SLIM PICKENS BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Slim Pickens was born on June 29th, 1919 in Kingsburg, California with the birth name Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. to parents Sally Mosher and Louis Bert Lindley Sr.  As a young boy he became interested in horseback riding and by the age of four he was showing a amazing talent as a rider that by the time he was twelve years old, he actually chose to stop going to school and joined a rodeo.  He was told that this career choice was, 'slim pickings' meaning very little money to be made, hence his nickname.  However, he managed to make a very successful career out of this lifestyle.

For the next twenty years, Pickens toured the country rodeo circuit and was a very well known and well paid rodeo clown.  It was a very dangerous job, but he was very good at it.  By the age of thirty one, Pickens began to get involved in the film industry.  In 1950 he got a film role in, "Rocky Mountain" starring Errol Flynn and Scott Forbes, and continued to get cast in westerns playing both the villain and comic characters.  
 
He was cast in a variety of film such as, "Old Oklahoma Plains" (1952) starring Rex Allen, "Down Laredo Way" (1953) again starring Rex Allen, "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961) starring Marlon Brando and Karl Malden, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) starring Peter Sellers, Keenan Wynn, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden and James Earl Jones, "Major Dundee" (1965) starring Charlton Heston and Richard Harris, "In Harm's Way" (1965) starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Patricia Neal, Brandon de Wilde, Burgess Meredith, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Dana Andrews, George Kennedy, Franchot Tone, Carroll O'Connor and Hugh O'Brian, "Stagecoach" (1966) starring Bing Crosby, Ann Margret, Alex Cord, Keenan Wynn, Van Heflin, Red Buttons, Stefanie Powers, Robert Cummings and Mike Connors, the Walt Disney film "Never a Dull Moment" (1968) starring with Dick Van Dyke, Edward G. Robinson, Dorothy Provine, Henry Silva and Jack Elam, "Rancho Delux" (1975) starring Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston amongst many others.  He credits his role in, "Dr. Strangelove" as the turning point in his career. 
 
Alongside a very successful western films career he worked on television as well appearing in an episode of "Overland Trail" (1960), "Outlaws" (1960-1962), ABC's military western, "Custer" (1967) and "Bonanza" (1963-1970).  One of his more well known televison roles was on, "Hawaii Five-O" (1973), where he portrayed a member of the patriarch of a family of serial killers. 

Pickens also was involved in voice over work such as in the film, "A Ballad of the West" (1975) and "The Black Hole" (1979) starring Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Ernest Borgnine, Joseph Bottoms, Anthony Perkins, Yvette Mimieux and Roddy McDowall, playing the voice of B.O.B. 

Slim Pickens passed away on December 8th, 1983 in Modesto, California after a long battle with fighting a brain tumor.  He was survived by his wife, Margaret and three children, Darlye Ann, Thom and Margaret Lou.

Pickens was inducted into the Western performers Hall of Fame in 1982 at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as well as the Pro Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado for his work as a Rodeo Clown. 

