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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
as Abner (voice)
as Buck Stevens
as Mart Howe
as Sam Balaam
as Grandpa Flint
as Sam Jenks
as Captain Farnsworth
as Sheriff Pratt
as Chance Wayne
as Vice President Dale Burden
as Reader (voice)
as Sam McCloud
as Sheriff Ben Harlen
as Self
as Jack Duggan
as Tom Miller
as Mr. Wyshner
as Wally Johnson
as Eddie Gant
as Phillip
as Aaron Danner
as Dr. Samuel A. Mudd
as Elroy 'Bud' Burkhardt
as Daniel Ellis Stone
as Sgt. Ted Bentley
as Charles Bates
as Prof. Benjamin Fuller
as Gable McQueen
as Donald Halston
as Neil Glynn
as Deke Chambers
as Lonnie McAfee
as Abraham Lincoln
as David Mann
as Lt. Joe Hardy
as Linc Palmer
as Erwin Ward
as Self
as Chip Corbett
as Tom Wedloe
as George Tucker, the Sundown Kid
as Hoffman
as Willard Grange
as Andy Lowe
as Mirador Motel Night Manager
as Hank
as Maj. Carlisle
as John Brown Jr.
as Sheriff Clyde Gibbons
as Capt. R.A. Lohrman
as Ranger clerk
as Pino
as Tennessean (uncredited)
as Menguito
as Frank Durling
as Julian Contant
as Matt Jessup
as Jim Clements
as Dandy Taylor
