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Bill Thurman

1920-11-04

The Biography

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

Bill Thurman in

Movies

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind

7.358 average rating
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Silverado

6.961 average rating
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The Sugarland Express

6.609 average rating
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The Last Picture Show

7.645 average rating
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Tom Horn

6.4 average rating
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Where the Red Fern Grows

6.8 average rating
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Night Fright

2.706 average rating
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Mountaintop Motel Massacre

4.38 average rating
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Alamo Bay

5.9 average rating
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Raggedy Man

5.2 average rating
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'Gator Bait

5.3 average rating
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Zontar: The Thing from Venus

4 average rating
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It's Alive

3.3 average rating
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Charge of the Model T's

0 average rating
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Curse of the Swamp Creature

2.4 average rating
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The Eye Creatures

2.9 average rating
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Creature from Black Lake

5.143 average rating
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In the Year 2889

2.8 average rating
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Mars Needs Women

3.9 average rating
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In Broad Daylight

5.7 average rating