Dennis Weaver |
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Dennis Weaver Biography |
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William Dennis Weaver (June 4, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an Emmy Award-winning American actor, best known for his work in television, including roles on Gunsmoke, as Marshal Sam McCloud on the NBC police drama McCloud and in Steven Spielberg`s feature-length directorial debut, the cult TV movie Duel in 1971.
Weaver was born in Joplin, Missouri, the son of Lena Prather (1892–1970) and Walter Weaver (1890–1967), of Irish, Scottish, English, Cherokee and Osage ancestry. He wanted to be an actor from boyhood. He started college at Joplin Junior College, now Missouri Southern State University and later attended the University of Oklahoma at Norman, where he studied drama and also was a track star, setting records in several events. He served as a pilot in the United States Navy during the Second World War. In 1945, he married Gerry Stowell, with whom he had three children (Rick, Robbie and Rustin). In 1948, he tried out for the U.S. Olympic team in the decathlon. After he finished sixth in the Olympic Trials (only the top three made the team), his college friend Lonny Chapman convinced him to come to New York City to try acting. Weaver had been a vegetarian since 1958 and student of yoga and meditation since the 1960s. He was also renowned as an environmentalist, promoting eating lower on the food chain, alternate fuels such as hydrogen and wind power through an educational organization he founded, The Institute of Ecolonomics (a neologism formed by combining "ecology" and "economics"). Biography Credit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Weaver |
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Quotes When we realize we can make a buck cleaning up the environment, it will be done! War is usually fought over diminishing resources, particulary those that we perceive to be extremely valuable. The people of the future will say, meat-eaters in disgust and regard us in the same way that we regard cannibals and cannibalism. Coming back to a television series puts you back in the limelight and gives you a platform for your ideas. If you`re not acting on a series, you don`t get the ability to communicate to people. Changing mass consciousness is an individual responsibility. It`s fun to be a little bit different in the world, to make a few new trails of your own. We should be able to support our own economy within our own borders. If we had a hydrogen economy worldwide, every nation on earth could create its own energy source to support its economy, and the threat of war over diminishing resources would just evaporate. If we were driving pure hydrogen automobiles, that automobile would actually help clean up the air because the air coming out of the exhaust would be cleaner than the air going into the engine intake. Practically every environmental problem we have can be traced to our addiction to fossil fuels, primarily oil. I feel responsible; I feel I`ve got to do something that will leave the kids a place where they can live healthy, safe, productive, creative and prosperous lives. The earth is a tremendous gift. There is nothing else like it in the known universe. I want to leave it the way I found it. We`re the only species that have crapped up the planet and the only species that can clean it up. When I was a kid, we never heard of smog, ozone depletion, acid rain, green house gasses. Whatever we`ll be forced to do later, we should be doing now. We don`t have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment. Business must be the solution, not the problem. Business has to change the way it does business, or we will make no significant changes in the way we relate to the earth. The premise is simple: One economy and one environment, and they`re interdependent. It`s not an if - we`re going to have to change. Oil is simply going to be gone. If you don`t generate tension in the film to begin with... you can`t really make a purse out of a sow`s ear, you know.Trivia He was a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party and a vocal opponent of the Iraq war. Built an Earthship environmental home in Ridgway, Colorado. He was a struggling actor in Hollywood in 1955, earning $60 a week delivering flowers when he was offered $300 a week for a role in a new CBS television series, "Gunsmoke" (1955). After nine years as Chester, who he played with a stiff-legged gait, he was earning $9,000 a week. Served as the president of "Love Is Feeding Everyone" (LIFE), which fed 150,000 needy people a week in Los Angeles County. Also, founded the Institute of Ecolonomics, which sought solutions to economic and environmental problems. Almost didn`t get the part of Chester Goode on "Gunsmoke" until he asked for a second chance to read the lines in a humorous, countrified accent and won the role. Inducted (as a cast member of "Gunsmoke" (1955)) into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1981. Lost a daughter-in-law, Lynne Ann Weaver (who was married to his son, Robby Weaver), to a July 2003 Santa Monica, California, car accident that killed more than eight people. Father of actor Robby Weaver, actor/producer/director Rick Weaver and Rusty Weaver. Was a committed environmentalist; Weaver`s home near Santa Fe, NM, is constructed almost entirely out of recycled materials. Is a Vegetarian. Had three children and three grandchildren, Jennifer, Travis and Jess. President of Screen Actors Guild (SAG). [1973-1975] Shelley Winters gave him one of his first real breaks by helping him get a part in a stage production of "Come Back, Little Sheba." Placed 6th in the 1948 Olympic Trials in the Decathlon. Bob Mathias placed first; Weaver won the final event, the 1500 meter run. Was a track and field athlete from the University of Oklahoma. | ||
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