Dennis Weaver
William Dennis Weaver[1] (June 4, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American actor and former 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 trusty partner Chester Goode/Proudfoot on the CBS western Gunsmoke and as Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud on the NBC 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).
Dennis Weaver | |
|---|---|
Weaver in 1960 | |
| Born | William Dennis Weaver June 4, 1924 Joplin, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | February 24, 2006 (aged 81) Ridgway, Colorado, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1952–2005 |
| Spouse | Gerry Stowell (m. 1945) |
| Children | 3 |
| 18th President of the Screen Actors Guild | |
| In office 1973–1975 | |
| Preceded by | John Gavin |
| Succeeded by | Kathleen Nolan |
Early life
Weaver was born June 4, 1924, in Joplin, Missouri, the son of Walter Leon "Doc" Weaver and his wife Lenna Leora (née Prather). His father was of English, Irish, Scottish, Cherokee, and Osage ancestry. 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.[2] 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,[3] finishing sixth behind 17-year-old high school track star Bob Mathias. However, only the top three finishers were selected.[4] Weaver later commented, "I did so poorly [in the Olympic Trials], I decided to ... stay in New York and try acting."[3]
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,[5] 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. 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). He received an Emmy Award in 1959 for Best Supporting Actor (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series.
According to the Archive of American Television interview with Weaver, the producer had him in mind for Chester, but could not locate him, and was delighted when he showed up to audition. Never having heard the radio show, Weaver gave Chester's "inane" dialog his best "method" delivery. Disappointed in his delivery, however, the producer asked for something humorous, and Weaver nailed it. The stiff leg came about when the producer pointed out that sidekicks almost always have some failing or weakness that makes them less capable than the star. Weaver decided that a stiff leg would be just the right thing.[6]
In 1957, Weaver appeared as Commander B.D. Clagett in a single episode of the television series The Silent Service titled "Two Davids and Goliath". Having become famous as Chester, he was next cast in an offbeat supporting role in the 1958 Orson Welles film Touch of Evil,[7] in which he played a face-twisting, body-contorting eccentric employee of a remote motel who nervously repeated, "I'm the night man." In 1960, he appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents titled "Insomnia", in which his character suffers from sleeplessness owing to the tragic death of his wife. He also co-starred in a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone titled "Shadow Play". In that episode, Weaver's character is trapped inside his own revolving nightmare, repeatedly being tried, sentenced, and then executed in the electric chair.[8] Later, from 1964 to 1965, he portrayed a friendly veterinary physician raising an adopted Chinese boy as a single father in NBC's comedy drama Kentucky Jones. He had a significant role in the 1966 western Duel at Diablo, with James Garner and Sidney Poitier. His next substantial role was as Tom Wedloe on the CBS family series Gentle Ben, with co-star Clint Howard, from 1967 to 1969.
In 1970, Weaver landed the title role in the NBC series McCloud, for which he received two Emmy Award nominations. In 1974, he was nominated for Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series (McCloud) and in 1975, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series. 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. His frequent use of the affirming Southernism, "There you go," became a catchphrase for the show. During the series, in 1971, Weaver also appeared in Duel, a television movie directed by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg selected Weaver based on the intensity of his earlier performance in Touch of Evil.[9]
Weaver was also a recording artist, with most of his tracks being spoken-word recordings with musical accompaniment. He released several singles and albums between 1959 and 1984, most notable of which was his eponymous Im'press Records LP in 1972, the cover of which featured a portrait of Weaver in character as McCloud; it was the first of seven albums he recorded.[citation needed]
From 1973 to 1975, Weaver was president of the Screen Actors Guild.
His later series during the 1980s (both of which lasted only one season) were Stone in which Weaver played a Joseph Wambaugh-esque police sergeant turned crime novelist and Buck James in which he played a Texas-based surgeon and rancher. (Buck James was loosely based on real-life Texas doctor James "Red" Duke.) He portrayed a Navy rear admiral for 22 episodes of a 1983–1984 series, Emerald Point N.A.S.
