Great Character Actors

Arthur Hunnicutt
(1911 - 1979)

One of the better Western character actors, Arthur Hunnicutt was born February 17, 1911 in Gravelly, Arkansas and educated at Arkansas State Teachers College. He taught school for a time during the Depression until he was able to afford tuition at Phidela Rice School of Voice in Cleveland. Later he joined summer stock productions in Massachusetts and eventually made his debut on the Broadway Stage. His grizzled features and distinct voice with country accent were perfect for Western and historical films. He was almost always a wise and wily but sympathetic character in films. Among his film credits were: "Wildcat" (1942) as Watchfob Jones, his film debut; "Riding Through Nevada" (1942) as Arkansas; "Silver Queen" (1942) as Brett; "Fall In" (1942) as Luke Hatfield; "Pardon My Gun" (1942) as Arkansas; "Law of the Northwest" (1942) as Arkansas; "Frontier Fury" (1943) as Arkansas; "Robin Hood of the Range" (1943) as Arkansas; "Johnny Come Lately" (1943) as Second Tramp; "Hail to the Rangers" (1943) as Arkansas; "The Chance of a Lifetime" (1943) as Elwood 'Tex' Stewart; "Riding West" (1944) as Prof. Arkansas Higgins; "Abroad With Two Yanks" (1944) as Arky; "Lust for Gold" (1949) as Ludi; "Pinky" (1949) as a Police Chief; "Border Incident" (1949) as Clayton Nordell; "The Great Dan Patch" (1949) as Chet Williams; "A Ticket to Tomahawk" (1950) as Sad Eyes; "Stars in My Crown" (1950) as Chloroform Wiggins; "Two Flags West" (1950) as Sgt. Pickens; "Broken Arrow" (1950) as Milt Duffield; "Sugarfoot" (1951) as Fly-Up-the-Creek Jones; John Huston's "The Red Badge of Courage" (1951) with Audie Murphy, as Bill Porter; "Passage West" (1951) as Pop Brennan; "Distant Drums" (1951) with Gary Cooper, as Monk; "The Big Sky" (1952) as Narrator/Zeb Calloway, for which he received his Best Supporting Actor nomination; "The Lusty Men" (1952) as Booker Davis; "Split Second (1953) as Asa Tremaine; "Devil's Canyon" (1953) as Frank Taggert; "The French Line" (1954) as 'Waco' Mosby; "She Couldn't Say No" (1954) as Odie Chalmers; "The Last Command" (1955) as Davy Crockett; "The Kettles in the Ozarks" (1956) as Sedgewick Kettle (Pa's brother); "The Tall T" (1957) as Ed Rintoon; "Born Reckless" (1958) as Cool Man; "The Cardinal" (1963) as Sheriff Dubrow; "A Tiger Walks" (1964) as Lewis; "Cat Ballou" (1965) as Butch Cassidy; "Apache Uprising" (1966) as Bill Gibson; "El Dorado" (1967) as Bull Harris; "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin" (1967); "Shoot Out" (1971) as Homer Page; "$1,000,000 Duck" (1971) as Mr. Purdham; "The Revengers" (1972) as Free State; "The Spikes Gang" (1974) as Kid White/Billy Blanco;; "Moonrunners" (1975) as Uncle Jesse; "Harry and Tonto" (1974) as Wade; "Moonrunners" (1975) as Uncle Jesse and "Winterhawk" (1976) as McClusky,the fur trader, his last film. The pinnacle of his career came in 1952 with an Academy Award nomination for his wonderful performance in "The Big Sky" (1952) as Zeb. On TV he was a regular on: Disney's "Nine Lives of Elfego Baca" (1958) as Elias; Disney's "Swamp Fox" (1960) and Disney's "Killroy" (1965) as Seth Turner. His guest appearances on TV included roles on: "The Andy Griffith Show"; "The Virginian"; "Perry Mason"; "Bonanza"; "Twilight Zone"; "The Great Adventure"; "Gunsmoke" and "The Wild Wild West." He died of cancer on September 26, 1979 in Woodland Hills, California.

From Great Character Actors, Page 1.