Lawless Breed

    1952 · 24 votes

  • Movie7.6
  • Movie6.5

    Don't Go to Sleep

    1982 · 39 votes

  • Movie6.7

    The Golden Blade

    1953 · 23 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Mastergate

    1992 · 3 votes

  • Movie7.3

    Disaster at Silo 7

    1988 · 4 votes

  • Movie5.0

    Intimate Strangers

    1977 · 1 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Rolling Man

    1972 · 2 votes

  • Movie6.5
  • Movie7.6
  • Movie6.2

    Column South

    1953 · 12 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Greyhounds

    1994 · 1 votes

Series24

  • TV7.5
  • TV8.0

    The Simpsons

    1989 · 11K votes

  • TV5.8

    The Mike Douglas Show

    1961 · 11 votes

  • TV7.2

    Touched by an Angel

    1994 · 188 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Merv Griffin Show

    1962 · 12 votes

  • TV7.3

    Magnum, P.I.

    1980 · 460 votes

  • TV5.7

    Dr. Kildare

    1961 · 19 votes

  • TV7.9

    Combat!

    1962 · 119 votes

  • TV8.5

    The Twilight Zone

    1959 · 1.1K votes

  • TV7.8

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    1955 · 265 votes

  • TV7.0

    The Name of the Game

    1968 · 13 votes

  • TV6.5

    Dragnet

    1951 · 36 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Ed Sullivan Show

    1948 · 23 votes

  • TV3.8

    Climax!

    1954 · 12 votes

  • TV8.1

    Family Law

    1999 · 12 votes

  • TV6.7

    Gunsmoke

    1955 · 119 votes

  • TV7.0
  • TV7.7

    Judd, for the Defense

    1967 · 3 votes

  • TV7.2

    McCloud

    1970 · 53 votes

  • TV6.2

    That Girl

    1966 · 35 votes

  • TV8.4

    Wildfire

    2005 · 59 votes

  • TV7.0

    Police Story

    1973 · 20 votes

  • TV7.1
  • TV9.0

    The Don Knotts Show

    1970 · 1 votes