Walt Barnes
Encyclopedia
Walter Lee Barnes born January 26, 1918 in Parkersburg, West Virginia
died January 6, 1998 in Woodland Hills
, Los Angeles, California, was an American football
offensive lineman in the National Football League
for the Philadelphia Eagles
. He played college football
at Louisiana State University
as was an actor in both American and European films. He appeared in several films with John Wayne
, Lex Barker
and Clint Eastwood
.
, he was on the unbeaten 1938 team and played in the 1939 North-South Game.
Following military service in World War II as a US Army Sergeant he enrolled in Louisiana State University
where he became not only a football player but a college weightlifting
champion. Following graduation he joined the Philadelphia Eagles
football team as a guard before retiring and becoming a coach of football teams of Columbia University
and Arizona State University
.
He was inducted into the Coaches' Association Hall in June 2010.
television placed him on several local shows. His contacts with Walt Silver, a producer for Warner Bros. Television
lead him into several appearances on television and films. Some of his more notable appearances included Bronco
, Gunsmoke
, Cheyenne
, Bonanza
, Have Gun-Will Travel and Death Valley Days
. John Wayne
got him a small role as Charlie the Bartender in Rio Bravo.
Tiring of small roles and seeing opportunites overseas, Barnes was one of the many American actors who moved to Italy in the early 1960s. Kirk Douglas
recommended him for a role in his The Vikings television spinoff
Tales of the Vikings that was filmed for Douglas' production company in Germany. From 1960 to 1969, he was active in first Pirate movies
, then Karl May movies
and Spaghetti Western
s. His popularity in Germany would lead him to receive top billing when his films played there.
Barnes returned to the United States in 1969 and appeared in more films and television series, which included The High Chaparral
. His friendship with Clint Eastwood
on Rawhide
later lead him to several roles in Eastwood's films. He retired from acting in 1987 and became increasingly ill due to his Diabetes
. Barnes died on September 6, 1998.
Piggy attended the LSU 50 year reunion in 1997 and died in 1998. Piggy played in Clint Eastwood movies and was the sheriff on Bonanza. Piggy met Kings and Queens during his lifetime but said the greatest thrill he ever had was running underneath the goal posts at LSU. Piggy's body was cremated and his ashes were spread across Tiger stadium.
Parkersburg, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 33,099 people, 14,467 households, and 8,767 families residing in the city. In 2006 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Parkersburg's population had decreased 4.4% to 31,755. The population density was 2,800.5 people per square mile . There were 16,100 housing...
died January 6, 1998 in Woodland Hills
Woodland Hills
Woodland Hills is the name of various communities in the United States, including:*Woodland Hills, Cleveland, a neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio.* Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California...
, Los Angeles, California, was an American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
offensive lineman in the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
for the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
. He played college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
at Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
as was an actor in both American and European films. He appeared in several films with John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, Lex Barker
Lex Barker
Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...
and Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
.
Sports career
Barnes earned his nickname of "Piggy" from catching a piglet when a boy. Playing football at Parkersburg High SchoolParkersburg High School
Parkersburg High School is a secondary school located in Parkersburg, West Virginia, United States, that serves grades nine through twelve and is part of the Wood County School District...
, he was on the unbeaten 1938 team and played in the 1939 North-South Game.
Following military service in World War II as a US Army Sergeant he enrolled in Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
where he became not only a football player but a college weightlifting
Weightlifting
Olympic Weightlifting, also called Olympic-style weightlifting, or weightlifting, is an athletic discipline in the modern Olympic programme in which participants attempt a maximum-weight single lift of a barbell loaded with weight plates....
champion. Following graduation he joined the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
football team as a guard before retiring and becoming a coach of football teams of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
.
He was inducted into the Coaches' Association Hall in June 2010.
Acting career
Barnes entered acting through after appearing several times on The Eagles Nest a local Philadelphia TV show. WCAUWCAU
WCAU, channel 10, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WCAU has its studios on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in the...
television placed him on several local shows. His contacts with Walt Silver, a producer for Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...
lead him into several appearances on television and films. Some of his more notable appearances included Bronco
Bronco (TV series)
Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James,...
, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
, Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, Have Gun-Will Travel and Death Valley Days
Death Valley Days
Death Valley Days is an American radio and television anthology series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945. It continued from 1952 to 1975 as a syndicated television series...
. John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
got him a small role as Charlie the Bartender in Rio Bravo.
