Chill Wills

Acting · 1.2 popularity

Age

124

Movies

115

Born: July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978
From: Seagoville, Texas, USA

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Chill Theodore Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American film actor, and a singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet. He was a performer from early childhood, forming and leading the Avalon Boys singing group in the 1930s. After appearing in a few westerns he disbanded the group in 1938, and struck out on a solo acting career. One of his more memorable roles was that of the distinctive voice of Francis the Mule in a series of popular films. Wills' deep, rough voice, with its Western twang, was matched to the personality of the cynical, sardonic mule. As was customary at the time, Wills was given no billing for his vocal work, though he was featured prominently on-screen as blustery General Ben Kaye in the fourth entry, Francis Joins the WACS. He provided the deep voice for Stan Laurel's performance of "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" in Way Out West (1937), in which the Avalon Boys Quartet appeared. Wills was cast in numerous serious film roles, including as "the city of Chicago" as personified by a phantom police sergeant in the film noir City That Never Sleeps (1953), and that of Uncle Bawley in Giant (1956), which also features Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Wills was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as Davy Crockett's companion "Beekeeper" in the film The Alamo (1960). However, his aggressive campaign for the award was considered tasteless by many, including the film's star/director/producer John Wayne, who publicly apologized for Wills. Wills' publicity agent, W.S. "Bow-Wow" Wojciechowicz, accepted blame for the ill-advised effort, claiming that Wills had known nothing about it. The Oscar was instead won by Peter Ustinov for his role as Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus. In Rory Calhoun's CBS western series The Texan, Wills appeared in the lead role in the 1960 episode entitled "The Eyes of Captain Wylie". Wills starred in the short-run series Frontier Circus which aired for only one season (1961–62) on CBS. In 1966, he was cast in the role of a shady Texas rancher, Jim Ed Love, in the short-lived ABC comedy/western series The Rounders (reprising his role in the 1965 film The Rounders, starring Henry Fonda), with co-stars Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne and Walker Edmiston. in 1963-64, Wills joined William Lundigan, Walter Brennan and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in making appearances on behalf of U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee in the campaign against U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1968, Wills refused to support Richard Nixon for the presidency and served as master of ceremonies for George C. Wallace, former governor of Alabama, for the California campaign stops in Wallace's presidential campaign.[5] Wills was among the few Hollywood celebrities to endorse Wallace's bid against Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey; another was Walter Brennan. Also in 1968, he starred in the Gunsmoke episode "A Noose for Dobie Price", where he played Elihu Gorman, a former outlaw who joins forces with Marshal Matt Dillon, played by James Arness, to track down a member of his former gang who has escaped jail. His last role was in 1978, as a janitor in Stubby Pringle's Christmas. CLR Description above from the Wikipedia article Chill Wills, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Works

115 films

Giant

19567.6

The Alamo

19607.1

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

19737.2

Rio Grande

19506.8

McLintock!

19636.6

Meet Me in St. Louis

19447.0

Where the Boys Are

19606.1

Western Union

19416.0

The Yearling

19466.7

Mr. Billion

19775.5

The Rounders

19655.5

Leave Her to Heaven

19457.4

Honky Tonk

19416.4

Belle Starr

19415.9

That's Entertainment! III

19947.0

The Man from the Alamo

19536.6

The Cardinal

19636.5

Boom Town

19406.9

That Wonderful Urge

19486.5

It's Showtime

19767.5

The Harvey Girls

19466.6

Gun Glory

19576.2

The Westerner

19407.1

The Deadly Companions

19615.6

Tarzan's New York Adventure

19426.4

Santiago

19565.8

The Wheeler Dealers

19636.3

Way Out West

19377.1

The Sundowners

19505.2

See Here, Private Hargrove

19446.5

Allegheny Uprising

19395.9

Cattle Drive

19516.5

Gun for a Coward

19566.0

Small Town Girl

19535.6

Gold of the Seven Saints

19617.2

The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again

19705.6

Family Honeymoon

19486.3

The Over the Hill Gang

19695.8

Francis

19505.8

The Liberation of L.B. Jones

19706.1

Tulsa

19496.4

What Next, Corporal Hargrove?

19455.8

Francis Goes to West Point

19525.7

From Hell to Texas

19586.0

I'll Be Seeing You

19446.9

Mr. Gardenia Jones

19425.0

Oh! Susanna

19517.0

Loaded Pistols

19486.5

Rock Island Trail

19506.3

Billy the Kid

19415.3

Fireball 500

19665.1

Big Daddy

19698.0

City That Never Sleeps

19536.0

Red Canyon

19495.8

Stand by for Action

19427.0

The Western: A Lost TV Special

1958

Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade

20048.0

Hell's Outpost

19545.5

The Omaha Trail

19427.0

Apache Trail

19426.9

The Sainted Sisters

19487.3

Francis Goes to the Races

19516.5

Sorority House

19397.3

Hideaway Girl

19367.0

Francis in the Navy

19555.6

The Bugle Sounds

19426.8

Disneyland '59

19597.3

Tumbleweed

19536.3

Her Cardboard Lover

19424.9

Timberjack

19554.2

Arizona Legion

19395.5

High Lonesome

19505.5

New York Premiere Telecast 'Giant'

19566.0

Heartaches

19475.3

Kentucky Rifle

19565.8

Ride the Man Down

19527.7

The Sea Hornet

19516.0

Best Foot Forward

19436.8

Tugboat Annie Sails Again

19406.0

Drive-In Movie Memories

20018.0

Francis Joins the WACS

19546.1

Sky Murder

19406.8

Ricochet Romance

19548.0

Poco… Little Dog Lost

19776.0

Francis Covers the Big Town

19535.2

John Wayne's 'The Alamo'

19928.3

Barbary Coast Gent

19445.5

Wyoming

19406.7

A Stranger in Town

19436.3

Trouble in Sundown

19398.0

Young Guns of Texas

19624.3

The Little Shepherd Of Kingdom Come

19614.3

High Barbaree

19475.6

Anything Goes

19365.8

Racketeers of the Range

19396.7

The Saxon Charm

19484.6

Bar 20 Rides Again

19356.7

The Steagle

19715.1

Lawless Valley

19386.5

Northwest Stampede

19483.3

Stella

19509.0

Stubby Pringle's Christmas

19787.0

Nobody's Baby

19376.0

The Bad Man

19415.9

The Sad Horse

19597.0

The Day the Bookies Wept

19397.5

Gallant Bess

19467.0

Call of the Prairie

19365.8

The Grass Is Always Greener

19505.3

At Sea Ashore

19368.0

Sunday Dinner for a Soldier

19445.5

Timber Stampede

19399.0

The Immortal Blacksmith

19448.0

Bronco Buster

19526.0

Guns of a Stranger

19735.3