Bill Thurman

Bill Thurman

Born: November 4, 1920
Died: April 13, 1995
in Texas, USA
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

Movies for Bill Thurman...

Painted Hero
Title: Painted Hero
Character: Old Man Bolen
Released: September 16, 1997
Type: Movie
Virgil Kidder hasn't been in Waco for quite a spell, but now that he's back in town clowning in the rodeo, his troubles are catching up with him quicker than a Brahma bull. Country star Dwight Yoakam makes his leading role debut as Kidder, a "painted hero" who's at his best - and safest - when he's taunting the meanest bulls in the business. It's only when the paint comes off that the real danger strikes on a wild Waco weekend filled with thrills, spills and more twists than an eight second bull ride.
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In Broad Daylight
Title: In Broad Daylight
Character: Virgil Teague
Released: February 3, 1991
Type: Movie
The fanatically uncompromising Len Rowan and his family insult and terrorize the citizens of a small town for years. One day the comment of a saleswoman about Len's son not being able to pay his sweets triggers off his persecution complex. As revenge for the believed insult, the whole family starts stalking the shop owner and her husband... until this escalates and the old man gets badly injured. Len is arrested, but gets off, free on bail. His clever attorney delays the court session for more than a year - while Rowan keeps threatening the witnesses. But then, the people feel they've had enough of this and decide to take the law in their own hands...
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Innocent Prey
Title: Innocent Prey
Character: Jim Gardner
Released: June 15, 1989
Type: Movie
A woman living in Dallas discovers that her husband, from New Zealand, is actually a crazed serial killer who murders prostitutes.
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Hawken's Breed
Title: Hawken's Breed
Character: Jeb Kline
Released: January 1, 1987
Type: Movie
Hawken is a rugged drifter and loner who meets and comes to rescue a young Shawnee woman, named Spirit in 1840s Tennessee, whom he leaves after saving her from a rouge group of Shawnee Indians. After taking up residence with an old fur trapper and old friend named Jeb Kline, Hawken later meets Spirit again whom runs away from a local fur trader named Tackett, whom she is sold to. Soon, Hawken is up against Tackett and a posse of hired killers, as well as a greedy and racist land owner, named Hickman, who's long abused son Noel whom narrates the entire story, comes to his and Spirit's aid to help them survive.
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Title: The Long Hot Summer
Character: Houstin
Released: October 6, 1985
Type: TV
When drifter Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town, Will Varner, a family patriarch, sees Ben as a better choice to inherit the family business than his only son, Jody. Will therefore tries to push Ben and his daughter Clara into marriage. Clara is initially reluctant to court Ben, and Jody senses that Ben threatens his position.
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Silverado
Title: Silverado
Character: Carter
Released: July 10, 1985
Type: Movie
Four unwitting heroes cross paths on their journey to the sleepy town of Silverado. Little do they know the town where their family and friends reside has been taken over by a corrupt sheriff and a murderous posse. It's up to the sharp-shooting foursome to save the day, but first they have to break each other out of jail, and learn who their real friends are.
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Stormin' Home
Title: Stormin' Home
Character: Bailiff
Released: April 5, 1985
Type: Movie
An aging motor-cross racer, already having lost his wife and daughter to his footlooseness and now about to have his semi-tractor cab repossessed, vows to make one last go of it on his bike in the race of his career.
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Alamo Bay
Title: Alamo Bay
Character: Sheriff
Released: April 3, 1985
Type: Movie
A despondent Vietnam veteran in danger of losing his livelihood is pushed to the edge when he sees Vietnamese immigrants moving into the fishing industry in a Texas bay town.
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Mountaintop Motel Massacre
Title: Mountaintop Motel Massacre
Character: Reverend Bill McWiley
Released: July 15, 1983
Type: Movie
After several years in an insane asylum, Evelyn, the keeper of the Mountaintop Motel, is released and resumes doing business. She kills her young charge out of anger, but convinces the police it was an accident - and pushed into insanity, she then proceeds to target her guests, first by releasing vermin into their rooms, but then by using her trusty sickle.
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The Long Summer of George Adams
Title: The Long Summer of George Adams
Character: Floyd
Released: January 18, 1982
Type: Movie
A middle-age man, in small-town Middle America, lives a momentous year in the mid-20th century.
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Raggedy Man
Title: Raggedy Man
Character: Sheriff
Released: September 18, 1981
Type: Movie
Nita, a divorced mother of two boys, is stuck working as a telephone operator in a small Texas town in World War II. Her friendship with a sailor on leave causes tongues to wag in town.
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Skyward
Title: Skyward
Character: Pilot #1
Released: November 20, 1980
Type: Movie
Billie Dupree is a flight instructor at an old Texas airport. When a young girl in a wheelchair finds the airport by watching gliders fly, she decides she wants to learn how to fly. Dupree teaches her to fly with some special controls compensating for her handicap. Koup Trenton runs an aircraft repair service and is trying desperately to get an old airplane back in the air. The three, together, put the young girl and the old plane up in the air.