In 1977, he portrayed a husband who physically abused his wife (portrayed by Sally Struthers) in the made-for-TV movie Intimate Strangers, one of the first network features to depict domestic violence. In 1978, Weaver played the trail boss R. J. Poteet in the television miniseries Centennial, in the installment titled "The Longhorns". Weaver also appeared in many acclaimed television films, including Amber Waves (1980) with Kurt Russell. Also in 1980, he portrayed Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was imprisoned for involvement in the Lincoln assassination, in The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd and starred with his real-life son Robby Weaver in the short-lived NBC police series Stone.[10] In 1983, he played a real estate agent addicted to cocaine in Cocaine: One Man's Seduction. Weaver received probably the best reviews of his career when he starred in the 1987 film Bluffing It, in which he played a man who is illiterate. In February 2002, he appeared on the animated series The Simpsons (episode DABF07, "The Lastest Gun in the West") as the voice of aging Hollywood cowboy legend Buck McCoy.[11]
For his contribution to the television industry, Dennis Weaver was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6822 Hollywood Blvd, and on the Dodge City (KS) Trail of Fame. In 1981, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers with the Bronze Wrangler Award at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Weaver as McCloud was used to promote a rock show in New York City. He also hosted segments for the Encore Westerns premium cable network in the late 1990s and 2000s.
Weaver's last work was done on an ABC Family cable television show called Wildfire, where he played Henry Ritter, the father of Jean Ritter and the co-owner of Raintree Ranch. His role on the show was cut short by his death.
Personal life
Weaver married Gerry Stowell after World War II, and they had three sons: Richard, Robert, and Rustin Weaver. Dennis Weaver was a vegetarian from 1958[12] and student of yoga and meditation from the 1960s and a devoted follower of Paramahansa Yogananda, the Indian guru who established the Self-Realization Fellowship in the United States.[citation needed] Gerry died April 26, 2016, at 90.
Weaver's home in Ridgway, Colorado, exemplified his commitment to preserving the environment. In the late 1980s, he commissioned architect Michael Reynolds to design and build his new residence, which incorporated into its construction various recycled materials, such as old automobile tires and discarded cans, and featured passive solar power and other ecotechnologies. Weaver called his home Earthship, the same name given to the design concept pioneered by Reynolds and advanced by him as part of what was then a growing interest in "sustainable architecture" by environmentalists. Weaver and his family lived at Earthship for over 14 years, until 2004.[13]
In July 2003, Weaver lost a daughter-in-law, Lynne Ann Weaver, wife of son Robby Weaver, in Santa Monica, California, when a car driven at high speed plowed through shoppers at the Santa Monica Farmers Market. She was one of 10 people killed in the incident.[14]
Activism
Weaver was an environmentalist, who promoted the use of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen and wind power, through the Institute of Ecolonomics, a nonprofit environmental organization he established in 1993 in Berthoud, Colorado. "Ecolonomics" is a term formed by combining the words ecology and economics.[16][17] He was also involved with John Denver's WindStar Foundation, and he founded an organization called L.I.F.E. (Love is Feeding Everyone), which provided food for 150,000 needy people a week in Los Angeles.[16]
Weaver was also active in liberal political causes. He used his celebrity status as a fundraiser and organizer for George McGovern's campaign for President in 1972.[18]
In 2004, he led a fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles across the United States to raise awareness about America's dependence on oil.[16]
