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Don Bendell

Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, Don joined the U.S. Army after graduating from Tallmadge High School in 1966. He was an MP for awhile, then, after Infantry Officers Candidate School and Airborne Training (Jump School) at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and trained for a year with the 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In May, 1968, as a Green Beret first lieutenant, Don joined the 5th Special Forces Group in South Vietnam where he was assigned to an A-Team, A-242, living at Dak Pek with the Montagnards (aboriginal-type warriors who lived in Vietnam's mountainous Central Highlands). The Montagnards made him a brigadier in their secret movement called the FULRO. Don was also in charge of the Top Secert Phoenix Program for that immediate area of operations. After a year of adventure (and after almost dying several times), he was medically-evacuated, first to Tokyo for a month, then back to the United States to the 3rd Special Forces Group, where he became the Assistant S-2 (Staff Intellligence Officer).

At home in the United States, Don was promoted to Captain and sent to the US Army Intelligence Officers School at Fort Holabird, Maryland, where he graduated on the Commandant's List. He received a Top Secret security clearance and was placed in charge of all Top Secret Area Studies for every country in Africa and later, the Mideast. When the 3rd Special Forces Group deactivated, Don became an Assistant S-3, or Staff Operations Officer, with the 6th Special Forces Group.

In 1970, Don was honorably discharged from the Army and began to pursue a number of jobs, including a stint as a disc jockey and radio salesman at WAYN radio in Rockingham, North Carolina. He also worked as a plainclothes store detective, a planning coordinator for a community action agency, and turned down a job with the Secret Service to work as an executive sales representative in Ohio. He also started writing magazine articles.

Having studied various martial arts since 1966, he opted to return occupationally to his first love, the martial arts. In Ohio, he became a certified training officer for the Ohio Peace Officers Training Council, and as a writer for martial arts magazines, developed a friendship with World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali.

In the mid-seventies, he returned to the Fort Bragg area, because he wanted to teach the martial arts to Green Berets and other soldiers. He taught defense against knives, guns, clubs, as well as a combination of Tae Kwon Do, Freestyle Karate, Judo, and Jujistu at the Fort Bragg Boxing Club, and had a school outside Fort Bragg, near Fayetteville called the Karate Institute. As a civilian volunteer, he also assisted then-Commanding General Hank Emmerson in setting up a Tae Kwon Do program for the 18th Airborne Corps, which was comprised of Fort Bragg and Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Don Bendell, in 1980, achieved a lifelong goal and successfully raised the financing, wrote, produced, directed, and co-starred in the low budget martial arts action film, "THE INSTRUCTOR,"which was eventually successfully-released in 1984 worldwide by Shapiro Entertainment Corporation of Hollywood and by Vestron Video.

In 1981, Don married his second wife, Shirley. They moved to southern Colorado in 1982, where Don achieved another lifelong goal and became an American cowboy. In 1984 and 1985, he became a licensed big game guide and outfitter, but during it all, he still taught the martial arts and worked on film projects.

In 1989, he left the film business and started writing books. In the meantime, Don has used his spare time sometimes to track missing people, animals, or fugitives. This also gives him more ammunition for his books and screenplays.

In the summer of 2002, Don wrote, directed, and starred in a one-hour television pilot entitled "COWBOY," which featured special guest stars Rex Allen, Jr. and Buck Taylor.

Don's family still has two karate schools, Bendell Karate in Canon City and Pueblo West, which Don runs and teaches at, with Shirley's help. But most of Don's time is still spent writing . His list of published Western novels includes War Bonnet, Chief of Scouts, Colt: Chief of Scouts, Horse Soldiers, Justis Colt, Matched Colts, Blazing Colts, Warrior, Coyote Run, and Eagle.

A seventh degree black belt Master in four different martial arts, Don Bendell is a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame and 1996 inductee into the Martial Arts Museum of America. He is also on the national advisory board of the American Indian Registry for the Performing Arts.

