Biography for
Warren Oates More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

5 July 1928, Depoy, Kentucky, USA

Date of Death

3 April 1982, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart attack)

Birth Name

Warren Mercer Oates

Height

5' 11" (1.80 m)

Mini Biography

American character actor of the 1960s and 1970s whose distinctive style and intensity brought him to offbeat leading roles. Oates was born in a very small Kentucky town and attended high school in Louisville, continuing on to the University of Louisville and military service with the U.S. Marines. In college he became interested in the theatre and in 1954 headed for New York to make his mark as an actor. However, his first real job in television was, as it had been for James Dean before him, testing the contest gags on the game show "Beat the Clock" (1950). He did numerous menial jobs while auditioning, including serving as the hat-check man at the nightclub "21". By 1957 he had begun appearing in live dramas such as "Studio One" (1948), but Oates' rural drawl seemed more fitted for the Westerns that were proliferating on the big screen at the time, so he moved to Hollywood and immediately stared getting steady work as an increasingly prominent supporting player, often as either craven or vicious types. With his role as one of the Hammond brothers in the Sam Peckinpah masterpiece Ride the High Country (1962), Oates found a niche both as an actor and as a colleague of one of the most distinguished and distinctive directors of the period. Peckinpah used Oates repeatedly, and Oates, in large part due to the prominence given him by Peckinpah, became one of those rare character actors whose name and face is as familiar as those of many leading stars. He began to play roles which, while still character parts, were also leads, particularly in cult hits like Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). Although never destined to be a traditional leading man, Oates remained one of Hollywood's most valued character players up until his sudden death from a heart attack at the age of 53. His final two films, Tough Enough (1983) and Blue Thunder (1983), filmed back-to-back in early 1982 shortly before his death, were dedicated to his memory.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver

Spouse

Judy A. Jones	(24 August 1977 - 3 April 1982) (his death)
Vickery Turner	(1969 - 1974) (divorced)
Teddy Farmer	(1959 - 1966) (divorced) 3 children
Roberta (Bobbie) Ellis	(27 July 1957 - 24 July 1959) (divorced)

Trivia

Subject of the song by "Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes", title "Warren Oates", from their album "You Wanna Be There But You Don't Wanna Travel" phonogram 1994

Sang in the backup chorus for "Rocket to Stardom" on Kris Kristofferson's 1975 album "Who's to Bless . . . Who's to Blame."

The University of Louisville had a scholarship named after him for promising students in the arts programs.

Father of Jennifer Oates and Tim Oates.

Brother of Gordon Oates.

In his long and prestigious career as one of the best character actors in film, he only had four leading roles: Bennie in "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia", as well as the title roles in "Chandler", "Cockfighter", and "Dillinger". He got his first official lead role in "Garcia" as a gift from director Sam Peckinpah partly in appreciation for his work in two of his films, "Ride The High Country" and "The Wild Bunch", respectively, and because Oates had never been the star before.

Turned down the lead role in Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) in order to make The Wild Bunch (1969).

Personal Quotes

British critic Neil Sinyard on Oates: "His most successful films are probably those in which the morality is as cockeyed as his grin."

I feel most uncomfortable in a western role, because my image of the western man is John Wayne and I'm just a little shit.

[on Sam Peckinpah] Sam has always believed, and I believe rightly, that he is there to make the film and that anyone who stands in his way is dead. They're in deep, deep trouble. And anyone who doesn't come up to snuff and do their job absolutely perfectly is in deep trouble with Sam.

Hopalong Cassidy and Ben Johnson have rubbed off on my life. That's about all I have to say.

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