Weaver was consistently involved with the annual Genesis Awards, which honor those in the news and entertainment media who bring attention to the plight and suffering of animals. Established by the Ark Trust, the award has been presented by the Humane Society of the United States since 2002.[19]
There will come a time ... when civilized people will look back in horror on our generation and the ones that preceded it – the idea that we should eat other living things running around on four legs, that we should raise them just for the purpose of killing them! The people of the future will say "meat-eaters!" in disgust and regard us in the same way we regard cannibals and cannibalism — Dennis Weaver[20]
Death
Weaver died of complications from prostate cancer at his home in Ridgway, Colorado, on February 24, 2006 at age 81.[21]
Filmography
- 1952: Horizons West – Dandy Taylor
- 1952: The Raiders – Dick Logan (uncredited)
- 1953: The Redhead from Wyoming – Matt Jessup
- 1953: The Lawless Breed – Jim Clements
- 1953: The Mississippi Gambler – Julian Conant (uncredited)
- 1953: It Happens Every Thursday – Al – Chamber of Commerce President (uncredited)
- 1953: Law and Order – Frank Durling
- 1953: Column South – Menguito
- 1953: The Man from the Alamo – Reb (uncredited)
- 1953: The Golden Blade – Rabble Rouser (uncredited)
- 1953: The Nebraskan – Captain De Witt (uncredited)
- 1953: War Arrow – Pino
- 1954: Pasties on a Cat – Leering audience member (uncredited)
- 1954: Dangerous Mission – Ranger Clerk
- 1954: Dragnet – Police Capt. R.A. Lohrman
- 1954: The Bridges at Toko-Ri – Air Intelligence Officer (uncredited)
- 1955: Ten Wanted Men – Sheriff Clyde Gibbons
- 1955–1964: Gunsmoke – Chester / Chester Goode
- 1955: Seven Angry Men – John Brown Jr.
- 1955: Chief Crazy Horse – Maj. Carlisle
- 1955: Storm Fear – Hank
- 1956: Navy Wife
- 1958: Touch of Evil – Mirador Motel Night Manager
- 1959: Have Gun – Will Travel – Monk
- 1960: Alfred Hitchcock Presents – Charles Cavender
- 1960: The Gallant Hours – Lt. Cmdr. Andy Lowe
- 1961: Sing for Me, Canary Boy – Blake Puddingstock
- 1961: The Twilight Zone – Adam Grant
- 1964–1965: Kentucky Jones – Kenneth Yarborough "Kentucky" Jones
- 1965: Combat! – Noah
- 1966: Duel at Diablo – Willard Grange
- 1966: Way...Way Out – Hoffman
- 1967: Gentle Giant – Tom Wedloe
- 1967–1969: Gentle Ben (TV) – Tom Wedloe
- 1968: Mission Batangas – Chip Corbett
- 1970: That Girl – Lewis Franks
- 1970–1977: McCloud – Sam McCloud
- 1970: A Man Called Sledge – Erwin Ward
- 1971: What's the Matter with Helen? – Linc Palmer
- 1971: Duel – David Mann
- 1972: Mothership Tycoon – Captain Buck Finnster
- 1972: Horsetrailer Tycoon – Captain Buck Finnster
- 1972: The Great Man's Whiskers – Abraham Lincoln
- 1972: Rolling Man (TV) – Lonnie McAfee
- 1973: House Arrest – Sergeant Chester McFeeley
- 1973: Terror on the Beach – Neil Glynn
- 1977: Intimate Strangers – Donald Halston
- 1977: Cry for Justice
- 1978: Centennial (TV) – R.J. Poteet
- 1978: Pearl – Col. Jason Forrest
- 1978: Ishi: The Last of His Tribe – Prof. Benjamin Fuller
- 1979: Surgery Train – Dr. Lance Goiter
- 1980: Amber Waves – Bud Burkhardt
- 1980: The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd – Samuel Mudd
- 1982: Don't Go to Sleep – Phillip
- 1982: Splattercakes for Mama – Smokey Joe Burgess
- 1983: Cocaine: One Man's Seduction – Eddie Gant
- 1983–1984: Emerald Point N.A.S. – Rear Adm. Thomas Mallory
- 1985: Magnum, P.I. – Lacy Fletcher – Present Day
- 1987–1988: Buck James – Doctor Buck James
- 1988: Disaster at Silo 7 – Sheriff Ben Harlen
- 1989: The Return of Sam McCloud – Sam McCloud
- 1995: Two Bits & Pepper – Sheriff Pratt
- 1996: Voyeur II – Sheriff John Parker
- 1997: Telluride: Time Crosses Over – Cameo appearance
- 1998: Escape from Wildcat Canyon – Grandpa Flint
- 2000: Submerged – Buck Stevens
- 2000: The Virginian – Sam Balaam
- 2001: Elephant Rage – Elephant (voice only)
- 2001: The Beast – Walter McFadden
- 2001: Family Law – Judge Richard Lloyd
- 2002: The Simpsons – Buck McCoy (voice)
- 2003: Touched by an Angel – Emmett Rivers
- 2004: Home on the Range – Abner (voice)
- 2005: Wildfire – Henry
References
- ^ "Dennis Weaver". The Independent. London. March 1, 2006. from the original on January 16, 2018.
