Dennis Weaver
Acting • Born 1924-06-04 – Died 2006-02-24
Biography
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
Filmography
103 credits
Duel at Diablo
Movie • 1966
Willard Grange
Touch of Evil
Movie • 1958
Mirador Motel Night Manager
Duel
Movie • 1971
David Mann
The Golden Blade
Movie • 1953
What's the Matter with Helen?
Movie • 1971
Lincoln Palmer
Horizons West
Movie • 1952
Dandy Taylor
Ten Wanted Men
Movie • 1955
Sheriff Clyde Gibbons
High Noon
Movie • 2000
Mart Howe
Cocaine: One Man's Seduction
Movie • 1983
Eddie Gant
A Man Called Sledge
Movie • 1970
Erwin Ward
Storm Fear
Movie • 1955
Hank
Don't Go to Sleep
Movie • 1982
Phillip
Submerged
Movie • 2000
Buck Stevens
Way... Way Out
Movie • 1966
Hoffman
The Lawless Breed
Movie • 1952
Jim Clements
Dangerous Mission
Movie • 1954
Ranger clerk
Ishi: The Last of His Tribe
Movie • 1978
Prof. Benjamin Fuller
Terror on the Beach
Movie • 1973
Neil Glynn
Column South
Movie • 1953
Menguito
The Mississippi Gambler
Movie • 1953
Julian Contant
Disaster at Silo 7
Movie • 1988
Sheriff Ben Harlen
A Winner Never Quits
Movie • 1986
Mr. Wyshner
The Virginian
Movie • 2000
Sam Balaam
The Forgotten Man
Movie • 1971
Lt. Joe Hardy
Female Artillery
Movie • 1973
Deke Chambers
Rolling Man
Movie • 1972
Lonnie McAfee
Swing Out, Sweet Land
Movie • 1970
Self
Going for the Gold: The Bill Johnson Story
Movie • 1985
Wally Johnson
Dragnet
Movie • 1954
Capt. R.A. Lohrman
Seduction in a Small Town
Movie • 1997
Sam Jenks
Amber Waves
Movie • 1980
Elroy 'Bud' Burkhardt
Law and Order
Movie • 1953
Frank Durling
The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd
Movie • 1980
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd
Stone
Movie • 1979
Daniel Ellis Stone
The Return of Sam McCloud
Movie • 1989
Sam McCloud
Gentle Giant
Movie • 1967
Tom Wedloe
War Arrow
Movie • 1953
Pino
The Islander
Movie • 1978
Gable McQueen
Two Bits & Pepper
Movie • 1995
Sheriff Pratt
The Gallant Hours
Movie • 1960
Andy Lowe
Intimate Strangers
Movie • 1977
Donald Halston
Walking After Midnight
Movie • 1988
Self
The Ordeal of Patty Hearst
Movie • 1979
Charles Bates
Dennis Weaver's Earthship
Movie • 1990
Bluffing It
Movie • 1987
Jack Duggan
Stolen Women, Captured Hearts
Movie • 1997
Captain Farnsworth
A Cry For Justice
Movie • 1979
Sgt. Ted Bentley
The Dean Martin Christmas Show
Movie • 1968
Self
Seven Angry Men
Movie • 1955
John Brown Jr.
The Redhead from Wyoming
Movie • 1953
Matt Jessup
Mastergate
Movie • 1992
Vice President Dale Burden
Escape from Wildcat Canyon
Movie • 1998
Grandpa Flint
Chief Crazy Horse
Movie • 1955
Maj. Carlisle
Home on the Range
Movie • 2004
Abner (voice)
The Day the Loving Stopped
Movie • 1981
Aaron Danner
Greyhounds
Movie • 1994
Chance Wayne
Gallegher Goes West
Movie • 1966
George Tucker, the Sundown Kid
Earth and the American Dream
Movie • 1992
Reader (voice)
The Great Man's Whiskers
Movie • 1972
Abraham Lincoln
Mission Batangas
Movie • 1968
Chip Corbett
Great Adventurers & Their Quests: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Movie • 1990
Narrator
The Man from the Alamo
Movie • 1953
Tennessean (uncredited)
Amy Grant: Headin' Home for the Holidays
Movie • 1986
Tom Miller
Magnum, P.I.
TV • 1980
Lacy Fletcher
The Simpsons
TV • 1989
Buck McCoy (voice)
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
TV • 1971
That Girl
TV • 1966
The Merv Griffin Show
TV • 1962
Self
Wildfire
TV • 2005
Henry Ritter
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Chester
E! True Hollywood Story
TV • 1996
Dragnet
TV • 1951
Combat!
TV • 1962
Noah
The Ed Sullivan Show
TV • 1948
Self
Centennial
TV • 1978
R.J. Poteet
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Adam Grant
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Charles Cavender
Police Story
TV • 1973
Family Law
TV • 1999
Judge Richard Lloyd
The Don Knotts Show
TV • 1970
Self
McCloud
TV • 1970
Sam McCloud
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
TV • 1951
Ben
Emerald Point N.A.S.
TV • 1983
Rear Adm. Thomas Mallory
Climax!
TV • 1954
Steve Maclyn
Judd for the Defense
TV • 1967
Buck James
TV • 1987
Dr. Buck James
Lonesome Dove: The Series
TV • 1994
Buffalo Bill Cody
Dr. Kildare
TV • 1961
Wayne Wandemeir
Kentucky Jones
TV • 1964
Kentucky Jones
Stone
TV • 1980
Det. Sgt. Daniel Stone
Cher
TV • 1975
Self - Guest
Gentle Ben
TV • 1967
Tom Wedloe
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self - Co-Host
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
TV • 1973
Self
Pearl
TV • 1978
Col. Jason Forrest
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self
The Name of the Game
TV • 1968
Walter Grayson
Dragnet
TV • 1951
Russ Camp
Captain Planet and the Planeteers
TV • 1990
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
TV • 1962
Self
The Pet Set
TV • 1971
Self
Touched by an Angel
TV • 1994
Emmett Rivers
The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries
TV • 1977
Self