Entertainment
Oklahoma native Clu Gulager remembers his talent as an actor and teacher
Renowned for his long career as a Hollywood actor, Clu Gulager, in many ways could also be a character like himself.
“The day we met him, he had just been released from the hospital. We actually met him at his house (in Los Angeles), and he introduced himself and he was wearing a bathrobe. So, we we did his interview, and he had a dress on,” Jeffrey Moore, executive director of the Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture under construction in Tulsa, recalled with a chuckle.
“It was a good interview, and (he was) a very interesting and endearing character. He had a huge personality…and an incredible career.”
An Oklahoma cowboy who first broke into TV westerns and became a familiar face in horror movies, Gulager died on August 5 at the age of 93..
“He loved Oklahoma. He loved everything about it and wanted to tell us about his hometown and who he was connected with and who he worked with,” said Moore, who interviewed Gulager for the upcoming video collections. museum, also known as OKPOP.
The character actor was a relative of Will Rogers
Enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, William Martin “Clu” Gulager was born on November 16, 1928 in Holdenville. His father nicknamed him “Clu” after the clu-clu birds or martins that nested near their homes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Oklahoma’s film community has lost a true icon, Jennifer Loren, director of the Cherokee Nation Film Office and Original Content, said in an email. The Cherokee Nation Film Office sends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Mr. Gulagers. We know his legacy will live on as he continues to inspire young Indigenous people to share our stories for generations to come.
Gulager’s father, John, was a Broadway actor before moving to Muskogee to start a successful legal practice, eventually becoming a judge, while his his mother, Hazel, worked for the Veterans Administration (now Veterans Affairs).
The paternal grandmother of the future actor, Martha Schrimsher Gulager, was the sister of Mary America Schrimsher Rogers, mother of Oklahoma entertainment legend Will Rogers, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
“He talked about being a cousin, being related to Will Rogers and the kind of shoes he had to fill, at least in his mind, with the original pop culture icon as his cousin,” Moore said. .
After serving in the US Marines, where he played French horn in the Marines Corp band, Gulager attended Northeastern State College (now the university) in Tahlequah and later Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He won a scholarship to study abroad in Paris with internationally acclaimed French actor, director and mime artist Jean Louis Barrault.
After a year, Gulager returned to Baylor, where he married fellow performer Miriam Byrd-Nethery in 1952.
The couple soon traveled to New York and later to Los Angeles to work in television.
Oklahoma cowboy busted playing Billy the Kid on TV
After roles in series like “Have Gun Will Travel”, “Laramie” and “The Rebel”, Gulager was cast in 1960 in his breakout role, portraying Billy the Kid on the TV show “The Tall Man”. . The show aired from 1960 to 1962 on NBC, and then the Oklahoman joined the cast of another NBC Western series, “The Virginian.”
I was an Oklahoma cowboy. I used to ride the fences (around cattle) in the winter, and in the summer I was out in the field, watching out for rattlesnakes, Gulager told Tulsa World in 2019.
And then later on, you move on and something takes hold of you, and you want to be an actor. Well, I could play cowboy, and it was easy for me to ride a pony and wear a hat.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he maintained a busy television career while taking on supporting roles in several major films, beginning with playing a hitman in Don Siegels’ 1964 neo-noir film The Killers, against Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes. and Ronald Reagan (in the final film role of the future president).
Gulager played a race car mechanic in Paul Newman’s “Winning” in 1969 and a detective opposite John Wayne in “McQ” in 1974. He co-starred with Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn and fellow Oklahoman Ben Johnson starred in Peter Bogdanovich’s esteemed 1971 drama “The Last Picture Show,” for which Johnson and Leachman both won Oscars.
Additionally, Gulager gained his own fame as a filmmaker: his 1969 short “A Day with the Boys” was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Oklahoman becomes a standout horror movie
As he continued his long career, Gulager found a particular niche in horror films, appearing in both “Return of the Living Dead” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” in 1985.
He starred in the “Feast” horror-comedy trilogy, as well as the 2012 creature feature “Piranha 3DD,” all directed by his son, John Gulager. The younger Gulager also directed his father in one of the elder’s home state projects, the 2018 sequel “Children of the Corn: Runaway.”
Among Gulager’s last roles were a character known only as “The Cherokee” in the 2015 transgender comedy “Tangerine,” which was nominated for a People’s Choice Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and as employee of a bookstore that sells Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) a copy of “Tess of the dUrbervilles” in her old friend Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 two-time Oscar winner, “Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood.”
“He wasn’t tied to any specific genre. Even though he was a character actor, I don’t think he was typecast. I think he played a lot of different roles that allowed him to have a very diverse and active career spanning … over six decades,” Moore said.
The Holdenville native has maintained strong ties to Sooner State
In addition to continuing to build his considerable list of credits, Gulager has taught new generations of aspiring actors in his Clu Gulager’s film studio in Hollywood.
Although he walked away from the state earlier decades ago, he also became famous for sharing his knowledge with newcomers to Oklahoma.
“He definitely gave back to the state and was very famous for running movie camps,” Moore said. “There are a lot of people in the movie industry now who, when you talk to them, say, ‘Oh, yeah, I went to a Clu Gulager camp, that’s how I got into the business. .'”
In 2013, the Muskogee Bare Bones International Film Festival recognized Gulager with a lifetime achievement award. That same year, Circle Cinema in Tulsa added him to its Circle Cinema Walk of Fame, where fellow Indigenous and Holdenville native filmmaker, Sterlin Harjo (“Reservation Dogs”), was among the fans who helped honor the Hollywood veteran.
“In person, he was very smart, very quick with any kind of movie knowledge and history. … He’s always had a gritty, salty-earth type character, and I think he could just tapping into that from his roots in Oklahoma,” said Circle Cinema film programmer Chuck Foxen.
“He was a normal person in real life. He wasn’t one of those types of actors who demanded crazy treatment or something. He just came here and was so honored when we did the signing. … He was really grateful to be a part of the cinema and to be knowledgeable (about it) and such a big advocate for Oklahoma cinema and film.”
Gulager was predeceased by his wife, who died in 2003. He is survived by his sons, John and Tom; their partners, Diane and Zoe; his grandson, Clu Mosha; and his many students and fans.
“Clu was as caring as he was loyal and devoted to his craft, a proud member of the Cherokee nation, a rule breaker, quick-witted and shrewd and always on the side of the underdog. He was good natured, an avid reader, tender and kind. Loud and dangerous,” said Diane Goldner, daughter-in-law of the Gulagers, in a family statement posted on Facebook. “He will be terribly missed by his family.”
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