The Late Great Clu Gulager

Clu Gulager, who appeared on the TV shows The Tall Man and The Virginian, and appeared in such movies as The Killers (1964) and The Return of the Living Dead (1985), died on August 5 2022 at the age of 93.

Clu Gulager was born William Martin Gulager on November 16 1928 in Holdenville, Oklahoma. His father, John had been an actor on Broadway before practising law in Muskogee, Oklahoma. His mother, Hazel, worked for the Veteran's Administration. His father gave him the nickname "Clu" after the martins or clu-clu birds that nested around their home. Clu Gulager was Cherokee and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He as also related to Will Rogers through his paternal grandmother, who was the sister of Will Rogers's mother. This made Clu Gulager and Will Rogers first cousins, once removed. 

Clu Gulager was a genuine cowboy when he was young. In an interview with Tulsa World from 2019, he said, "I was a cowboy from Oklahoma. I rode the fences [around cattle] in the winter, and in the summer, I was out in the field, watching out for rattlesnakes." He also played the French horn. After graduating high school, Clu Gulager served in the United States Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton. He attended Northeastern State College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and Baylor University in Waco, Texas. It was while he was at Baylor University that he received a one-year scholarship to study in Paris under French director, actor, and mime Jean Louis Barrault (perhaps best known for the classic Les Enfants du Paradis).

Clu Gulager made his television debut in 1955 in an episode of Omnibus. In the late Fifties he appeared in the shows The United States Steel Hour, Goodyear Television Playhouse, Studio One, West Point, The Alcoa Hour, Black Saddle, Playhouse 90, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Lawless Years, Have Gun--Will Travel, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Laramie, Law of the Plainsman, The Untouchables, Five Fingers, Riverboat, The Lineup, The Rebel, Wagon Train, The Deputy, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1960 Mr. Gulager began playing a two year run as Billy the Kid on The Tall Man.

In the Sixties Clu Gulager continued playing Billy the Kid on The Tall Man. In 1963 he began a five year run as Sheriff Emmett Ryker on the hit Western series The Virginian. In 1970 he starred on the series San Francisco International Airport. He guest starred on the shows The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Wagon Train, Kraft Suspense Theatre, Dr. Kildare, The Survivors, Ironside,  and Name of the Game. He made his move debut in The Killers (1964), playing a hit man opposite Lee Marvin. He also appeared in the movies And Now Miguel (1966) and Winning (1971).

In the Seventies he starred on the TV show The MacKenzies of Paradise Cove. He guest starred on the shows The Psychiatrist; The F.B.I.; Medical Center, Bonanza; The Mod Squad; The Bold Ones: The New Doctors; Mannix; The Wonderful World of Disney; Kung Fu; The Wide World of Mystery; Insight; Ironside; The New Perry Mason; Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law; Shaft; Get Christie Love!; The ABC Afternoon Play Break; McCloud; Khan!; Cannon; The Streets of San Francisco; Kate McShane; Medical Story; Three for the Road; Police Story; Phyllis; Ellery Queen; Barnaby Jones; Good Heavens; Hawaii Five-O; Most Wanted; Dog and Cat; Westside Medical; and The Oregon Trail. He also appeared on the mini-series Once an Eagle. Black Beauty, and King, as well as several TV movies. He appeared in the movies The Last Picture Show (1971), Molly and Lawless John (1972), McQ (1974), Gangsterfilmen (1974), The Drought (1975), The Other Side of Midnight (1977), A Force of One (1979), and Touched by Love (1980).

In the Eighties Clu Gulager appeared in the movies Lies (1983), The Initiation (1984), Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984), Into the Night (1985), The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Prime Risk (1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), Hunter's Blood (1986), Summer Heat (1987), The Offspring (1987), The Hidden (1987), Tapeheads (1988), I'm Gonna Git Ya Sucka (1988), and Teen Vamp (1989). He guest starred on the TV shows Quincy, M.E.; CHiPs; The Fisher Family; Cutter to Houston; Automan; The Master; Masquerade; The Yellow Rose; Cover Up; Street Hawk; Knight Rider; Riptide; Airwolf; Magnum, P.I.; The Fall Guy; Simon & Simon; and Murder, She Wrote; MacGyver. He appeared in the mini-series Space and North and South, Book II. He appeared in several TV movies.

In the Nineties Clu Gulager appeared in the movies My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1991), Eddie Presley (1992), Killing Device (1993), Palmer's Pick-Up (1999), and Gunfighter (1999). He guest starred on the shows Kung Fu: The Legend Continues; Beavis and Butt-Head; Walker, Texas Ranger; and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. In the Naughts he appeared in the movie Feast (2005). In the Teens he appeared in the movies Piranha 3DD (2012), Tangerine (2015), Director's Commentary: Terror of Frankenstein (2015), Blue Jay (2016), Give Till It Hurts (2018), and Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (2019).

I think Clu Gulager will always be best remembered as Sheriff Emmett Ryker  on The Virginian and medical supply warehouse boss Burt Wilson in The Return of the Living Dead. Even so, Mr. Gulager played a wide variety of roles throughout this career. In The Killers he was gum chewing hired killer Lee. In the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Pen Pal," he played an escaped convict who visits the woman who has been writing him while he was in prison. In The Last Picture Show he played Abilene, the town scoundrel and a foreman for the richest man in town as well. In the mini-series North and South, Book II Clu Gulager played Union General Philip Sheridan. Over the years Clu Gulager played everything from cowboys to medical doctors to men of the cloth to police officers. What is more, he played all of them well. Clu Gulager always gave a good performance.

I never had the opportunity to meet Clu Gulager, but I have friends who were not only privileged to have met him, but to have called him a friend. Over the years Clu Gulager attended many conventions. He was also a classic movie fan, and it was not unusual to see him at various classic movie events around Los Angeles. From a piece he wrote for True West magazine I know he loved the work of Federico Fellini and his favourite movie was 8 1/2 (1963). From my friends I know that Clu Gulager behaved very much as cowboys in old Westerns are shown to act. He was polite, kind, charming, honest, and very loyal to his friends. He was also a fan of classical music and, as mentioned earlier, classic film. Clu Gulager was a true gentleman, and while he died at 93, to many of us it still seems as if he died too young.