Clint Walker as featured in the TV western series CHEYENNE (1955-1963). He was born Norman Eugene Walker in Hartford, Illinois, on May 30, 1927. He quit high school at 16 and at age 17 joined the Merchant Marine. After a while he took a job as a security officer at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. It was there that he met quite a few Hollywood people who told him that his size, physique and good looks would serve him well and that he should go to Los Angeles and give it a try. He met actor Henry Wilcoxon, who introduced him to director Cecil B. DeMille, and Walker found himself playing the part of a Captain of the Guard in “The Ten Commandments” (1956). Someone from Warner Bros. saw the film, found out that Walker was under contract to producer Hal B. Wallis, bought up Walker's contract and gave him the lead in TV series "Cheyenne" (1955-1963). The series was a huge hit and spawned countless other western series from other studios. When the show ended Walker began to get supporting parts in features, his biggest and most successful one being “The Dirty Dozen” (1967). He starred in the well-received “The Night of the Grizzly” (1966) and the not-so-well received “None But the Brave” (1965), a WWII film that was Frank Sinatra's one and only stab at directing. He also played the lead in “Baker's Hawk” (1976), and turned in a good performance as a villain in the TV movie “Scream of the Wolf” (1974). Much later on he and several of his colleagues from "The Dirty Dozen" provided the voices for the animated film “Small Soldiers” (1998). Walker died of congestive heart failure in Grass Valley, California, on May 21, 2018, nine days before his 91st birthday.
Color enhanced image by Hollywood Pinups from the b&w original.
