Clu Gulager is an American television and film actor. He is particularly noted for his co-starring role as William H. Bonney (
Billy The KidWilliam H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
) in the 1960–62 NBC TV series
The Tall ManThe Tall Man is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1960 to 1962. The series was produced by Revue Productions.-Synopsis:...
and for his role in the later NBC series
The VirginianThe Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
. He also appeared in the racing film
WinningWinning is a 1969 American motion picture starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. A number of racecar drivers and people associated with racing appear in the film, including Bobby Unser, Tony Hulman, Bobby Grim, Dan Gurney, Roger McCluskey, and Bruce Walkup.-Plot summary:The film centers on...
(1969), with
Paul NewmanPaul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
and
Joanne WoodwardJoanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman...
, and was the protagonist Burt in the horror movie
The Return of the Living Dead (1985).
Early life
Gulager was born
William Martin Gulager in
HoldenvilleHoldenville is a city in Hughes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 4,732 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hughes County....
,
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, the son of John Gulager, a cowboy entertainer. His first
cousinIn kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
was
Will RogersWilliam "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
(through his paternal grandmother). Gulager served in the
United States Marine CorpsThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
from 1946 to 1948. He has
CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
Native AmericanThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
ancestry. His nickname was given to him by his father for the clu-clu birds (known in English as martins, like his middle name) that were nesting at the Gulager home at the time Clu was born. Attended NEOSU (North Eastern Oklahoma State University in Tahlequah, OK), then transferred to Baylor University. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0347656/bio
Acting career
In 1958 Clu Gulager appeared as Roy Carter in the episode "The Return of Roy Carter" (written by
Gene RoddenberryEugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
of
Star TrekStar Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
fame) in the western television series
Have Gun-Will Travel starring
Richard BooneRichard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...
. In the spring of 1959, Gulager appeared as Tommy Pavlock in the episode "The Immigrant" of NBC's series
The Lawless YearsThe Lawless Years is the first television crime drama set during the Roaring 20s, having predated ABC's far more successful The Untouchables with Robert Stack by six months. The 47-episode half-hour series aired nonconsecutively on NBC from April 16 to August 27, 1959, from October 1, 1959, to...
, a 1920s crime drama. In the fall of 1959, he appeared in the episode "The Temple of the Swinging Doll" of NBC's short-lived espionage drama,
Five FingersFor other uses see 5 Fingers Five Fingers is an NBC adventure/drama series set in Europe during the Cold War loosely based on the 1952 film 5 Fingers, starring James Mason and Danielle Darrieux...
, starring
David HedisonAlbert David Hedison, Jr. is an Armenian-American film, television, and stage actor. He was billed as Al Hedison in his early film work. In 1959, when he was cast in the role of Victor Sebastian in the short-lived espionage television series Five Fingers, NBC insisted that he change his name...
. On October 11, 1959, he appeared as a U.S. Navy sailor in the "Appointment at Eleven" episode of
Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
. On
The UntouchablesThe Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
, he essayed the role of vicious mob killer Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll and turned in an utterly chilling performance as the psychopathic Coll.
He then played
Billy the KidWilliam H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
in the 1960–62 NBC series
The Tall ManThe Tall Man is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1960 to 1962. The series was produced by Revue Productions.-Synopsis:...
opposite
Barry SullivanBarry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...
as
Pat GarrettPatrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett was an American Old West lawman, bartender, and customs agent who was best known for killing Billy the Kid...
, and succeeded in portraying Billy as a sympathetic character without resorting to the "misunderstood young man" portrayal so often used in such films as
The OutlawThe Outlaw is a 1943 American Western film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jane Russell. The supporting cast includes Jack Buetel, Thomas Mitchell, and Walter Huston. Hughes also produced the film, while Howard Hawks served as an uncredited co-director...
and
The Left Handed GunThe Left Handed Gun is a 1958 American western film and the film directorial debut of Arthur Penn, starring Paul Newman as Billy the Kid and John Dehner as Pat Garrett...
. In 1961, he guest starred on the NBC western
Whispering SmithWhispering Smith is a short-lived American Western series that aired on NBC. Based on a 1948 movie, the series stars Audie Murphy as Tom "Whispering" Smith, a police detective in Denver, Colorado...
,
Audie MurphyAudie Leon Murphy was a highly decorated and famous soldier. Through LIFE magazine's July 16, 1945 issue , he became one the most famous soldiers of World War II and widely regarded as the most decorated American soldier of the war...
's only attempt at series television. Gulager portrayed "Emmett Ryker" from 1964 to 1968 on another NBC series
The VirginianThe Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
starring with
James DruryJames Child Drury, Jr. is an American actor probably best known for his success in playing the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series The Virginian, broadcast on NBC from 1962-1971...
