Dennis Weaver
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Jun 4, 1924
- Died
- Feb 24, 2006 (aged 81)
- Place of birth
- Joplin, Missouri, USA
- Credits
- 101
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
Known for
Filmography
Wildfire
2005TV
Henry Ritter
Home on the Range
2004Movie
Abner (voice)
Submerged
2000Movie
Buck Stevens
High Noon
2000Movie
Mart Howe
The Virginian
2000Movie
Sam Balaam
Family Law
1999TV
Judge Richard Lloyd
Escape from Wildcat Canyon
1998Movie
Grandpa Flint
Seduction in a Small Town
1997Movie
Sam Jenks
Stolen Women, Captured Hearts
1997Movie
Captain Farnsworth
E! True Hollywood Story
1996TV
Two Bits & Pepper
1995Movie
Sheriff Pratt
Touched by an Angel
1994TV
Emmett Rivers
Lonesome Dove: The Series
1994TV
Buffalo Bill Cody
Greyhounds
1994Movie
Chance Wayne
Mastergate
1992Movie
Vice President Dale Burden
Earth and the American Dream
1992Movie
Reader (voice)
Captain Planet and the Planeteers
1990TV
Great Adventurers & Their Quests: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1990Movie
Narrator
Dennis Weaver's Earthship
1990Movie
The Simpsons
1989TV
Buck McCoy (voice)
The Return of Sam McCloud
1989Movie
Sam McCloud
Disaster at Silo 7
1988Movie
Sheriff Ben Harlen
Walking After Midnight
1988Movie
Self
Buck James
1987TV
Dr. Buck James
Bluffing It
1987Movie
Jack Duggan
Amy Grant: Headin' Home for the Holidays
1986Movie
Tom Miller
A Winner Never Quits
1986Movie
Mr. Wyshner
Going for the Gold: The Bill Johnson Story
1985Movie
Wally Johnson
Emerald Point N.A.S.
1983TV
Rear Adm. Thomas Mallory
Cocaine: One Man's Seduction
1983Movie
Eddie Gant
Don't Go to Sleep
1982Movie
Phillip
The Day the Loving Stopped
1981Movie
Aaron Danner
Magnum, P.I.
1980TV
Lacy Fletcher
The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd
1980Movie
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd
Amber Waves
1980Movie
Elroy 'Bud' Burkhardt
Stone
1980TV
Det. Sgt. Daniel Stone
Stone
1979Movie
Daniel Ellis Stone
A Cry for Justice
1979Movie
Sgt. Ted Bentley
The Ordeal of Patty Hearst
1979Movie
Charles Bates
Ishi: The Last of His Tribe
1978Movie
Prof. Benjamin Fuller
Pearl
1978TV
Col. Jason Forrest
Centennial
1978TV
R.J. Poteet
The Islander
1978Movie
Gable McQueen
Intimate Strangers
1977Movie
Donald Halston
The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries
1977TV
Self
Cher
1975TV
Self - Guest
Terror on the Beach
1973Movie
Neil Glynn
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
1973TV
Self
Police Story
1973TV
Female Artillery
1973Movie
Deke Chambers
Rolling Man
1972Movie
Lonnie McAfee
The Great Man's Whiskers
1972Movie
Abraham Lincoln
Duel
1971Movie
David Mann
The Forgotten Man
1971Movie
Lt. Joe Hardy
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
1971TV
What's the Matter with Helen?
1971Movie
Linc Palmer
The Pet Set
1971TV
Self
A Man Called Sledge
1970Movie
Erwin Ward
The Don Knotts Show
1970TV
Self
McCloud
1970TV
Sam McCloud
Swing Out, Sweet Land
1970Movie
Self
The Dean Martin Christmas Show
1968Movie
Self
Mission Batangas
1968Movie
Chip Corbett
The Name of the Game
1968TV
Walter Grayson
Gentle Giant
1967Movie
Tom Wedloe
Gentle Ben
1967TV
Tom Wedloe
Judd, for the Defense
1967TV
Gallegher Goes West
1966Movie
George Tucker, the Sundown Kid
Way... Way Out
1966Movie
Hoffman
That Girl
1966TV
Duel at Diablo
1966Movie
Willard Grange
Kentucky Jones
1964TV
Kentucky Jones
Combat!
1962TV
Noah
The Merv Griffin Show
1962TV
Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962TV
Self
The Mike Douglas Show
1961TV
Self - Co-Host, Self
Dr. Kildare
1961TV
Wayne Wandemeir
The Gallant Hours
1960Movie
Andy Lowe
The Twilight Zone
1959TV
Adam Grant
Touch of Evil
1958Movie
Mirador Motel Night Manager
Storm Fear
1955Movie
Hank
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955TV
Charles Cavender
Gunsmoke
1955TV
Chester
Chief Crazy Horse
1955Movie
Maj. Carlisle
Seven Angry Men
1955Movie
John Brown Jr.
Ten Wanted Men
1955Movie
Sheriff Clyde Gibbons
Climax!
1954TV
Steve Maclyn
Dragnet
1954Movie
Capt. R.A. Lohrman
Dangerous Mission
1954Movie
Ranger clerk
War Arrow
1953Movie
Pino
The Golden Blade
1953Movie
The Man from the Alamo
1953Movie
Tennessean (uncredited)
Column South
1953Movie
Menguito
Law and Order
1953Movie
Frank Durling
The Mississippi Gambler
1953Movie
Julian Contant
The Redhead from Wyoming
1953Movie
Matt Jessup
The Lawless Breed
1952Movie
Jim Clements
Horizons West
1952Movie
Dandy Taylor
Dragnet
1951TV
Russ Camp
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951TV
Ben
The Ed Sullivan Show
1948TV
Self