 
Filmography

1983   Sawyer and Finn
1982   Pink Motel  
1982   Filthy Rich 
1981   The Nashville Palace
1981   The Nashville Grab
1981   Best of the West
1981   Charlie and the Great Balloon Chase
1981   This House Possessed
1981   The Howling  
1979-1981  B.J. and the Bear
1981   Christmas Mountain 
1980   Honeysuckle Rose  
1980   Tom Horn
1980   Swan Song
1980   The Love Boat
1979   The Black Hole
1979   Spirit of the Wind  
1979   1941 
1979   Lobo
1979   Undercover with the KKK
1979   Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
1979   The Sacketts
1979   The Sweet Creek County War
1978   Smokey and the Good Time Outlaws 
1978   Vega$
1978   The Swarm  
1978   The Busters
1978   How the West Was Won
1977   ABC Weekend Specials
1977   The Shadow of Chikara 
1977   The White Buffalo
Abel   Pickney 
1977   The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams
1975-1977  Baretta
1977   Mr. Billion 
1976   Pony Express Rider 
1976   Hawmps! 
1976   Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free  
1976   McMillan & Wife  
1975   Babe
1975   White Line Fever 
1975   The Apple Dumpling Gang 
1975   Poor Pretty Eddie  
1975   Rancho Deluxe  
1957-1974  Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
1974   Runaway on Rogue River
1974   The Legend of Earl Durand
1974   Ginger in the Morning
1974   Bootleggers 
1974   The Gun and the Pulpit
1974   Twice in a Lifetime
1974   Blazing Saddles
1974   Kung Fu
1973   Hawaii Five-O 
1973   Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
1973   Night Gallery
1972   The Getaway
1972   The Partridge Family
1971-1972  Alias Smith and Jones 
1972   Rolling Man
1964-1972  Gunsmoke 
1972   The Honkers  
1972   J.C.
1972   The Cowboys
1972   Outdoor Rambling 
1971   The Devil and Miss Sarah
1971   The Wild Season 
1971   Hitched
1971   The Deserter
1971   Mary Tyler Moore
1963-1971  The Virginian 
1971   Sam Hill: Who Killed Mr. Foster?
1970   The Name of the Game
1970   The Ballad of Cable Hogue 
1963-1970  Bonanza  
1970   Medical Center
1970   Rosolino Paternò, soldato...  
1969   80 Steps to Jonah  
1969   The Desperate Mission
1969   That Girl
1969   Ironside
1969   Mannix
1968   Skidoo
1968   The Outcasts 
1968   The Legend of Custer 
1968   Never a Dull Moment 
1968   Gentle Ben 
1968   Will Penny
1968   Cimarron Strip 
1967   Custer 
1967   The Flim-Flam Man  
1967   Rough Night in Jericho 
1967   El magnifico extranjero
1967   Run for Your Life 
1967   Un tipo dificil de matar 
1966   Daniel Boone
1966   An Eye for an Eye  
1966   The Legend of Jesse James 
1966   Stagecoach 
1966   The Young Rounders 
1965   The Glory Guys
1965   Up from the Beach
1965   In Harm's Way 
1965   Major Dundee 
1964   Profiles in Courage
1964   Rawhide 
1964   The Fugitive 
1964   The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 
1964   The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1964   Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb  
1963   The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
1963   Savage Sam  
1963   Our Man Higgins
1962-1963  The Wide Country 
1958-1962  Wagon Train 
1962   The Tall Man
1961-1962  Outlaws 
1962   Route 66 
1961   A Thunder of Drums  
1961   Alfred Hitchcock Presents  
1960-1961  Lawman
1961   The Americans  
1961   Coronado 9
1958-1961  Maverick 
1961   One-Eyed Jacks
1961   Surfside 6
1960   Chartroose Caboose
1960   The Westerner  
1960   Riverboat
1957-1960  Sugarfoot 
1960   Overland Trail 
1959   Frontier Doctor
1959   Stump Run  
1958   Tonka
1958   Escort West  
1958   The Sheepman  
1957   Gunsight Ridge
1955-1957  Cheyenne
1957   Lassie
1956   Annie Oakley
1956   Circus Boy 
1956   The Lone Ranger
1956   Gun Brothers 
1956   Buffalo Bill, Jr. 
1956   The Great Locomotive Chase  
1956   Stranger at My Door  
1956   When Gangland Strikes
1956   Cow Dog
1955   The Last Command  
1955   Santa Fe Passage 
1954-1955  Stories of the Century  
1954   The Outcast 
1954   The Boy from Oklahoma  
1954   Phantom Stallion
1953   Red River Shore  
1953   Shadows of Tombstone
1953   Down Laredo Way 
1953   Iron Mountain Trail  
1953   The Sun Shines Bright  
1953   Old Overland Trail
1952   Thunderbirds
1952   South Pacific Trail 
1952   Old Oklahoma Plains  
1952   The Story of Will Rogers 
1952   Border Saddlemates  
1952   The Last Musketeer  
1952   Colorado Sundown  
1950   Rocky Mountain  
1946   Smokey