Sheb Wooley
Sheb Wooley | |
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Wooley in 1971 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Shelby Fredrick Wooley |
Also known as | Ben Colder |
Born | Erick, Oklahoma, U.S. | April 10, 1921
Died | September 16, 2003 (aged 82) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
Genres | Country, pop music |
Occupation(s) | Actor, singer |
Years active | 1946–1999 |
Labels | MGM |
Shelby Fredrick "Sheb" Wooley (April 10, 1921 – September 16, 2003) was an American actor and singer. He recorded a series of novelty songs including the 1958 novelty song "The Purple People Eater"[1] and under the name Ben Colder the country hit "Almost Persuaded No. 2". He portrayed Cletus Summers, the principal of Hickory High School & assistant coach in the 1986 film Hoosiers; Ben Miller, brother of Frank Miller in the film High Noon; Travis Cobb in The Outlaw Josey Wales, and also had a co-starring role as scout Pete Nolan in the television series Rawhide. Wooley is also credited as the voice actor who produced the Wilhelm scream sound effect.
Early life[]
Sheb Wooley was born in 1921 in Erick, Oklahoma, the third son of William C. Wooley and Ora E. Wooley.[2] He had two older brothers, Logan and Hubert, as well as a younger brother, William.[3][2] Federal census records for 1930 and 1940 identify Sheb's father only as a "Farmer", although the family's livestock holdings apparently included horses, for Sheb learned to ride at an early age and became a working cowboy and later an accomplished rodeo rider. At the age of 15, with a talent for music, he formed and played in a country-western band, the "Plainview Melody Boys", that periodically performed on radio at station KASA in Elk City, Oklahoma.[4]
Wooley married for the first time in 1940, wedding 17-year-old Melva Miller, a cousin of Roger Miller who would later become a successful song writer and actor himself.[4] Wooley became friends with Miller when he lived in Oklahoma. He taught the boy how to play guitar chords and bought him his first fiddle.
When the United States entered World War II, Wooley tried to enlist in the military but was unsuccessful due to his numerous rodeo injuries. Instead, in the early 1940s he worked in the oil industry and as a welder. In 1946 he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where he earned a living as a country-western musician recording songs and traveling for three years with a band throughout the South and Southwest.[4] In Fort Worth he also married for the second time, to Edna Talbott Bunt, a young widow with an infant son named Gary.[5] The three of them left Texas in 1950 and moved to Hollywood, where Wooley hoped to establish himself as an actor or singer in film or in the rapidly expanding medium of television.[4]
Acting career[]
TV Westerns[]
Wooley's work in syndicated TV series included appearances on The Range Rider, portraying outlaw Jim Younger on Stories of the Century (1954), and five appearances on The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951-1955).
He appeared in The Lone Ranger episodes "Wake of War" (1953); "Message to Fort Apache" (1954), and "Wanted: The Lone Ranger" (1955). He portrayed Bill Bronson on The Cisco Kid, Harry Runyon in "The Unmasking" on My Friend Flicka, and Shev Jones in "The Iron Trail" on Cheyenne. He appeared twice on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
Wooley's big break professionally came when he was cast as the drover Pete Nolan on Rawhide (1959–1966). Wooley also wrote and directed some of the episodes.
Films[]
Wooley appeared in dozens of Western films from the 1950s through the 1990s. He was in Rocky Mountain (1950), and he portrayed outlaw Ben Miller in High Noon (1952) and Baxter in Terror in a Texas Town (1958).
He also acted in major films, including Giant, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Silverado, and in Hoosiers.
The "Wilhelm scream"[]
Sheb Wooley is also credited as the voice actor for the Wilhelm scream, having appeared on a memo as a voice extra for Distant Drums in which he had an acting role. This was later confirmed by his widow Linda Dotson-Wooley.[6][7] The stock recording of the distinctive scream has been used by sound-effects teams in over 400 films and continues to be used in the latest Indiana Jones sequels.[citation needed]
Singing career[]
In the late 1950s, Wooley embarked on a recording career of his own, with one of his hits, "The Purple People Eater", earning him considerable fame. He followed that success with a series of novelty hits, as well as some classic pop recordings and many recordings classified as country and country and western. In the United Kingdom, he enjoyed a minor hit with the comedy single "Luke the Spook" on the flip side of "My Only Treasure", a ballad in the country and western tradition.
