1. Billy Dennis Weaver 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.
33 Facts About Dennis Weaver
1. 2.
Dennis Weaver starred in the 1971 television film Duel, the first film of director Steven Spielberg.
3.
Dennis Weaver is remembered for his role as the twitchy motel attendant in Orson Welles's film Touch of Evil.
4.
Dennis Weaver was born June 4,1924, in Joplin, Missouri, the son of Walter Leon "Doc" Dennis Weaver and his wife Lenna Leora.
5.
Dennis Weaver lived in Shreveport, Louisiana, for several years and for a short time in Manteca, California.
6.
Dennis Weaver 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.
7.
Dennis Weaver eventually took over the role from Chapman in the national touring company.
8.
Dennis Weaver made his film debut that same year in the movie The Redhead from Wyoming.
9.
Dennis Weaver received an Emmy Award in 1959 for Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series.
10.
Never having heard the radio show, Dennis Weaver gave Chester's "inane" dialog his best "method" delivery.
11.
Dennis Weaver co-starred in a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone titled "Shadow Play".
12.
In that episode, Dennis Weaver's character is trapped inside his own revolving nightmare, repeatedly being tried, sentenced, and then executed in the electric chair.
13.
In 1964, Dennis Weaver left Gunsmoke to star as a friendly veterinary physician raising an adopted Chinese boy as a single father in NBC's one season comedy drama Kentucky Jones.
14.
Dennis Weaver had a significant role in the 1966 western Duel at Diablo, with James Garner and Sidney Poitier.
15.
Decades earlier, as a student at Oklahoma University in the mid-1940s, it was Dennis Weaver who had introduced Clint's parents, Rance Howard and Jean Speegle Howard, to one another when the three of them were theater students at OU.
16.
In 1970, Dennis Weaver landed the title role in the NBC series McCloud, for which he received two Emmy Award nominations.
17.
Spielberg selected Dennis Weaver based on the intensity of his earlier performance in Touch of Evil.
18.
Dennis Weaver was a recording artist, with most of his tracks being spoken-word recordings with musical accompaniment.
19.
Dennis Weaver released several singles and albums between 1959 and 1984, most notable of which was his eponymous Im'press Records LP in 1972, the cover of which featured a portrait of Weaver in character as McCloud; it was the first of seven albums he recorded.
20.
From 1973 to 1975, Dennis Weaver was president of the Screen Actors Guild.
21.
In 1978, Weaver played the trail boss R J Poteet in the television miniseries Centennial, in the installment titled "The Longhorns".
22.
Dennis Weaver appeared in many acclaimed television films, including Amber Waves with Kurt Russell.
23.
Dennis Weaver received probably the best reviews of his career when he starred in the 1987 film Bluffing It, in which he played a man who is illiterate.
24.
Dennis Weaver hosted segments for the Encore Westerns premium cable network in the late 1990s and early to mid-2000s.
25.
Dennis Weaver had an interest in the UFO topic and in 1986 narrated a daily toll-charge phone message service called the UFO Contact Newsline, produced in his basement and operated by his son Rusty Dennis Weaver and partner Paul Shepherd.
26.
Dennis Weaver was reported to have been a vegetarian from 1958 for ethical reasons; however, he did occasionally eat fish.
27.
Dennis Weaver married Gerry Stowell after World War II, and they had three sons: Richard, Robert, and Rustin Dennis Weaver.
28.
Dennis Weaver called his home Earthship, the same name given to the design concept pioneered by Reynolds and advanced by him as part of what was then a growing interest in "sustainable architecture" by environmentalists.
29.
Dennis Weaver was one of 10 people killed in the incident.
30.
Dennis Weaver was an environmentalist, who promoted the use of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen and wind power, through the Institute of Ecolonomics, a nonprofit environmental organization he established in 1993 in Berthoud, Colorado.
31.
Dennis Weaver used his celebrity status as a fundraiser and organizer for George McGovern's campaign for President in 1972.
32.
Dennis Weaver was consistently involved with the annual Genesis Awards, which honor those in the news and entertainment media who bring attention to the plight and suffering of animals.
33.
Dennis Weaver died from prostate cancer at his home in Ridgway, Colorado, on February 24,2006, at age 81.