Bendell has been listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and WHO'S WHO IN ENTERTAINMENT since 1992. He was President of the Rocky Mountain Chapter 4/24 of the Special Forces Ass'n, a member of the Special Operations Ass'n, Life member of VFW, member of the International Platform Association, and the Western Writers of America.

CLICK HERE to go to Don Bendell's own official web site.

William Bendix


(Deceased)
William Bendix, actor and comedian, was born on January 14, 1906. He made one Western movie with McDonald Carey, but he is best remembered for his comic lead in the TV series, "The Life of Riley".

William Bendix died on December 14, 1964 from cancer and pneumonia. He is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, CA.

CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of William Bendix.

Peggy Haskell Benjamin


Peggy Haskell Benjamin's Western articles and fiction pieces have appeared in Nebraska Cattleman, Denver Post,Wyoming Electric News, Empire Magazine, Magazine of the Midlands, Nebraska Farmer, Montana Magazine of Western History, Prairie Evening, Christian Science Monitor, Fun Magazine, Discoveries, and other magazines.

She also wrote the scripts for two film strips, "Bathing the New Baby" and "Pretty Figure Makers in Three-Fourth Time", both approved by the American Medical Association.

Peggy Haskell Benjamin wrote, "I started writing when I was small, such as letters to the childrens' pages of various newspapers and mags. My father, who wrote about his personal experiences as a pioneer cattleman in Nebraska with a journalistic style, always encouraged my sisters and I to write and develope our creative talents.

"History was a keen interest because my ancestors were trail blazers from England to the Pacific Coast, via New England and Virginia. We were taught and reminded of this historical background so that it became a living part of our lives. Growing up on a cattle ranch in Nebraska gave me a taste of the West."

Ray Benson

Ray Benson is the founder and leader of the Western swing group, "Asleep at the Wheel". See that listing for his information.

Byron Berline

Byron Berline, fiddler and bandleader, is a three-time National Fiddle champion. He received his B.A. in Physical Education, but his heart was in music. Originally from Oklahoma, where he began playing the fiddle at age 5, Byron lived and worked in Los Angeles for 26 years before returning to his home state to set up his fiddle shop and theatre in Guthrie, OK.

He has led or been a member of the following bands: Bill Monroe & Bluegrass Boys, 1966-67; Dillard & Clark, 1969-70; Dillard Expedition, 1970-71; Country Gazette, 1971-75; Sundance, 1975-85; Berline, Crary, Hickman, 1978-90; L.A. Fiddle Band, 1978-93; California, 1990-95; and the Byron Berline Band, 1996 to the present.

Byron Berline's professional career reads like a who's who in the music business as he has performed with or recorded with so famous singers and musicians. That list includes The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, John Denver, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, Kay Starr, Hoyt Axton, Alabama, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Arlo Guthrie, Emmylu Harris, Willie Nelson, Red Stegall, Tammy Wynette, Bill Monroe, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, and fellow Oklahomans Joe Diffy and Vince Gill.

CLICK HERE to go to Byron Berline's own web site.

Dale Berry


Dale Berry of Dallas, Texas is an actor and entertainer. He initially made his living singing and playing the guitar.

Then he found his way into acting, screenwriting, producing and directing. He has made appearances on "Walker, Texas Ranger".

In September of 2002, my wife and I had breakfast with him when he and I were among the many performers at the National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration. He is a charming man who has never met a stranger, at least not anyone who stayed a stranger for long.

Ray Allen Billington

(Deceased)
Ray Allen Billington, widely acknowledged as the dean of American frontier historians, was born at Bay City, Mich., in 1903. He earned his first Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in 1926 and his second Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1933. He taught at a half-dozen universities in the U.S. and for a time served as a Harmsworth professor at Oxford University in England. He retired from teaching in 1960 to devote his time to research at the Huntington Library, holding the position of Senior Research Associate.

He wrote more than nonfiction, historical 25 books about the West. He won a Spur Award from Western Writers of America in 1967 for his book, America's Frontier Heritage. And his book, Land of Savagery/Land of Promise, was published just one week before his death. His final book, Limericks: Hysterical and Historical, was published posthumously and deals with frontier humor.