Wooley also had a string of country hits, with his "That's My Pa" reaching No. 1 of Billboard's Hot C&W Sides chart in March 1962. That same year, Wooley intended to record the song "Don't Go Near The Indians", but he was delayed by an acting job. Meanwhile, Rex Allen recorded the song, and it was a hit. Wooley, however, would do the sequel to the song, "Don't Go Near the Eskimos", about a boy in Alaska named Ben Colder (had never "been colder").[8] This sequel was so successful that Wooley continued using the name Ben Colder, with one of his later recordings being "Shaky Breaky Car" (which parodied the song "Achy Breaky Heart").[8] In December 1963, his single "Hootenanny Hoot" became a top-10 hit in Australia; and in 1967 his song "The Love-in" (1967) was recognized as an acerbic commentary on the 1960s' counterculture.[9]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wooley became a regular on the television series Hee Haw and wrote the theme song for that long-running series. On Hee Haw he often appeared as the character Ben Colder, playing him as a drunken country songwriter.[8] Outside of Hee Haw, Wooley released music and performed as Ben Colder, although he would still sing under his own name as well.[8] Wooley continued to tour internationally and make personal concert appearances until his death in 2003. Wooley recorded his last written song just four days before he died.
Personal life[]
Wooley was married five times. His first wife was Melva Miller, whom he married in 1940. Six years later he married Edna Talbott Bunt in Fort Worth, Texas. His third wife was Beverly Irene Addington. He and Beverly remained together for 19 years and adopted one daughter, Chrystie Lynn. Then, in 1985, he married Deanna Grughlin and then his manager Linda Dotson, who already had a daughter, Shauna.[10][11][12]
Wooley was diagnosed with leukemia in 1996, which forced him to retire from public performing in 1999.[13] After seven years of battling the illness, he died at the age of 82 at the Skyline Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 16, 2003. He was entombed in Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee.[14]
Awards[]
Wooley was the recipient of numerous awards over the years for his accomplishments as a singer, actor, and writer for both comedic and dramatic productions. In 1968 he received the Country Music Association's Comedian of the Year Award. He also received the 1992 Songwriter of the Year, two Golden Boot Awards, and he won the Western Heritage Award for nine consecutive years in recognition of his film and television work in Westerns.[4]
Discography[]
Albums[]
Year | Album | US Country | Label |
---|---|---|---|
1956 | Sheb Wooley | — | MGM |
1960 | Songs from the Days of Rawhide | — | |
1962 | That's My Pa and That's My Ma | — | |
1963 | Tales of How the West Was Won | — | |
Spoofing the Big Ones (as Ben Colder) | — | ||
Ben Colder (as Ben Colder) | — | ||
1965 | The Very Best | — | |
It's a Big Land | — | ||
1966 | Big Ben Strikes Again (as Ben Colder) | 17 | |
1967 | Wine Women & Song (as Ben Colder) | 44 | |
1968 | The Best of Ben Colder (as Ben Colder) | 44 | |
Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later That Same Day) (as Ben Colder) | — | ||
1969 | Warm and Wooley | — | |
Have One On (as Ben Colder) | — | ||
1970 | Big Ben Colder Wild Again (as Ben Colder) | — | |
1971 | Live and Loaded (as Ben Colder) | — | |
1972 | Warming Up to Colder (as Ben Colder) | — | |
1973 | The Wacky World (as Ben Colder) | — |
Singles[]
Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US Country | US [15] |
CAN Country | CAN | |||
1955 | "Are You Satisfied?" | — | 95 | — | — | singles only |
1958 | "The Purple People Eater" | — | 1 | — | — | |
1959 | "Sweet Chile" | — | 70 | — | — | |
1962 | "That's My Pa" | 1 | 51 | — | — | That's My Pa and That's My Ma |
"Don't Go Near the Eskimos" (as Ben Colder) | 18 | 62 | — | — | Spoofing the Big Ones | |
1963 | "Hello Wall No. 2" (as Ben Colder) | 30 | 131 | — | — | Ben Colder |
"Still No. 2" (as Ben Colder) | — | 98 | — | — | ||
"Detroit City No. 2" (as Ben Colder) | — | 90 | — | — | Spoofing the Big Ones | |
1964 | "Blue Guitar" | 33 | — | — | — | The Very Best |
1966 | "I'll Leave the Singin' to the Bluebirds" | 34 | — | — | — | single only |
"Almost Persuaded No. 2" (as Ben Colder) | 6 | 58 | — | 53 | Big Ben Strikes Again | |
"Tonight's the Night My Angel's Halo Fell" | 70 | — | — | — | single only | |
1968 | "Tie a Tiger Down" | 22 | — | — | — | Warm and Wooley |
"Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later That Same Day)" (as Ben Colder) | 24 | 67 | 18 | 82 | Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later That Same Day) | |
1969 | "Little Green Apples No. 2" (as Ben Colder) | 65 | — | — | — | |
"I Remember Loving You" | 52 | — | — | — | Warm and Wooley | |
"The One Man Band" | 63 | — | — | — | single only | |
1970 | "Big Sweet John" (as Ben Colder) | — | — | 47 | — | Have One On |
1971 | "Fifteen Beers Ago" (as Ben Colder) | 50 | — | — | — | Live and Loaded |
