Bill Thurman
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
Acting
Movie
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
as Air Traffic
1977
Movie
Silverado
as Carter
1985
Movie
The Last Picture Show
as Coach Popper
1971
Movie
The Sugarland Express
as Hunter
1974
TV
Dallas
as Phil Bradley
1978
Movie
Tom Horn
as Ora Haley
1980
Movie
Mountaintop Motel Massacre
as Reverend Bill McWiley
1983
Movie
Where the Red Fern Grows
as Sam Bellington
1974
Movie
Raggedy Man
as Sheriff
1981
Movie
The Evictors
as Preacher Higgins
1979
Movie
The Eye Creatures
as Sergeant
1967
Movie
In the Year 2889
as Tim Henderson
1969
Movie
Alamo Bay
as Sheriff
1985
Movie
Zontar: The Thing from Venus
as Sheriff Brad Crenshaw
1967
Movie
Creature from Black Lake
as Sheriff Billy Carter
1976
Movie
'Gator Bait
as Sheriff Joe Bob Thomas
1974
Movie
It Takes Two
as Bus Driver
1988
Movie
Mars Needs Women
as Drunk on Pier
1968
Movie
Curse of the Swamp Creature
as Driscoll West / The Swamp Creature
1968
Movie
It's Alive
as Greely / Monster
1969
Movie
Night Fright
as Deputy Ben Whitfield
1967
Movie
Encounter with the Unknown
as Second Man
1972
Movie
The Black Cat
as Bartender
1966
Movie
Hawken's Breed
as Jeb Kline
1987
