Stan Paregien, Editor
Slim Pickens
(Deceased)
Slim Pickens, cowboy rodeo star and actor, was born Louis Bert Lindley, Jr., on June 29, 1919 in Kingsburg, CA.
He grew up in Hanford, CA., where he began entering rodeo contests at the tender age of 12.
It was a fellow Kings County resident, Cuff Burrell, who gave Lindley his stage name of "Slim Pickens". Burrell himself was inducted into the of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, post-humously, on Oct. 18, 1997 (He was born 1893 in Grangeville, Ca.. He died 1976 in Fresno. In 1912 he placed first in the California State Rodeo at Salinas, CA. He won his first All-Around Champion Cowboy title at the Chicago World's Fair. Several time World Champion All-Around Cowboy.)
Slim Pickens spent the early part of his career as a real cowboy and the latter part playing cowboys. He spent two decades touring the country on the rodeo circuit, becoming a highly-paid and well-respected rodeo clown, a job of enormous danger.
At the age of 31, he was given a role in a Western film, "Rocky Mountain" (1950), and quickly found a niche in both comic and villainous roles in Westerns. With his hoarse voice and pronounced western twang, he was not always easy to cast outside the genre
However, he is best remembered for a single "cowboy" image, that of bomber pilot Major "King" Kong waving his cowboy hat rodeo- style as he rides a nuclear bomb onto its target in "'Dr. Strangelove."
COWBOY CAMPFIRE
Click here for classic sounds from "Blazing Saddles,"
after the cowboys have had too many beans.Slim Pickens appeared in more than 100 films during his movie career, most of them Westerns. Some of his films included Rocky Mountan (1950), The Story of Will Rogers (1952), Old Oklahoma Plains (1952), The Boy from Oklahoma (1954), Santa Fe Passage (1955), The Sheepman (1958), One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Stagecoach (the remake; 1966), Will Penny (1968), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), The Honkers (1972), The Cowboys (1972), Blazing Saddles (1974), The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), Pony Express Rider (1976) and Tom Horn (1979).
He also made guest appearances on the following TV Westerns: Bonanza, How the West Was Won, King Fu, Alias Smith and Jones, Gunsmoke, Cimarron Strip, The Virginian, Rawhide, The Legend of Jesse James, Wagon Train, Overland Trail, Frontier Doctor, Maverick, Annie Oakley, Lone Ranger, and Buffalo Bill, Jr.
Slim Pickens died at age 64 on Dec. 8, 1983 in Modesto, CA., after brain surgery (tumor).
CLICK HERE to view the complete filmography of Slim Pickens.
Robert Claiborne Pitzer
(Deceased)
Robert Pitzer was born in 1879, at Denver, Colo. His first job was riding the fence line for a rancher in southeastern Colorado. During the Spanish American war he acted as a foreign correspondent for several local newspapers. After that war, he moved to New York City and took up photography, art and acting. He appeared in several Broadway plays, including a first run of "Ben Hur". In 1903 he returned to the West, working for a while as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. And he wrote millions of words for feature magazine and pulps. In 1912 entered Princeton Theological Seminary and becoming a Presbyterian minister. He served as a civilian chaplain at several army posts during World Wars I and II.
Robert Pitzer also wrote a number of books, including several Western novels. His books included Three Frontiers and Thunder Mountain. Pitzer, 82, died at his home at Lebanon, Pa. on March 20, 1962.(See his photo and bio in the June, 1955 issue of The Roundup.)
Marian T. Place
Marian T. Place won a Spur Award from WWA in 1959 in the Best Western Juvenile Book division for, Steamboat Up the Missouri (Viking Press), written under her pen name of Dale White.
Suzanne Pleshette
Suzanne Pleshette was born on January 31, 1937 in New York City, New York. Her father, Eugene Pleshette, managed the Paramount and Brooklyn Paramount theaters during the big band era. Suzanne chose to attend the New York High School of the Performing Arts at twelve, then went on to Syracuse University, Finch College, the Neighborhood Playhouse, and Sandy Meizner's Acting School.
Suzanne Pleshette is probably best known for her
role on the "Bob Newhart Show" as Bob's wife.Suzanne Pleshette's work in Westerns included films such as "Support Your Local Gunfighter" (1971), "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin" (1967), "Nevada Smith" (1966), and TV shows such as "Bonanza," "Gunsmoke," "Cimarron Strip," "The Wild, Wild West," and "Wagon Train."
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Suzanne Pleshette.
Rose Plummer
(Deceased)
Rose Plummer, actress, was born on Jan. 19, 1876 in California.Rose Plummer played in about a dozen Western movies, including "The Montana Kid" (1931), "Law of the West" (1932), "The Fighting Parson" (1933), "The Red Ryder" (1934), "Thunder Over Texas" (1934), "The Pecos Kid" (1935), "Git Along Little Doggies" (1937), "Rovin Tumbleweeds" (1939) and "Duel in the Sun" (1946.
Rose Plummer died on March 3, 1955.
This listing is far from complete and their may be errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
--- Bible: I Corinthians 13:4-5
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