Filmography[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1950 | Rocky Mountain | Kay Rawlins | |
1951 | Apache Drums | Townsman | Uncredited |
1951 | Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison | Chick Fullis | Uncredited |
1951 | Little Big Horn | Quince | |
1951 | Fort Worth | Outrider | Uncredited |
1951 | Distant Drums | Pvt. Jessup | Uncredited |
1952 | Bugles in the Afternoon | Gen. George Armstrong Custer | Uncredited |
1952 | High Noon | Ben Miller | |
1952 | Hellgate | Neill Price | |
1952 | Cattle Town | Miller | |
1952 | The Lusty Men | Gambler with Buster | Uncredited |
1952 | Toughest Man in Arizona | Army Officer | Uncredited |
1952 | Sky Full of Moon | Balladeer | Voice |
1953 | Texas Bad Man | Mack | |
1954 | The Boy from Oklahoma | Pete Martin | |
1954 | Rose Marie | Corporal | Uncredited |
1954 | Arrow in the Dust | Trooper | Uncredited |
1954 | Johnny Guitar | Posseman | Uncredited |
1954 | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers | Minor Role | Uncredited |
1955 | Man Without a Star | Latigo | |
1955 | Trial | Butteridge | Uncredited |
1955 | The Second Greatest Sex | Silas - Jones City Leader | |
1956 | Giant | Gabe Target | |
1956 | The Black Whip | Bill Lassater | |
1957 | The Oklahoman | Cowboy | Uncredited |
1957 | Trooper Hook | Cooter Brown | |
1957 | Ride a Violent Mile | Jonathan Long | |
1958 | Terror in a Texas Town | Baxter | Uncredited |
1959 | Rio Bravo | Cowboy | (scenes deleted) |
1963 | Hootenanny Hoot | Himself | |
1966 | Country Boy | Sheb Wooley | |
1967 | The War Wagon | Snyder | |
1976 | The Outlaw Josey Wales | Travis Cobb | |
1986 | Silverado | Cavalry Sergeant | |
1986 | Uphill All the Way | Anson Sudro | |
1986 | Hoosiers | Cletus Summers | |
1988 | Purple People Eater | Harry Skinner |
References[]
- ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 109. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "The Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940," Raney Township, Greer County, Oklahoma, April 22, 1940; United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C. Digital copy of original enumeration page available on FamilySearch, an online genealogical database provided as a public service by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
- ^ "The Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930," Raney Township, Greer County, Oklahoma, April 2, 1930. FamilySearch. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Michener, Judith (2009). "Wooley, Shelby (1921-2003)", The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, The Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
- ^ "Gary Wayne Bunt (1943-2016)", obituary, Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), June 11, 2016.
- ^ Lee, Steve (2005). "The WILHELM Scream," Hollywood Lost and Found; essay on origin and later use of sound effect dated May 17, 2005. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
- ^ Malvern, Jack (May 21, 2005). "Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh!!". The Times. Retrieved December 12, 2009.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Colin Larkin, ed. (2002). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music (Third ed.). Virgin Books. p. 507/8. ISBN 1-85227-937-0.
- ^ "Sheb Wooley — The Love in (1967)", full song presented on YouTube. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
- ^ Dennis McLellan. "Sheb Wooley, 82; Appeared in Film, TV Westerns, Wrote 'Purple People Eater'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
- ^ Spencer Leigh (September 22, 2013). "Sheb Wooley: Singer-songwriter/actor whose hits included 'Purple People Eater'". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
- ^ "The woman who can´t watch movies, the documentary". YouTube. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
- ^ Dennis McLellan (September 18, 2003). "Sheb Wooley, 82; Appeared in Film, TV Westerns, Wrote 'Purple People Eater'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
- ^ "Actor/Musician Sheb Wooley Dies". Billboard.com. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2011). Top Pop Singles 1955–2010. Record Research, Inc. p. 987. ISBN 978-0-89820-188-8.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sheb Wooley. |
- Official website
- AllMusic entry
- Sheb Wooley at IMDb
- Sheb Wooley discography at Discogs
- Sheb Wooley at Find a Grave
- 1921 births
- 2003 deaths
- 20th-century American male actors
- 20th-century American singers
- People from Erick, Oklahoma
- Country musicians from Oklahoma
- Male actors from Oklahoma
- Male actors from Fort Worth, Texas
- American male film actors
- American male singer-songwriters
- American male television actors
- American country singer-songwriters
- American novelty song performers
- MGM Records artists
- Deaths from leukemia
- Deaths from cancer in Tennessee
- Parody musicians
- Western (genre) television actors
- Songwriters from Oklahoma
- Singers from Oklahoma
- Country musicians from Tennessee
- Country musicians from Texas
- 20th-century male singers