1. Warren Mercer Oates was an American actor best known for his performances in several films directed by Sam Peckinpah, including The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
20 Facts About Warren Oates
1. 2.
Warren Oates portrayed John Dillinger in the biopic Dillinger and as the supporting character US Army Sergeant Hulka in the military comedy Stripes.
3.
Warren Oates was born and reared in Depoy, a tiny rural community in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, located just a few miles west of Greenville, the county seat.
4.
On his father's side, Warren Oates was of English, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry.
5.
Warren Oates attended Louisville Male High School in Louisville, Kentucky, until 1945, but did not graduate from that institution.
6.
Warren Oates did later earn a high-school equivalency diploma.
7.
Warren Oates became interested in theater while attending the University of Louisville, where in 1953, he starred in several plays produced by the school's Little Theater Company.
8.
In 1961, Warren Oates guest-starred in the episode "Artie Moon" in NBC's The Lawless Years crime drama about the 1920s.
9.
Warren Oates first met Peckinpah when he played a variety of guest roles in The Rifleman, a popular television series co-created and sometimes directed by Peckinpah.
10.
Warren Oates played a supporting role in Peckinpah's short-lived series The Westerner in 1960.
11.
Warren Oates had a close relationship with Hellman, and worked with him on three other films: the western film The Shooting, co-starring a young Jack Nicholson, Cockfighter, and China 9, Liberty 37, in which Peckinpah, who was a friend of Hellman's, featured in a rare acting role.
12.
Warren Oates appeared in the Sherman Brothers' musical version of Tom Sawyer, as Muff Potter, the town drunk.
13.
Warren Oates starred in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, Return of the Seven, The Split, The Thief Who Came to Dinner, Drum, and played the title role in a 1971 crime drama, Chandler.
14.
Warren Oates costarred three times with friend Peter Fonda in The Hired Hand, Race with the Devil, and 92 in the Shade.
15.
Warren Oates was cast in Roger Donaldson's 1977 New Zealand film Sleeping Dogs together with New Zealand actor Sam Neill.
16.
Warren Oates plays the role of Willoughby, commander of the American forces stationed in New Zealand and working with the New Zealand fascist government to find and subdue "rebels".
17.
Hulka, Warren Oates played the straight man to Murray's comedic character.
18.
In 1981, Warren Oates costarred as a fanatical Southern preacher-turned-Confederate officer in The Blue and the Gray, a CBS TV miniseries that aired in November 1982.
19.
Warren Oates was ill with influenza in the weeks before his death.
20.
Warren Oates has a dedicated cult following because of his performances in Peckinpah's studio films and television shows, Monte Hellman's independent works, his films with Peter Fonda, and in a number of B movies from the 1970s.