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Tom Horn
Title: Tom Horn
Character: Ora Haley
Released: March 28, 1980
Type: Movie
A renowned former army scout is hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but finds himself on trial for the murder of a boy when he carries out his job too well. Tom Horn finds that the simple skills he knows are of no help in dealing with the ambitions of ranchers and corrupt officials as progress marches over him and the old west.
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The Evictors
Title: The Evictors
Character: Preacher Higgins
Released: April 17, 1979
Type: Movie
A nice young couple move into an eerie house located in a small Louisiana town, unaware of its violent history.
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The Beasts Are on the Streets
Title: The Beasts Are on the Streets
Character: Carl Evans
Released: May 18, 1978
Type: Movie
Panic grips a small community after a tanker truck crashes through a fence at a wild animal park, freeing dozens of dangerous beasts.
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Title: Dallas
Character: Phil Bradley
Released: April 2, 1978
Type: TV
The world's first mega-soap, and one of the most popular ever produced, Dallas had it all. Beautiful women, expensive cars, and men playing Monopoly with real buildings. Famous for one of the best cliffhangers in TV history, as the world asked "Who shot J.R.?" A slow-burner to begin with, Dallas hit its stride in the 2nd season, with long storylines and expert character development. Dallas ruled the airwaves in the 1980's.
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Title: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Character: Air Traffic
Released: December 14, 1977
Type: Movie
After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.
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Charge of the Model T's
Title: Charge of the Model T's
Character: Sgt. Bond
Released: November 4, 1977
Type: Movie
Comedy - During WWI, the Germans try to encourage certain Mexican guerrillas to make trouble on the Texas border. Masterminding the plot is a German spy who has, at his disposal, the RX4... a specially equipped weapon-bearing automobile of awesome speed. But a U.S. Army lieutenant carries the day with his own fleet of Model T racers. - John David Carson, Carol Bagdasarian, Louis Nye
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The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald
Title: The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald
Released: September 30, 1977
Type: Movie
The bizarre story behind the man accused of assassinating John F. Kennedy and what might have happened had he been brought to trial.
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Slumber Party '57
Title: Slumber Party '57
Character: Mr. Willis
Released: August 31, 1976
Type: Movie
In 1957, a group of high school girls spending the night in a mansion tell each other about their first sexual experiences.
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Creature from Black Lake
Title: Creature from Black Lake
Character: Sheriff Billy Carter
Released: March 1, 1976
Type: Movie
Two men exploring the Louisiana swamps run into a Bigfoot-type creature.
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The Florida Connection
Title: The Florida Connection
Character: Deke
Released: February 6, 1976
Type: Movie
Dan Gordon arrives in town on the edge of the Florida Everglades, planning to take part in a drug smuggling operation. He's aided by his friend, Mule Tucker, but runs into opposition from corrupt local cops.
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Keep My Grave Open
Title: Keep My Grave Open
Character: Hitchhiker
Released: January 1, 1976
Type: Movie
A crazy woman who lives in an old mansion thinks she's with her brother/lover, who lures victims to her.
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'Gator Bait
Title: 'Gator Bait
Character: Sheriff Joe Bob Thomas
Released: October 12, 1974
Type: Movie
Desirée lives deep in the swamp and supports herself and her siblings by poaching. After an accident involving Deputy Billy and a friend, the Sheriff, Deputy and a family of locals go after Desirée. Soon the hunters become the hunted as she exacts her revenge for their violence against her family.
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Ride in a Pink Car
Title: Ride in a Pink Car
Character: Barlow
Released: June 21, 1974
Type: Movie
A man, thought to be dead, returns to his hometown in Florida. He finds his wife re-married and the town now ruled by corrupt forces.
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Where the Red Fern Grows
Title: Where the Red Fern Grows
Character: Sam Bellington
Released: June 21, 1974
Type: Movie
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
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The Sugarland Express
Title: The Sugarland Express
Character: Hunter
Released: April 5, 1974
Type: Movie
Married small-time crooks Lou-Jean and Clovis Poplin lose their baby to the state of Texas and resolve to do whatever it takes to get him back. Lou-Jean gets Clovis out of jail, and the two steal their son from his foster home, in addition to taking a highway patrolman hostage. As a massive dragnet starts to pursue them across Texas, the couple become unlikely folk heroes and even start to bond with the captive policeman.
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Encounter with the Unknown
Title: Encounter with the Unknown
Character: Second Man
Released: November 15, 1972
Type: Movie
Three eerie tales based on actual events are enacted in this film. First, three college students play a prank on a geeky classmate, who is accidentally shot and killed. His vengeful mother forecasts the deaths of the three young men she holds responsible, on 7, 14, and 21 days hence. And, one by one, her grim predictions come true. Next, a ghoulish sound emanates from a mist-shrouded hole in the Earth near where a Missouri boy has lost his dog. The boy's father is lowered into the hole and lets out an agonizing scream! Finally, a senator returning home from a party finds a lost girl on a bridge and learns from her father that she died years earlier
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Fair Play
Title: Fair Play
Character: Jed Bartrum
Released: January 1, 1972
Type: Movie
A young man arrives at the town of Fair Play to see his uncle. What he finds upon arriving is a town hiding a secret from any outsiders. The young man must uncover the truth the townspeople wish to keep hidden in order to save his uncle.
