Biography
This page uses content from the Warren Oates biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Warren Oates (July 5, 1928 - April 3, 1982) was an American character actor.
Born and raised in Depoy, Kentucky near Greenville in Muhlenberg County, he enlisted in the Marines in the 1950s. He became a successful character actor in Westerns, including several directed by Sam Peckinpah including Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), and The Wild Bunch (1969). In 1962, he appeared as "Ves Painter" in the short-lived TV Series Stoney Burke.
Other popular films he appeared in were In the Heat of the Night (1967) , Dillinger (1973), and Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973). He appeared in the Sherman Brothers musical version of Tom Sawyer as "Muff Potter" the town drunk. He was in Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), and Stripes (1981). He is now mostly known for his roles in several movies which have acquired cult status, including The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), The Hired Hand (1971), and three Monte Hellman films: The Shooting (filmed in 1965, released in 1968), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), and Cockfighter (1974).
He died of a sudden heart attack in Los Angeles, California on April 3, 1982. His last two films, Blue Thunder and Tough Enough (both released in 1983), were posthumously dedicated to him. Oates was 53 years old.
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