Clu Gulager, Actor in ‘The Virginian,’ ‘The Last Picture Show’ and ‘Return of the Living Dead,’ Dies at 93 - Hollywood Reporter

The Oklahoma cowboy portrayed Billy the Kid as a nice guy in 'The Tall Man' and was bumped off by Ronald Reagan in 'The Killers.'.

Clu Gulager, the real-life cowboy from Oklahoma known for his turns on The Tall Man, The Virginian, The Last Picture Show and horror movies including The Return of the Living Dead, has died.

Gulager also portrayed the protégé of hitman Charlie Strom (Lee Marvin) taken out by a mob boss (Ronald Reagan) in Don Siegel’s The Killers (1964), a race-car mechanic opposite Paul Newman in Winning (1969) and a detective working alongside John Wayne’s character in John Sturges’ McQ (1974).

“But they left The Untouchables on, which was very violent,” Gulager noted in a 2015 interview.

After guest-starring on two episodes of NBC’s The Virginian, Gulager arrived in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, for the start of the series’ third season in 1964 as Deputy Sheriff Emmett Ryker.

In The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Gulager portrayed the head of a medical supply warehouse who battles the undead.

Gulager appeared in another scary and noteworthy 1985 film, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Later, he played a shotgun-toting bartender in the horror film Feast (2005) and its two straight-to-video sequels, then worked in Piranha 3DD (2012).

He appeared on Wanted: Dead or Alive, Have Gun — Will Travel and Laramie and was hired for The Tall Man after MCA chief Lew Wasserman saw him playing an Elvis-type character on CBS’ Playhouse 90

“I was a cowboy from Oklahoma

I rode the fences [around cattle] in the winter, and in the summer, I was out in the field, watching out for rattlesnakes,” Gulager said in a 2019 interview. “And then later on, you move on and something comes over you, and you want to be an actor

Future Universal and Columbia Pictures boss Frank Price, who had produced and wrote for The Tall Man, hired Gulager for The Virginian

In 1970, Gulager starred with Lloyd Bridges on the NBC drama San Francisco International Airport, also produced by Price, but it lasted a mere six episodes

Gulager said he improvised a great deal during the making of the neo-noir classic The Killers. “I was surprised that Lee Marvin let me do all that stuff, actually,” he noted during an interview with Eddie Muller after a January 2020 screening of the film on TCM’s Noir Alley

Gulager also appeared on such shows as Dr

“Clu was as caring as he was loyal and devoted to his craft, a proud member of the Cherokee nation, a rule-breaker, sharp and astute and on the side — always — of the oppressed,” his family noted