Paul Brinegar

Acting • Born 1917-12-19 – Died 1995-03-27

Acting1Tucumcari, New Mexico, USA

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Paul Brinegar (December 19, 1917 – March 27, 1995) was an American character actor best known for his roles in three western series: The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Rawhide, and Lancer. Brinegar's first credited appearance in a feature film was in Larceny (1948). From there, he launched a steady film career that slowed considerably in the late 1950s, after he began appearing on television but did not end until 1994, when Brinegar made his final screen appearance, as a stagecoach driver, in the 1994 film version of Maverick. Brinegar appeared more than 100 times between 1946 and 1994 in western films, often specializing in playing "feisty, grizzled cowboy sidekicks". On television, from 1956 to 1958, he played James H. "Dog" Kelley, the mayor of Dodge City, Kansas, in the ABC/Desilu western series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp starring Hugh O'Brian. Brinegar appeared in that series 33 times as Kelley and in one other episode in another role. In 1959 he played Ludwig, a bartender, in the episode "The Ringer" of the western series The Texan with Rory Calhoun. Brinegar, however, is best remembered as the cattle-drive cook George Washington Wishbone on the CBS series Rawhide from 1959 to 1966. Earlier he had played a similar role, one as the character Tom Jefferson Jeffrey, in the 1958 movie Cattle Empire upon which Rawhide was based. Brinegar also made two guest appearances on CBS's Perry Mason. His first appearance on that series, prior to Rawhide, was in 1958. He performed as Tom Sackett in the first-season episode titled "The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary". His second appearance on Perry Mason was during the series' ninth and final season. He played Jason Rohan in the 1966 episode "The Case of the Unwelcome Well". In the 1968-1970 CBS western series Lancer, Brinegar had the role of Jelly Hoskins; and in 1969 he appeared in the western film Charro! starring Elvis Presley. Then, in 1973, he played the barman in Clint Eastwood's film High Plains Drifter. From 1982 to 1983, returning to television, Brinegar portrayed a humorous cowboy-like character, Lamar Pettybone, during the first season of the ABC series Matt Houston. Later he reprised a revised version of his Rawhide Wishbone character for the 1991 TV movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, in which he delivers a brief monologue that includes about a dozen references to old television western series.

Filmography

115 credits

High Plains Drifter

Movie • 1973

Lutie Naylor

Larceny

Movie • 1948

Mechanic

Maverick

Movie • 1994

Stage Driver

Storm Warning

Movie • 1951

Cameraman #1 (uncredited)

Ransom!

Movie • 1956

Bank Clerk (uncredited)

I Died a Thousand Times

Movie • 1955

Bus Driver (uncredited)

The Silver Chalice

Movie • 1954

Audience Member (uncredited)

Young Man with a Horn

Movie • 1950

Stage Manager (uncredited)

How to Make a Monster

Movie • 1958

Rivero

The Young Landlords

Movie • 1983

Mr. Darden

Dawn at Socorro

Movie • 1954

Desk Clerk

Four Guns to the Border

Movie • 1954

Copper Sky

Movie • 1957

Charlie Martin

Rails Into Laramie

Movie • 1954

Bandleader (uncredited)

We're Not Married!

Movie • 1952

Beauty Contest Spectator (uncredited)

Crisis in Sun Valley

Movie • 1978

Poole

Inside Detroit

Movie • 1955

A Star Is Born

Movie • 1954

Man at Funeral (uncredited)

Country Boy

Movie • 1966

Human Desire

Movie • 1954

Brakeman

Pinky

Movie • 1949

Western Union Clerk (uncredited)

Charro!

Movie • 1969

Opie Keetch

Chattanooga Choo Choo

Movie • 1984

Pee Wee

Pat and Mike

Movie • 1952

Caddy (uncredited)

Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone

Movie • 1994

Jim 'Dog' Kelly

The Spirit of St. Louis

Movie • 1957

Okie (uncredited)

The Golden Dog

Movie • 1977

Jock

Captain Scarface

Movie • 1953

Clegg

The Vampire

Movie • 1957

Willy Warner

Cattle Empire

Movie • 1958

Tom Jefferson Jeffrey

World Without End

Movie • 1956

Vida (uncredited)

Annihilator

Movie • 1986

Pops

Spaceship

Movie • 1983

Clint Eastwood / Dirty Harry

Insurance Investigator

Movie • 1951

Mr. Spangler

Fighting Trouble

Movie • 1956

Mailman (uncredited)

Take One False Step

Movie • 1949

Reporter (uncredited)

The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch

Movie • 1982

Bodie

The Magnificent Stranger

Movie • 1966

Wishbone

The Captive City

Movie • 1952

Police Sergeant

Journey Into Light

Movie • 1951

Bum

Life Stinks

Movie • 1991

Old Bellboy

The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw

Movie • 1991

A Ticket to Tomahawk

Movie • 1950

The Secret Sharer

Movie • 1973

Captain Archbold

Phantom of the Rue Morgue

Movie • 1954

Angry Accuser in Street (uncredited)

CHiPs

TV • 1977

Keith Lawton / Old Surfer

Trackdown

TV • 1957

Zack Armstead

Trapper John, M.D.

TV • 1979

Little House on the Prairie

TV • 1974

Knight Rider

TV • 1982

Chuck

Medical Center

TV • 1969

Hnchoo

Dragnet

TV • 1951

Perry Mason

TV • 1957

Jason Rohan

Cannon

TV • 1971

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

TV • 1955

Mason

Rawhide

TV • 1959

Wishbone

Daniel Boone

TV • 1964

Gurney

Capitol

TV • 1982

Lancer

TV • 1968

Lucan

TV • 1977

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

TV • 1951

Brown

Matt Houston

TV • 1982

Lamar Pettybone

The Adventures of Jim Bowie

TV • 1956

Whirlybirds

TV • 1957

Joe Slade

Racket Squad

TV • 1951

The Whistler

TV • 1954

Code R

TV • 1977

Alvin Purdy

Cavalcade of America

TV • 1952

Grizzly Adams

TV • 1977

Trapper Tom

The Man Behind the Badge

TV • 1953

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

TV • 1955

Jim Begley

Hero

TV • 1966

Letter to Loretta

TV • 1953

Pete

Public Defender

TV • 1954

Bud

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

TV • 1955

Jim Kelley

Lawman

TV • 1958

George the Stage Line Clerk

CHiPs

TV • 1977

Old Surfer

Bonanza

TV • 1959

Lev Buckalew

Nichols

TV • 1971

Gaffer

State Trooper

TV • 1956

Storekeeper

Letter to Loretta

TV • 1953

Ivan Fenwick

They Came from Outer Space

TV • 1990

John Peckham

The Six Million Dollar Man

TV • 1974

Rafe Morris

Sugarfoot

TV • 1957

Austin (uncredited)