,
Doug McClureDouglas Osborne "Doug" McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s...
,
Lee J. CobbLee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
,
Roberta ShoreRoberta Jymme Schourop , better known as Roberta Shore, is an American actress and performer, most famous for her youthful television and movie roles in the 1950s and early 1960s....
,
Randy BooneClyde Wilson Randall Boone, Jr., known as Randy Boone , is a former actor who co-starred in two of the three 90-minute westerns telecast during the 1960s on the national television networks, NBC's The Virginian and CBS's Cimarron Strip...
,
Gary ClarkeGary Clarke is an American actor best known for his role as Steve Hill in the NBC western television series The Virginian with James Drury. Clarke appeared on the program only for its first three seasons, 1962—1964...
and
Diane RoterDiane Roter is an American actress best known for her appearances in the long running TV western The Virginian in its fourth season which ran from 1965 to 1966. She then appeared in an episode of Laredo which was a spin off from The Virginian series in 1966 and later appeared in an episode of the...
. Gulager appeared more than sixty times in other roles in film and television, including the film
Winning and the CBS series
Three for the RoadThree for the Road was a 12-episode CBS drama television series about a recently widowed father and his two sons who in an attempt to assuage their grief, sell their house, procure a recreational vehicle, called the "Zebec", and travel around the United States...
. Amongst those TV roles, he appeared on
BonanzaBonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
several times.
He starred with
Lee MarvinLee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou , he landed more...
,
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and
Angie DickinsonAngie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...
in the 1964 version of
The KillersThe Killers, sometimes marketed as Ernest Hemingway's The Killers, is a 1964 crime film released by Universal Studios. It is the second Hollywood adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story of the same name, following a version made in 1946 starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. It was directed...
.
Gulager is the father of film director
John GulagerJohn Thompson Gulager is an actor, cinematographer and film director.-Acting career:The production and filming of Feast was the main focus of season three of Project Greenlight. The film, made for Miramax, had a limited theatrical release. The DVD version was released on October 17, 2006. He was...
(contest winner in third season of
Project GreenlightProject Greenlight was a contest and television series focusing on first-time filmmakers being given the chance to direct a feature film. It was created by Alex Keledjian, developed by Eli Holzman and produced by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Sean Bailey, and Chris Moore through their production...
), and is the widower of the actress
Miriam Byrd-NetheryMiriam Byrd-Nethery was the wife of actor Clu Gulager, and mother of Tom Gulager and John Gulager. She was born in Lewisville, Lafayette County, Arkansas and died in Los Angeles, California.-Filmography:...
who died in 2003.
He appeared notably in
The Last Picture ShowThe Last Picture Show is a 1971 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry....
along with
Cybill ShepherdCybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L...
and
Ellen BurstynEllen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
. In 1977, long after his role on
The Virginian, he appeared in Rod Taylor's unsuccessful NBC western series,
The Oregon TrailThe Oregon Trail is a 14-episode NBC western television series starring Rod Taylor as the widower Evan Thorpe, who leaves his Illinois farm in 1842 to take the Oregon Trail to the Pacific Northwest. The show also starred Andrew Stevens, Tony Becker, and Gina Marie Smika as Thorpe's children...
, in the episode "The Army Deserter".
He appeared in his son
John GulagerJohn Thompson Gulager is an actor, cinematographer and film director.-Acting career:The production and filming of Feast was the main focus of season three of Project Greenlight. The film, made for Miramax, had a limited theatrical release. The DVD version was released on October 17, 2006. He was...
's
FeastFeast is a 2005 black comedy horror film, a result of Project Greenlights third season, the amateur filmmaking documentary series and contest. The winning team was composed of writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, and director John Gulager...
series of films as a shotgun-toting bartender and will have a role in Piranha 3DD.
He was also a featured player in director
John LandisJohn David Landis is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for his comedies, his horror films, and his music videos with singer Michael Jackson.-Early life and career:...
' darkly comedic 1985 film noir satire,
Into The Night, a film rife with insider Hollywood cameos, as an FBI agent, courier of a cache of clandestine funds, which he grudgingly delivers to secure the safety of the film's two romantic leads,
Michelle PfeifferMichelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
and
Jeff GoldblumJeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day...
. In an example of the film's dry humor, the glamorous leading lady and her tall, dark and nearly handsome hero find they are not in a position to object as the agent/courier (Gulager) angrily pilfers as many packets of bills from the treasure trove as he can resentfully stuff into his pockets in plain sight of them, before leaving the bewildered pair in a huff.
He appeared as Burt in the
Dan O'BannonDaniel Thomas "Dan" O'Bannon was an American motion picture screenwriter, director and occasional actor, usually in the science fiction and horror genres.-Early life and career:...
-directed 1985 cult classic,
The Return of the Living Dead.
External links