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Bill Thurman

Bill Thurman

Birthday: 1920-11-04 | Place of Birth: Texas, USA

Character actor Bill Thurman was born on November 4, 1920 in Texas. A large, rugged, stocky man with a hard, lined, puffy face, a deep, twangy, amicable voice, a strong, bulky build and a charmingly low-key and down-to-earth unaffected natural screen presence, Thurman often portrayed police officers and assorted scruffy redneck types in a huge number of entertainingly cheap'n'cheesy Southern-fried fright flicks and delightfully down'n'dirty drive-in fare made throughout the 60s and 70s. Bill frequently acted in features for legendary Grade Z low-budget independent filmmaker Larry Buchanan; said movies include "The Eye Creatures," "High Yellow," "Zontar the Thing from Venus," "Mars Needs Women," "Curse of the Swamp Creature," "In the Year 2889," the especially atrocious "It's Alive!," and "A Bullet for Pretty Boy." Moreover, Thurman had bit parts in two Steven Spielberg films: he's a hillbilly hunter in "The Sugerland Express" and an air traffic controller in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Bill's other memorable roles include the abusive Coach Popper in Peter Bogdanovich's magnificent "The Last Picture Show," a doomed hitchhiker in "Keep My Grave Open," a corrupt sheriff in the Claudia Jennings exploitation classic "'Gatorbait," a mean small town deputy in "Ride in A Pink Car," a more amiable sheriff in the fantastic Bigfoot winner "Creature from Black Lake," Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith's father in "Slumber Party '57," a priest in "The Evictors," and the boozy, dissolute Reverend Bill McWiley in the enjoyably crummy "Mountaintop Motel Massacre." Bill Thurman died in Dallas, Texas on April 13, 1995. - IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1991
In Broad Daylight

as    Virgil Teague

1983
Mountaintop Motel Massacre

as    Reverend Bill McWiley

1979
The Evictors

as    Preacher Higgins

1976
Creature from Black Lake

as    Sheriff Billy Carter

1974
Ride in a Pink Car

as    Barlow

1974
Where the Red Fern Grows

as    Sam Bellington

1974
'Gator Bait

as    Sheriff Joe Bob Thomas

1970
A Bullet for Pretty Boy

as    Huddy

1969
It's Alive

as    Greely / Monster

1969
Hell Raiders

as    Tex

1969
In the Year 2889

as    Tim Henderson

1968
Curse of the Swamp Creature

as    Driscoll West / The Swamp Creature

1967
Night Fright

as    Deputy Ben Whitfield

1965
Hot-Blooded Woman

as    Railroad Tough