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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
as Henry Ritter(12 eps)
as Abner (voice)
as Buck Stevens
as Mart Howe
as Sam Balaam
as Judge Richard Lloyd(1 ep)
as Grandpa Flint
as Sam Jenks
as Captain Farnsworth
as Sheriff Pratt
as Emmett Rivers(1 ep)
as Buffalo Bill Cody(21 eps)
as Chance Wayne
as Vice President Dale Burden
as Reader (voice)
as Buck McCoy (voice)(1 ep)
as Sam McCloud
as Sheriff Ben Harlen
as Self
as Dr. Buck James(19 eps)
as Jack Duggan
as Tom Miller
as Mr. Wyshner
as Wally Johnson
as Rear Adm. Thomas Mallory(22 eps)
as Eddie Gant
as Phillip
as Aaron Danner
as Lacy Fletcher(1 ep)
as Dr. Samuel A. Mudd
as Elroy 'Bud' Burkhardt
as Det. Sgt. Daniel Stone(9 eps)
as Daniel Ellis Stone
as Sgt. Ted Bentley
as Charles Bates
as Prof. Benjamin Fuller
as Col. Jason Forrest(3 eps)
as R.J. Poteet(12 eps)
as Gable McQueen
as Donald Halston
as Self(1 ep)
as Self - Guest(1 ep)
as Neil Glynn
as Self(1 ep)
as Deke Chambers
as Lonnie McAfee
as Abraham Lincoln
as David Mann
as Lt. Joe Hardy
as Linc Palmer
as Self(1 ep)
as Erwin Ward
as Self(1 ep)
as Sam McCloud(46 eps)
as Self
as Chip Corbett
as Walter Grayson(1 ep)
as Tom Wedloe
as Tom Wedloe(56 eps)
as George Tucker, the Sundown Kid
as Hoffman
as Willard Grange
as Kentucky Jones(26 eps)
as Noah(1 ep)
as Self(1 ep)
as Self(7 eps)
as Self - Co-Host(1 ep)
as Self(3 eps)
as Wayne Wandemeir(1 ep)
as Andy Lowe
as Adam Grant(1 ep)
as Mirador Motel Night Manager
as Hank
as Charles Cavender(1 ep)
as Chester(341 eps)
as Maj. Carlisle
as John Brown Jr.
as Sheriff Clyde Gibbons
as Steve Maclyn(1 ep)
as Capt. R.A. Lohrman
as Ranger clerk
as Pino
as Tennessean (uncredited)
as Menguito
as Frank Durling
as Julian Contant
as Matt Jessup
as Jim Clements
as Dandy Taylor
as Russ Camp(1 ep)
as Ben(1 ep)
as Self(1 ep)
