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Bill Thurman

Bill Thurman

Actor · 1920 – 1995 · Texas, USA

Character actor Bill Thurman was born on November 4, 1920 in Texas. A large, rugged, stocky man with a hard, lined, puffy face, a deep, twangy, amicable voice, a strong, bulky build and a charmingly low-key and down-to-earth unaffected natural screen presence, Thurman often portrayed police officers and assorted scruffy redneck types in a huge number of entertainingly cheap'n'cheesy Southern-fried fright flicks and delightfully down'n'dirty drive-in fare made throughout the 60s and 70s. Bill frequently acted in features for legendary Grade Z low-budget independent filmmaker Larry Buchanan; said movies include "The Eye Creatures," "High Yellow," "Zontar the Thing from Venus," "Mars Needs Women," "Curse of the Swamp Creature," "In the Year 2889," the especially atrocious "It's Alive!," and "A Bullet for Pretty Boy." Moreover, Thurman had bit parts in two Steven Spielberg films: he's a hillbilly hunter in "The Sugerland Express" and an air traffic controller in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Bill's other memorable roles include the abusive Coach Popper in Peter Bogdanovich's magnificent "The Last Picture Show," a doomed hitchhiker in "Keep My Grave Open," a corrupt sheriff in the Claudia Jennings exploitation classic "'Gatorbait," a mean small town deputy in "Ride in A Pink Car," a more amiable sheriff in the fantastic Bigfoot winner "Creature from Black Lake," Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith's father in "Slumber Party '57," a priest in "The Evictors," and the boozy, dissolute Reverend Bill McWiley in the enjoyably crummy "Mountaintop Motel Massacre." Bill Thurman died in Dallas, Texas on April 13, 1995. - IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders

Movies24

  • Movie7.4
  • Movie6.9

    Silverado

    1985 · 849 votes

  • Movie7.6

    The Last Picture Show

    1971 · 802 votes

  • Movie6.6

    The Sugarland Express

    1974 · 486 votes

  • Movie5.7

    Raggedy Man

    1981 · 42 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Tom Horn

    1980 · 137 votes

  • Movie5.4

    It Takes Two

    1988 · 26 votes

  • Movie5.0

    'Gator Bait

    1974 · 26 votes

  • Movie4.3

    Innocent Prey

    1984 · 7 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Alamo Bay

    1985 · 27 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Where the Red Fern Grows

    1974 · 58 votes

  • Movie5.2

    Creature from Black Lake

    1976 · 26 votes

  • Movie2.8
  • Movie6.5
  • Movie6.4

    The Evictors

    1979 · 34 votes

  • Movie4.0

    Hawken's Breed

    1987 · 14 votes

  • Movie3.9

    Mars Needs Women

    1968 · 22 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Sam

    1967 · 1 votes

  • Movie4.3
  • Movie5.3

    Painted Hero

    1997 · 7 votes

  • Movie4.0
  • Movie4.3
  • Movie6.1

    In Broad Daylight

    1991 · 8 votes

  • Movie9.0

Series2

  • TV6.9

    Dallas

    1978 · 249 votes

  • TV5.7

    The Long Hot Summer

    1985 · 15 votes