Character actor Clu Gulager remembered by Oklahomans as 'a true icon'

Renowned for his long career as a Hollywood character actor, Clu Gulager, by many accounts, also could be a character as himself.

"The day we met him, he had just gotten out of the hospital. We actually met him at his home (in Los Angeles), and he showed up and he had a robe on. So, we did his interview, and he had a robe on," recalled Jeffrey Moore, executive director of the under-construction Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture in Tulsa, with a chuckle.

"It was a good interview, and (he was) a very interesting, engaging character. He had a huge personality ... and an incredible career."

An Oklahoma cowboy who first broke through on television Westerns and went on to become a familiar face in horror films, Gulager died Aug. 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 related to and who he's worked with," said Moore, who interviewed Gulager for the video collections of the forthcoming museum, also known as OKPOP.

Character actor was a relative of Will Rogers

An enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, William Martin "Clu" Gulager was born Nov. 16, 1928, in Holdenville. His father nicknamed him "Clu" after the clu-clu birds — or martins — that nested near their house, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Oklahoma’s film community has lost a true icon,” said Jennifer Loren, director of the Cherokee Nation Film Office and Original Content, in an email. “The Cherokee Nation Film Office extends our deepest condolences to Mr. Gulager’s family, friends and fans. We know that his legacy will live on as he continues to inspire young Natives to share our stories for generations to come.”

Gulager's father, John, was a Broadway actor before settling in Muskogee to start a successful law practice, eventually becoming a judge, while his mother, Hazel, worked for the Veterans Administration (now Veterans Affairs).  

The future actor's paternal grandmother, Martha Schrimsher Gulager, was sister to Mary America Schrimsher Rogers, mother of Oklahoma entertainment legend Will Rogers, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.

"He talked about being a cousin to, 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 U.S. Marines, where he played French horn in the Marines Corp band, Gulager attended Northeastern State College (now University) in Tahlequah and later Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He earned a scholarship to study abroad in Paris with internationally known French actor, director and mime Jean Louis Barrault.

After a year Gulager returned to Baylor, where he married fellow performer Miriam Byrd-Nethery in 1952.

The couple soon made their way to New York and later to Los Angeles to work in television.

Oklahoma cowboy broke out 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 in the TV show "The Tall Man." The show aired from 1960 to 1962 on NBC, then the Oklahoman joined the cast of another NBC Western series, "The Virginian."

“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 told the Tulsa World in 2019.

“And then later on, you move on and something comes over you, and you want to be an actor. Well, I could play a cowboy, and it was easy for me to ride a pony and wear a hat.”

Throughout the 1960s and '70s, he maintained a busy TV career while also taking on supporting roles in several significant films, starting with playing a hit man in Don Siegel’s 1964 neo-noir movie “The Killers,” opposite Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes and Ronald Reagan (in the future president's final film role).

Gulager played a race car mechanic in the 1969 Paul Newman vehicle "Winning" and a detective opposite John Wayne in 1974's "McQ." He co-starred with Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn and fellow Oklahoman Ben Johnson in Peter Bogdanovich's esteemed 1971 drama "The Last Picture Show," for which Johnson and Leachman both earned Oscars.

Plus, Gulager earned his own acclaim as a filmmaker: His 1969 short film "A Day with the Boys" was nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or for best short film at France's Cannes Film Festival.

Oklahoman becomes a horror movie standout

As he continued his long career, Gulager found a particular niche in horror movies, appearing in both "The Return of the Living Dead" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge" in 1985.

He acted in the trilogy of "Feast" horror comedies, plus the 2012 creature feature "Piranha 3DD," all helmed 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 final roles were a character known only as "The Cherokee" in the 2015 transgender buddy comedy "Tangerine," which was nominated for an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival, and as a book store employee who sells Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) a copy of "Tess of the d’Urbervilles" in his old friend Quentin Tarantino's 2019 two-time Oscar-winning film "Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood."

"He was not tied to any specific genre. Even though he was a character actor, I don't think he got 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.

Holdenville native maintained strong Sooner State ties

Along with continuing to build his considerable list of credits, Gulager taught new generations of aspiring actors in his Clu Gulager's Film Acting Workshop in Hollywood.

Although he moved away from the Sooner State decades ago, he became well-known for sharing his knowledge with Oklahoma up-and-comers, too.

"He definitely gave back to the state and was very famous for having film camps," Moore said. "There are a lot of people in the film industry now that when we talk to them, they say, 'Oh, yeah, I went to a Clu Gulager camp; that's how I got into the business.'"

In 2013, Muskogee's Bare Bones International Film Festival recognized Gulager with a lifetime achievement award. That same year, Tulsa's Circle Cinema added him to its Circle Cinema Walk of Fame, where fellow Native filmmaker and Holdenville native 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 film knowledge and history. ... He just always had a gritty, salt-of-the-earth type character, and I think he could just tap into that from his roots in Oklahoma," said Chuck Foxen, Circle Cinema film programmer.

"He was a normal person in real life. He wasn't one of those kinds of actors that demanded crazy treatment or anything like that. He would just come in here and just be so honored when we did the dedication. ... He just was really appreciative of being a part of cinema and knowledgeable (about it) and such a great advocate for film and for Oklahoma film."

Gulager was preceded in death by his wife, who died in 2003. He is survived 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, sharp and astute and on the side — always — of the oppressed. He was good-humored, an avid reader, tender and kind. Loud and dangerous," said Diane Goldner, Gulager’s daughter-in-law, in a family statement posted on Facebook. "His family will miss him terribly."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma native Clu Gulager remembered as talented actor, teacher