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The Last Picture Show
Title: The Last Picture Show
Character: Coach Popper
Released: October 3, 1971
Type: Movie
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
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A Bullet for Pretty Boy
Title: A Bullet for Pretty Boy
Character: Huddy
Released: July 15, 1970
Type: Movie
A biography of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, a gangster who started his career at a young age after seeking revenge for his father's murder.
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It's Alive
Title: It's Alive
Character: Greely / Monster
Released: October 30, 1969
Type: Movie
A farmer traps three people in a cave with his pet prehistoric monster.
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Hell Raiders
Title: Hell Raiders
Character: Tex
Released: June 1, 1969
Type: Movie
In Italy during World War II, an American headquarters is evacuated when German forces break through the front lines. A demolition squad is sent back to the abandoned headquarters to destroy valuable records that were left behind before they fall into German hands.
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In the Year 2889
Title: In the Year 2889
Character: Tim Henderson
Released: January 19, 1969
Type: Movie
The last seven survivors of a nuclear war barricade themselves against an attack by a mutant cannibal.
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Mars Needs Women
Title: Mars Needs Women
Character: Drunk on Pier
Released: August 24, 1968
Type: Movie
Tommy Kirk leads his fellow Martians to Earth on an interplanetary quest for females. Kirk proves that Martians have impeccable taste when one of his first conquests turns out to be sexy scientist Yvonne Craig.
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The Other Side of Bonnie and Clyde
Title: The Other Side of Bonnie and Clyde
Character: Policeman (uncredited)
Released: August 22, 1968
Type: Movie
Quasi-documentay on Bonnie and Clyde... Larry Buchanan style!
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Curse of the Swamp Creature
Title: Curse of the Swamp Creature
Character: Driscoll West / The Swamp Creature
Released: February 1, 1968
Type: Movie
While searching for oil in the deadly swamplands of the Florida Everglades, members of a geological expedition meet an insane doctor who is working on an experiment to create a creature that is part man and part alligator.
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Zontar: The Thing from Venus
Title: Zontar: The Thing from Venus
Character: Sheriff Brad Crenshaw
Released: December 1, 1967
Type: Movie
A misguided scientist enables an alien from Venus named Zontar to come to earth in order to "help solve man's problems". However, as soon as Zontar arrives on Earth, it quickly becomes obvious that the three-eyed, bat-winged, skeletal black creature has a hidden agenda.
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Night Fright
Title: Night Fright
Character: Deputy Ben Whitfield
Released: November 1, 1967
Type: Movie
A government space experiment into the effects of cosmic rays on animal life goes horribly wrong, creating a mutant monster that terrorizes a rural community.
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The Eye Creatures
Title: The Eye Creatures
Character: Sergeant
Released: October 20, 1967
Type: Movie
A teenager and his girlfriend must save the world from "eye" aliens after their attempts to convince authorities of an invasion fall on deaf ears.
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Hip Hot and 21
Title: Hip Hot and 21
Character: Lt. Lang
Released: March 1, 1967
Type: Movie
The story of the country virgin who became queen of the innersprings...
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Sam
Title: Sam
Released: January 1, 1967
Type: Movie
Western by Larry Buchanan.
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Spiked Heels and Black Nylons
Title: Spiked Heels and Black Nylons
Character: Abel
Released: January 1, 1967
Type: Movie
A policeman's wife becomes a drug addict and goes to work at the dreaded "Club Lesbo;" an affiliation run by gangsters. A haunted devil mask also figures into the, er, um, plot.
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The Black Cat
Title: The Black Cat
Character: Bartender
Released: May 1, 1966
Type: Movie
A mentally unbalanced man is obsessed with the idea that a black cat is possessed. He tortures and kills it. Later, he comes to believe that the cat has returned from the dead to kill him.
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Hot-Blooded Woman
Title: Hot-Blooded Woman
Character: Railroad Tough
Released: October 1, 1965
Type: Movie
Backwoods bombshell Myrtle marries George, only to find out that George neither can nor wants to satisfy her desires. Lots of heavy breathing, roughing-up and weirdo moralism ensues.
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High Yellow
Title: High Yellow
Character: Major Bates
Released: August 4, 1965
Type: Movie
Cynthia Wood, a 17-year-old, light-skinned black girl, tries to pass off as white after getting hired of a wealthy movie magnate Mr. Langley who has family problems with his spoiled wife and his promiscuous teenage daughter and son.
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The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald
Title: The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald
Character: Witness
Released: April 22, 1964
Type: Movie
The Dallas trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, President John F. Kennedy's alleged assassin, is enacted as it might have occurred. After the defense enters pleas of "not guilty" and "not guilty by reason of insanity," 23 witnesses for the prosecution testify. No verdict is returned.