Some of his other books were The Protestant Crusade (1938), Western Expansion: A History of the American Frontier (1949), American History After 1865 (1950; went through at least 8 editions), The Far Western Frontier (1956), Westward Movement in the United States (1959), The Frontier Thesis (1966), The Genesis of the Frontier Thesis (1971), Frederick Jackson Turner: Historian, Teacher, Scholar.

Ray Allen Billington, 77, died of a heart attack at his home on March 1, 1981. Interment was at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, Calif.

Sonya Birmingham

Sonya Birmingham is the author of these Western romances: SPITFIRE (1991), RENEGADE LADY (1992) and ALMOST A LADY (1993).

Hoffman Birney

(Deceased)
Hoffman Birney was born in Philadelphia and attended Dickinson College at Carlisle, Penn. He served in the Army infantry and aviation section during World War I, rising to a 2nd Lt. He served as an editor in the Army's rocket research and development department. And as a civilian he worked as deputy chief of reports and publications in the ballistics department of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Huntsville. Many writers in the WWA corral found out that he was an authority on old-time rifles and pistols, because he was a stickler for authenticity and sometimes pounced on a writer who had his hero toting a gun which hadn't even been made.

Hoffman Birney started his writing career in 1927 and was the author of nearly 30 books for both adults and juveniles. His books included King of the Mesa (1927), The Masked Rider, Vigilantes, Canyon of the Lost Waters, Eagle in the Sun, Stranger in Black Butte, and The Dice of God (1956). And for 15 years before his death, he was Western novel critic for the New York Times.

Hoffman Birney, 67, died on June 3, 1958, at Huntsville, Alabama. He was survived by his widow and a son, Herman Hoffman Birney III. (See Hoffman Birney's photo and obituary in the July, 1958 issue of The Roundup.)

Ron Bishop

(Deceased)
Ron Bishop fought in World War II, earning both the Order of the British Empire and the British Empire Medal. He attended Sanford University and played, briefly, with the San Francisco 49ers professional football team. He made his first TV script sale in 1958 to "Reckless Gun." He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on "The Red Pony" in 1972-73. He went on to write scripts for such popular TV shows as "Gunsmoke," "Streets of San Francisco," "Kung Fu," and "Maverick."

Ron Bishop was 66 when he died on Jan. 30, 1988 of a stroke in Santa Monica, Calif. He and his wife had three daughters.His obituary appeared in the March, 1988 issue of The Roundup.

Mary Linda Bittle


Mary Linda Bittle was born on Jan. 3, 1959 at Springfield, Mo. She graduated from Holden High School, Holden, Mo. in 1977 and married Gerald D. Bittle on Feb. 17, 1978.

Her articles have appeared in World of Rodeo and Western Heritage. She was listed in Who's Who Among American High School Students her senior year in high school. Bittle is a member of Western Writers of America , the Conservation Federation of Missouri, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Quail Unlimited.

Rosanne Bittner


A Michigan resident, Rosanne Bittner is an author known around the world. Since 1983 she has had 43 books published and sold over seven million copies. Her books have been printed by Warner Books, St. Martin's press, Berkley/Jove, Bantam Books and Zebra Books. Her books have been translated and printed in seven foreign languages.

Rosanne Bittner writes historical romances and sagas about the American West of the 1800's. She is a member of the Outlaw-Lawman History Association, the Oregon-California Trails Association, the Order of Indian Wars, the Council on America's Military Past, Nebraska and Montana State Historical Societies, Women Writing the West, Western Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, the Writers' Guild. Locally, she is a member of the Lioness Club and of the Executive & Professional Women's Association. Rosanne Bittner and her husband Larry have two adult sons.

Click here to go to Rosanne Bittner's own web page.

This listing is far from complete and may
contain errors. Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or
their agents are requested to submit recommended changes
by contacting Stan Paregien

© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.