- ^ Kovalchik, Kara (11 November 2009). "6 Famous Veterans from TV". Mental Floss. from the original on September 30, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
- ^ a b "Dennis Weaver, Olympic hopeful". www.gunsmokenet.com. from the original on 2010-09-27.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Garfield, David (1980). "Appendix: Life Members of The Actors Studio as of January 1980". A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 278. ISBN 0-02-542650-8.
- ^ Colman, Henry (24 September 2002). "Dennis Weaver – Archive Interview". Archive of American Television. from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- ^ "Touch of Evil". www.gunsmokenet.com. from the original on 2010-09-27.
- ^ Prejean, Jordan (2014). "Shadow Play", 2017-09-30 at the Wayback Machine The Twilight Zone, season 2, episode 26; originally broadcast May 5, 1961; a detailed review and commentary about episode, The Twilight Zone Vortex. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
- ^ From the director's commentary on Duel: Special Edition DVD, 2005.
- ^ The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. p. 1133. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
- ^ "Archived copy". from the original on 2010-06-05. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)"Buck McCoy," GunsmokeNet.com - ^ Berry, Rynn (1979). "Dennis Weaver". The Vegetarians. Brookline, MA: Autumn Press. p. 58. ISBN 0-394-73633-8.
- ^ Ryon, Ruth (2004). "Dennis Weaver selling Colorado 'Earthship' home," SFGate 2017-04-01 at the Wayback Machine (San Francisco, California). Republished real-estate news item from the Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2004, Los Angeles, California. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
- ^ "Infant Dies From Injuries Suffered in Farmers Market Crash". Fox News. 2003-07-17. from the original on 2016-11-26. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
- ^ Mathews, Jay (28 May 1983). "Democrats Hope to Get $6 Million in Telethon". from the original on 25 August 2017 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
- ^ a b c "A TV hero for real-life change: Dennis Weaver, actor, 1924–2006" in The Sydney Morning Herald, March 29, 2006, p. 29
- ^ . Archived from the original on 2010-01-22.
- ^ McGovern, George S., Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern, Random House, 1977, pp. 173, 247
- ^ "Winners of the 2016 Genesis Awards," 2017-04-01 at the Wayback Machine Human Society of the United States, Washington, DC. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
- ^ Berry, Rynn (1979). The Vegetarians. Autumn Press. p. 64. ISBN 9780394736334.
- ^ "Dennis Weaver, 81; Star of 'Gunsmoke,' 'McCloud' Also Was Environmental Activist". Los Angeles Times. 28 February 2006. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
External links
- Dennis Weaver at IMDb
- Dennis Weaver at the Internet Broadway Database
- Archive of American Television 2½ hour career-wide interview with Dennis Weaver
- Dodge City 50th Anniversary from Dodge City, Kansas
- Dodge City 50th Anniversary local newspaper report [1]
- Animal Planet Genesis Awards, commentary on going Vegetarian in 1958
- Lee, Felicia R. (February 28, 2006). "Dennis Weaver, 81, Sidekick on 'Gunsmoke,' Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- "Dennis Weaver, 81; Star of ' Gunsmoke,' 'McCloud' Also Was Environmental Activist". Los Angeles Times. February 28, 2006. (information on his ancestry)