Clu Gulager

On TV, he played Billy the Kid on the “The Tall Man” and was seen on the long-running “The Virginian.” His movies ranged from “The Killers” to “The Last ...

“You know, there are three generations of Gulagers in this movie,” John Gulager told the blog horror-movies.ca in an interview. The second “Feast” movie was even more of a family affair. Mr. Gulager left the cast of “The Virginian” in 1968 to focus on directing and teaching. Mr. Gulager played a more lawful character on “The Virginian,” the first of three 1960s western series that ran for 90 minutes, which starred James Drury and Doug McClure. Mr. Gulager’s character on the show, Emmett Ryker, was introduced in the show’s third season when a rich man tried to hire him to murder a rancher. “What we do, in our best moments, is provide humanity with food for the spirit.” He married Miriam Byrd-Nethery, and they acted in summer stock and university theater. William Martin Gulager was born in Holdenville, Okla., on Nov. 16, 1928. He walked into a saloon and within moments angered a man playing cards. “He lends a certain psychological depth to Billy.” In Mr. Gulager’s first scene, Ryker was typically unflappable. After clearing his name, Ryker channeled his penchant for violence into the service of the law. Their fatal encounter never happened on the show, which ended abruptly in 1962.

Gulager amassed 165 film and television credits during a career spanning nearly 70 years.

We send our love to John, Tom, Diane, and to all the lives he touched.” “A proud member of the Cherokee nation, a rule-breaker, sharp and astute and on the side — always — of the oppressed. His most high-profile TV role came on NBC’s “The Virginian,” which aired from 1962 to 1971. A beautiful life filled with family, friends and films,” the post read. He was good- humored, an avid reader, tender and kind. “Clu was as caring as he was loyal and devoted to his craft,” the statement continued.

Clu Gulager, a prominent actor in classic Westerns, horror films, and other genres in television and film since the 1950s, has died from natural causes ...

'His family will miss him terribly.' His last project was working under the direction of Quentin Tarantino in the 2019 film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. He played the role of a book store man in the movie. 'Clu was as caring as he was loyal and devoted to his craft, a proud member of the Cherokee nation, a rule-breaker, sharp and astute and on the side—always—of the oppressed.' Following his year abroad, he began his start in the industry in the late 1950s, starring in the TV series such as, The Untouchables (1959) and a few episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Clu was born as William Martin Gulager in 1928 in Oklahoma. He was Cherokee and was given the nickname of Clu, which was named after the birds near his home. A loss: Clu Gulager has died at the age of 93, and was known for starring in classic westerns and horror films, such as The Return Of The Living Dead (1985); pictured in 2006

Clu Gulager, a seasoned performer best remembered for his parts in the 1985 horror-comedy 'The Return of the Living Dead' and the NBC sitcom 'The Virginian ...

Billy the Kid played Pat Garrett opposite Barry Sullivan in ‘The Tall Man,’ marking his first significant role after a string of cameos on TV shows. In 1971, he played a part in Peter Bogdanovich’s ‘The Last Picture Show’. "With notable appearances in horror movies, Gulager was reintroduced to a new generation of audiences in the 1980s. He later enrolled at Northeastern State University and Baylor University. A 1955 edition of the variety show 'Omnibus' is regarded as Gulager’s debut appearance on screen. Gulager, a TV Western staple, played Billy the Kid in NBC's 'The Tall Man' for two seasons and was a regular in the network's 'The Virginian' for four of the show's nine seasons. Quentin Tarantino, whose 2019 film ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ served as Gulager’s last movie appearance, was a fan of the actor. Clu Gulager, a seasoned performer best remembered for his parts in the 1985 horror-comedy ‘The Return of the Living Dead’ and the NBC sitcom ‘The Virginian,’ has passed away from natural causes.

In The Killers he played a hitman opposite Ronald Reagan's mob boss and was the only actor killed onscreen by the future US President.

Considered a temperamental actor who struggled to memorise his lines, Gulager found television a creatively unsatisfying medium and hankered to be a director. He demonstrated a quirky acting style with a flair for the unusual. In the colour remake of The Killers, originally a film noir classic from 1946, Gulager played a professional hitman opposite the future President in Reagan’s last, and most unlikely, film role as a mob boss. “Clu began to cry — as a person and as an actor,” Spielberg recalled. The film was commissioned as the first made-for-network-TV movie, but was so violent that it was deemed unfit for broadcast. Reagan hated being cast as a villain and was only persuaded after a lunch with the director Don Siegel. Shot down on a sunlit sidewalk with a sniper rifle from an upper window, Gulager was the only actor Reagan killed in his prolific film career.