Clint Walker was an American actor who came to the fore thanks to his starring role as cowboy Cheyenne Bodie in the western series Cheyenne, a production of ABC/Warner Bros. that was broadcast from 1955 to 1963. After that, he became a fixture in western productions. Clint Walker remained relevant in the entertainment industry until the late 1990s when he retired. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1997 he was awarded the Golden Boot Award.
Clint Walker (Valerie Walker’s Father) Bio
The actor was born on May 30, 1927, in Hartford, Illinois. At his birth, he was called Norman Eugene Walker, but at the beginning of his acting career, he was called Norman by his talent agent Henry Willson Jett Norman. He was later renamed Clint by Jack Warner of Warner Bros., his parents were Gladys Huldah (née Schwanda) and Paul Arnold Walker. From his mother’s side, Walker has Czech roots.
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Clint Walker was before he tried his hand at acting, a serial actor who changed from one casual job to the next. His first job was in a factory for river ships, then he joined the United States Merchant Navy when World War II was drawing to a close. Walker was 17 years old at the time.
After his time in the Army, Walker returned to odd jobs across the country, from working as a doorman at Nevada’s Sands Hotel to a nightclub doorman, thanks to his towering size and athletic build, and as a sheet metal worker elsewhere. Hoping for a job, Walker decided to try his hand at acting and signed on with Henry Wilson, who was known at the time for introducing young talent to the entertainment industry.
Walker’s first film role was an unrewarded role alongside the Bowery Boys in the 1954 comedy Jungle Gents. Walker starred in several other films before he fell under the radar of Warner Bros., which was developing Western television programs at the time. Clint Walker’s outstanding character immediately appealed to the producers of the television series Cheyenne, and he was cast as the lead actor. The leading role of Cheyenne Bodie was to be his breakthrough.
In addition to his acting skills, the producers also took advantage of his vocal abilities when Clint Walker sang a series of songs, mostly traditional songs and ballads that were used in the soundtrack of the film.
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After playing the role for 8 years, Clint Walker became something of a Western cowboy. His later Western movies included Fort Dobbs (1958), Yellowstone Kelly (1959), Gold of the Seven Saints (1961), and the television show 77 Sunset Strip. Clint Walker starred in the war drama None but the Brave (1965), the only film directed by star musician Frank Sinatra. Walker’s biggest hit after Cheyenne and the best of his career was the war drama The Dirty Dozen (1967). From the 1970s Walker returned to television and appeared mostly in television movies until his retirement in 1998.
Is He Dead Or Alive?
Clint Walker was lucky enough to live until the age of 90. At that time, in 1971, the actor had a fatal skiing accident and was declared dead for a moment by the doctors. He was skiing in Mammoth Mountain, California when he fell off a ski lift and his heart was pierced by a ski pole. Shortly after he was pronounced dead, a doctor noticed a faint sign of life and rushed the actor to the operating room. Fortunately, Walker’s heart was repaired, and two months later he resumed his normal activities.
After Clint Walker retired in 1998, he remained completely under the radar and spent most of his time with his family. A year before his retirement, in 1997, he had married Susan Cavallari (his third wife) and remained married to her until his death in 2018. Clint Walker died on May 21, 2018, in a hospital in Grass Valley, California. His daughter Valarie confirmed his death to the media on the grounds that the actor died of congestive heart failure. He left behind his third wife and only daughter Valarie, who was born to his first wife Verna Garver. Valerie Walker is famous for being one of the first female airline pilots.
Twin Sister
Clint Walker had a twin sister named Lucy. Unlike Clint, she was not in the entertainment industry, so she led a normal life, far away from the media. Lucy died in 2000 at the age of 73.
Clint Walker Net Worth
Clint Walker was a movie star at a time when actors did not earn so much money. In 2017, one year before his death, Clint Walker’s Networth is estimated at $5 million.
