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Chill Wills

Chill Wills

Actor · 1902 – 1978 · Seagoville, Texas, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Chill Theodore Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American film actor, and a singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet. He was a performer from early childhood, forming and leading the Avalon Boys singing group in the 1930s. After appearing in a few westerns he disbanded the group in 1938, and struck out on a solo acting career. One of his more memorable roles was that of the distinctive voice of Francis the Mule in a series of popular films. Wills' deep, rough voice, with its Western twang, was matched to the personality of the cynical, sardonic mule. As was customary at the time, Wills was given no billing for his vocal work, though he was featured prominently on-screen as blustery General Ben Kaye in the fourth entry, Francis Joins the WACS. He provided the deep voice for Stan Laurel's performance of "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" in Way Out West (1937), in which the Avalon Boys Quartet appeared. Wills was cast in numerous serious film roles, including as "the city of Chicago" as personified by a phantom police sergeant in the film noir City That Never Sleeps (1953), and that of Uncle Bawley in Giant (1956), which also features Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Wills was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as Davy Crockett's companion "Beekeeper" in the film The Alamo (1960). However, his aggressive campaign for the award was considered tasteless by many, including the film's star/director/producer John Wayne, who publicly apologized for Wills. Wills' publicity agent, W.S. "Bow-Wow" Wojciechowicz, accepted blame for the ill-advised effort, claiming that Wills had known nothing about it. The Oscar was instead won by Peter Ustinov for his role as Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus. In Rory Calhoun's CBS western series The Texan, Wills appeared in the lead role in the 1960 episode entitled "The Eyes of Captain Wylie". Wills starred in the short-run series Frontier Circus which aired for only one season (1961–62) on CBS. In 1966, he was cast in the role of a shady Texas rancher, Jim Ed Love, in the short-lived ABC comedy/western series The Rounders (reprising his role in the 1965 film The Rounders, starring Henry Fonda), with co-stars Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne and Walker Edmiston. in 1963-64, Wills joined William Lundigan, Walter Brennan and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in making appearances on behalf of U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee in the campaign against U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1968, Wills refused to support Richard Nixon for the presidency and served as master of ceremonies for George C. Wallace, former governor of Alabama, for the California campaign stops in Wallace's presidential campaign.[5] Wills was among the few Hollywood celebrities to endorse Wallace's bid against Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey; another was Walter Brennan. Also in 1968, he starred in the Gunsmoke episode "A Noose for Dobie Price", where he played Elihu Gorman, a former outlaw who joins forces with Marshal Matt Dillon, played by James Arness, to track down a member of his former gang who has escaped jail. His last role was in 1978, as a janitor in Stubby Pringle's Christmas. CLR Description above from the Wikipedia article Chill Wills, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies24

  • Movie7.6

    Giant

    1956 · 781 votes

  • Movie7.1

    The Alamo

    1960 · 411 votes

  • Movie6.6

    McLintock!

    1963 · 266 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Meet Me in St. Louis

    1944 · 438 votes

  • Movie7.2
  • Movie6.8

    Rio Grande

    1950 · 408 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Cardinal

    1963 · 54 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Gun Glory

    1957 · 21 votes

  • Movie7.4

    Leave Her to Heaven

    1945 · 289 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Western Union

    1941 · 88 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Gun for a Coward

    1956 · 15 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Where the Boys Are

    1960 · 37 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Cattle Drive

    1951 · 16 votes

  • Movie7.1

    The Westerner

    1940 · 138 votes

  • Movie7.1

    Way Out West

    1937 · 231 votes

  • Movie6.6

    The Harvey Girls

    1946 · 55 votes

  • Movie5.5

    The Rounders

    1965 · 32 votes

  • Movie7.1
  • Movie6.6

    The Man from the Alamo

    1953 · 43 votes

  • Movie6.4
  • Movie6.7

    The Yearling

    1946 · 107 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Honky Tonk

    1941 · 18 votes

  • Movie5.5

    Mr. Billion

    1977 · 64 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Belle Starr

    1941 · 17 votes

Series15

  • TV6.8

    The Merv Griffin Show

    1962 · 12 votes

  • TV7.8

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    1955 · 265 votes

  • TV6.3

    Burke's Law

    1963 · 12 votes

  • TV7.2

    Rawhide

    1959 · 49 votes

  • TV6.7

    Route 66

    1960 · 20 votes

  • TV6.7

    Gunsmoke

    1955 · 119 votes

  • TV7.8

    Night Gallery

    1970 · 112 votes

  • TV7.7

    Judd, for the Defense

    1967 · 3 votes

  • TV6.0

    The Texan

    1958 · 6 votes

  • TV7.0

    Alias Smith and Jones

    1971 · 33 votes

  • TV6.9

    Trackdown

    1957 · 8 votes

  • TV6.9

    Tarzan

    1966 · 24 votes

  • TV8.8

    Hallmark Hall of Fame

    1951 · 8 votes

  • TV5.3

    Frontier Circus

    1961 · 4 votes

  • TV5.3

    The Rounders

    1966 · 3 votes