Advanced search

Slim Pickens spent the early part of his career as a real cowboy and the latter part playing cowboys, and he is best remembered for a single "cowboy" image: that of bomber pilot Maj. "King" Kong waving his cowboy hat rodeo-style as he rides a nuclear bomb onto its target in the great black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Born in Kingsburg, near Fresno in California's Central Valley, he spent much of his boyhood in nearby Hanford, where he began rodeoing at the age of 12. Over the next two decades he toured the country on the rodeo circuit, becoming a highly-paid and well-respected rodeo clown, a job that entailed enormous danger. In 1950, at the age of 31, Slim married Margaret Elizabeth Harmon and that same year he was given a role in a western, Rocky Mountain (1950). He quickly found a niche in both comic and villainous roles in that genre. With his hoarse voice and pronounced western twang, he was not always easy to cast outside the genre, but when he was, as in "Dr. Strangelove", the results were often memorable. He died in 1983 after a long and courageous battle against a brain tumor. He was survived by his wife Margaret and children.

A lover of music and scenic arts since his childhood, Bill Thornbury graduated from the California State University at Fresno with a teaching degree in music and nowadays teaches in Northern California.

His sporadic and short cinematic career started at the age of 22, playing a small role in an independent film called Summer School Teachers (1975) and directed by the controversial Barbara Peeters. In the following years, he appeared in a couple of productions made for TV: the drama movie Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975) and an episode for The Rockford Files (1974). In these early period, and in the upcoming years, he was also featured in many national television commercials, including "Honda Motorcycles", "Chrysler/Plymouth", and "Coca-Cola".

Anyway, his breakthrough came in 1978, being 26 years old, when he portrayed the character he will always be identified with: Jody Pearson, elder brother of Mike, the young protagonist of Phantasm (1979). During a long production that lasted over two years, he set a strong friendship with director Don Coscarelli and fellow actors A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm that still lasts today. Together, they are the key center of what fans call "The Phantasm Phamily". Due to his skills as a musician, guitar player, and singer, he was given the chance to perform on-screen a theme composed by himself: the country ballade "Sittin' Here at Midnight". The scene where he plays the song with Reggie Bannister became one of the most unforgettable moments of the saga, and the song itself is today a collector's item for followers worldwide.

During the eighties, Bill started to focus more and more on his musical career, leaving acting aside. Nevertheless, he was casted on a couple of episodes in a brief soap opera called Secrets of Midland Heights (1980) and had a small role in The Lost Empire (1984). After that, he practically retired from acting to turn his talents into music and teaching.

Due to his friendship with Don Coscarelli, he returned to the world of Phantasm and delighted many fans reprising his role of Jody in Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) and in Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998). It seems he will only come out of retirement to play this character, forever associated with him.

Bill, today a professional singer/songwriter, has been a staff songwriter for 20th Century-Fox in Los Angeles, and MTM Records in Nashville. In addition to recording albums, Mr. Thornbury also performs with the critically acclaimed band The Sons of the San Joaquin.

Bill resides in Northern California with his wife Sharon, his son Ben, as well as a great variety of adorable pets.

Easy Pickens was born on 31 December 1921 in Kingsburg, Fresno County, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970). He was married to Marilu A Althouse and Shirley Mae Andersen. He died on 24 January 2001 in Reno, Nevada, USA.

Vincent A. Villanueva was born on 14 January 1976 in Kingsburg, California, USA. He is known for Flushed Away (2006), The Road to El Dorado (2000) and Trolls (2016).

Jim Walls is a retired police officer, who in 1971 joined the California Highway Patrol. He retired after 15 years on the force after a shooting incident that left him traumatized.

During his recovery from the shooting incident, Jim met Ken Williams, who was then a developer for Sierra Entertainment (then Sierra On-Line).

Walls was introduced to Williams by his then-wife Donna, who worked as a hair stylist for a salon in Oakhurst, California. Williams, from time to time would go to Donna for hair cuts. It was during one of these sessions that the focus of conversation turned from hairstyle to Williams' idea of creating a police-oriented adventure game. He also conveyed that he wanted a police officer to be involved with the design in order to capture the realism. He gave Walls' wife his business card and asked that he would call.

Williams then asked Walls to his house for a game of racquetball, and over drinks after the game, Williams extrapolated on his idea of starting an adventure game series with a police genre. Williams told Walls that all he needed was a real police officer to be involved with the design in order to maintain realism. Following this meeting, Walls went on to become a game designer for Sierra.

Walls claims "When I first sat down in front of a computer to begin the design story of the original Police Quest I had to be shown where the on/off switch was. I typed the entire story with two fingers (after all, the only skills I had at the time were chasing people down and throwing them in jail)."

Walls' best-known works were the first three Police Quest games Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (1987), Police Quest II: The Vengeance (1988), and Police Quest III: The Kindred (1991). Many of the incidents depicted in the game were based on real situations that Walls had lived through his career. For instance, Jessie Bains, the main antagonist from the first two games, was modeled after a perpetrator who was constantly escaping custody.

Walls also wrote and directed other games, such as Codename: Iceman (1989), which unlike the Police Quest games, was an espionage game. He also had a minor voice-over role in Blade Runner (1997).

Now retired, Walls spends his time in his native California.