Tiring of small roles and seeing opportunites overseas, Barnes was one of the many American actors who moved to Italy in the early 1960s. Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
recommended him for a role in his The Vikings television spinoff
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
Tales of the Vikings that was filmed for Douglas' production company in Germany. From 1960 to 1969, he was active in first Pirate movies
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
, then Karl May movies
Karl May movies
Karl May films are films based on stories and characters by German author Karl May . The characters Old Shatterhand, Winnetou, and Kara Ben Nemsi are very famous in Central Europe....
and Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
s. His popularity in Germany would lead him to receive top billing when his films played there.
Barnes returned to the United States in 1969 and appeared in more films and television series, which included The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral is a Western-themed television series starring Leif Erickson and Cameron Mitchell which aired on NBC from 1967 to 1971. The show was created by David Dortort, who had previously created the hit Bonanza for the network...
. His friendship with Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
on Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
later lead him to several roles in Eastwood's films. He retired from acting in 1987 and became increasingly ill due to his Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
. Barnes died on September 6, 1998.
Other acting appearances
- The Big GundownThe Big GundownThe Big Gundown is a 1966 spaghetti western directed by Sergio Sollima and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian...
- film (1966) - BonanzaBonanzaBonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
- TV (1969–1971) - Mission: ImpossibleMission: ImpossibleMission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...
- TV (1972–1973) - Cahill U.S. MarshalCahill U.S. MarshalCahill U.S. Marshal is a 1973 American Western film in Technicolor. It stars John Wayne as a driven lawman in a black hat. The movie was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and filmed on location in Durango, Mexico.-Plot:...
- film (1973) - High Plains DrifterHigh Plains DrifterHigh Plains Drifter is a 1973 American Western film, with a hint of the supernatural, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. Eastwood plays a mysterious gunfighter hired by the residents of a corrupt frontier mining town...
- film (1973) - Escape to Witch MountainEscape to Witch Mountain (1975 film)Escape to Witch Mountain is a 1975 film based on the novel Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions, released by Buena Vista Distribution Company and directed by John Hough.- Plot :...
- film (1975) - Mackintosh and T.J.Mackintosh and T.J.Mackintosh and T.J. is a 1975 American modern day Westernfilm starring Roy Rogers in his last feature film appearance in a film that was specifically written for him...
(1975) - Day of the AnimalsDay of the AnimalsThe Day of the Animals is a 1977 American horror film thriller directed by William Girdler and based on a story written by Edward L. Montoro...
- film (1977) - Emergency!Emergency!Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios...
- TV (1977) - Every Which Way but Loose - film (1978)
- Pete's DragonPete's DragonPete's Dragon is a 1977 live-action/animated musical film from Walt Disney Productions and the first Disney film to be recorded in the Dolby Stereo sound system...
- film (1978) - The Dukes of HazzardThe Dukes of HazzardThe Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that aired on the CBS television network from 1979 to 1985.The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.- Overview :The Dukes of Hazzard...
- TV (1980) - Bronco BillyBronco BillyBronco Billy is a 1980 American film starring Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke. It was directed by Eastwood and written by Dennis Hackin.-Plot:...
- film (1980) - Father MurphyFather MurphyFather Murphy is an American television drama series that aired on the NBC network from November 3, 1981 to September 18, 1983. Michael Landon created the series, was the executive producer, and also directed the show in partnership with William F...
- TV (1982) - North and South - TV miniseries (1986)
- StingrayStingray (NBC TV series)Stingray is an NBC television series produced by Stephen J. Cannell that ran from 1985 to 1987. It stars Nick Mancuso, who plays the mysterious character known only as Ray, whose trademark is a black 1965 Corvette Sting Ray.-Plot:...
- TV (1986) - BoonBoon (TV series)Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV...
- TV (1987)
Trivia
While he was an NFL player with the Philadelphia Eagles, he was caught by the University of Oklahoma spying on their practices in Biloxi, MS prior to the 1950 Sugar Bowl with LSU. Tipped off by an LSU fan, a six man posse, with a photographer and a Biloxi policeman, caught Barnes with two ladders, a 4x6 perch between them, a tarp to hide under, a camera, notebook and binoculars. They took a picture which still hangs at Owen Field. He ran away and hid in the home of another former LSU player and denied it was him for the rest of his life. LSU denied any involvement which has been debated for over fifty years. Oklahoma won 35-0.Piggy attended the LSU 50 year reunion in 1997 and died in 1998. Piggy played in Clint Eastwood movies and was the sheriff on Bonanza. Piggy met Kings and Queens during his lifetime but said the greatest thrill he ever had was running underneath the goal posts at LSU. Piggy's body was cremated and his ashes were spread across Tiger stadium.
External links
- Barnes interview http://www.lex-barker.com/index.php?med=scr&lang=eng&menu=barnes
- Fistful of Westerns profile