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Character actor Bill Thurman was born on November 4, 1920 in Texas. A large, rugged, stocky man with a hard, lined, puffy face, a deep, twangy, amicable voice, a strong, bulky build and a charmingly low-key and down-to-earth unaffected natural screen presence, Thurman often portrayed police officers and assorted scruffy redneck types in a huge number of entertainingly cheap'n'cheesy Southern-fried fright flicks and delightfully down'n'dirty drive-in fare made throughout the 60s and 70s. Bill frequently acted in features for legendary Grade Z low-budget independent filmmaker Larry Buchanan; said movies include "The Eye Creatures," "High Yellow," "Zontar the Thing from Venus," "Mars Needs Women," "Curse of the Swamp Creature," "In the Year 2889," the especially atrocious "It's Alive!," and "A Bullet for Pretty Boy." Moreover, Thurman had bit parts in two Steven Spielberg films: he's a hillbilly hunter in "The Sugerland Express" and an air traffic controller in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Bill's other memorable roles include the abusive Coach Popper in Peter Bogdanovich's magnificent "The Last Picture Show," a doomed hitchhiker in "Keep My Grave Open," a corrupt sheriff in the Claudia Jennings exploitation classic "'Gatorbait," a mean small town deputy in "Ride in A Pink Car," a more amiable sheriff in the fantastic Bigfoot winner "Creature from Black Lake," Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith's father in "Slumber Party '57," a priest in "The Evictors," and the boozy, dissolute Reverend Bill McWiley in the enjoyably crummy "Mountaintop Motel Massacre." Bill Thurman died in Dallas, Texas on April 13, 1995. - IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders
as Old Man Bolen
as Virgil Teague
as Bus Driver
as Jeb Kline
as Carter
as Bailiff
as Sheriff
as Jim Gardner
as Reverend Bill McWiley
as Floyd
as Sheriff
as Pilot #1
as Ora Haley
as Sheriff
as Preacher Higgins
as Carl Evans
as Hitchhiker
as Air Traffic
as Sgt. Bond
as Mr. Willis
as Sheriff Billy Carter
as Deke
as Sheriff Joe Bob Thomas
as Sam Bellington
as Barlow
as Hunter
as Mr. Stanovich
as Second Man
as Jed Bartrum
as Coach Popper
as Huddy
as Greely / Monster
as Tex
as Tim Henderson
as Policeman (uncredited)
as Drunk on Pier
as Driscoll West / The Swamp Creature
as Sheriff Brad Crenshaw
as Deputy Ben Whitfield
as Sergeant
as Lt. Lang
as Bartender
as Railroad Tough
as Major Bates
as Witness
