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IMDbPro

Slim Pickens(1919-1983)

  • Actor
  • Writer
  • Stunts
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Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Trailer 2 for The Howling
Play trailer1:35
The Howling (1981)
5 Videos
88 Photos
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.
BornJune 29, 1919
DiedDecember 8, 1983(64)
BornJune 29, 1919
DiedDecember 8, 1983(64)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Awards

Photos88

Slim Pickens in Filthy Rich (1982)
Slim Pickens in Filthy Rich (1982)
Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Sally Field, Mark Harmon, Karl Malden, Slim Pickens, Angela Cartwright, and Shirley Jones in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
Slim Pickens in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Slim Pickens, Katy Jurado, and Pina Pellicer in One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Marlon Brando and Slim Pickens in One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

Known for

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
8.4
  • Maj. 'King' Kong
  • 1964
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Blazing Saddles
7.7
  • Taggart
  • 1974
The Getaway (1972)
The Getaway
7.3
  • Cowboy
  • 1972
1941 (1979)
1941
5.8
  • Hollis 'Holly' P. Wood
  • 1979

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Michael Dudikoff and Peter Horton in Sawyer and Finn (1983)
    Sawyer and Finn
  • Pink Motel (1982)
    Pink Motel
  • Delta Burke, Dixie Carter, Charles Frank, Jerry Hardin, Michael Lombard, Nedra Volz, and Ann Wedgeworth in Filthy Rich (1982)
    Filthy Rich
  • Mark Miller in Christmas Mountain (1981)
    Christmas Mountain
  • The Nashville Grab (1981)
    The Nashville Grab
  • Tom Ewell, Leonard Frey, Joel Higgins, Meeno Peluce, and Carlene Watkins in Best of the West (1981)
    Best of the West
  • Charlie and the Great Balloon Chase (1981)
    Charlie and the Great Balloon Chase
  • Lisa Eilbacher in This House Possessed (1981)
    This House Possessed
  • The Howling (1981)
    The Howling
  • Greg Evigan in B.J. and the Bear (1978)
    B.J. and the Bear
    • ...
  • The Nashville Palace (1980)
    The Nashville Palace
  • Dyan Cannon, Amy Irving, and Willie Nelson in Honeysuckle Rose (1980)
    Honeysuckle Rose
  • Jake's Way
  • Tom Horn (1980)
    Tom Horn
  • David Soul in Swan Song (1980)
    Swan Song

Writer

  • Wide Country (1962)
    Wide Country

Stunts

  • Wide Country (1962)
    Wide Country
    • (uncredited)
  • Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, and Burl Ives in The Big Country (1958)
    The Big Country
    • (uncredited)

Videos5

The Howling
Clip 3:21
The Howling
Trailer
Trailer 1:57
Trailer
The Howling
Trailer 1:35
The Howling
The Howling
Trailer 1:29
The Howling
Blazing Saddles
Trailer 2:15
Blazing Saddles

Personal details

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    • June 29, 1919
    • Kingsburg, California, USA
    • December 8, 1983
    • Modesto, California, USA(brain tumor)
    • March 22, 1950 - December 8, 1983 (his death, 3 children)
  • Other works
    In 1961, he and Bing Russell starred in an unsold pilot for a adventure series set in the Pacific Northwest called "Loggers".
  • Publicity listings
    • 5 Articles

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    When he showed up on the set of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) fully dressed as a cowboy and speaking in a thick Southern accent, the British crew thought he was "Method" acting, not knowing that this was how he always dressed and acted.
  • Quotes
    After [Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)], the roles, the dressing rooms and the checks all started gettin' bigger.
    • Often acted in post-modern Westerns or parodies of Westerns

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