He had roles in 'Psycho II,' 'M*A*S*H,' 'Columbo' and many more ... and he's from Galesburg

Here's one from the "I didn't know they were from Galesburg" category:

• This man was born at Cottage Hospital, July 14, 1925.

• He lived in a still-standing brick home at 1154 N. Prairie St.

• He attended Silas Willard Elementary School.

• He went on to play college basketball for legendary coach Phog Allen at the University of Kansas.

• He became a character actor in his mid-40s and went on to claim 92 credits over a variety of TV shows and movies, including memorable roles as the sheriff in "Psycho II" and "Psycho III," and the mayor in "Back to the Future Part III." His TV credits include "Columbo," "Newhart," "Matlock," "Three's Company," "Charlie's Angels," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "M*A*S*H," "Mork and Mindy" and "Dallas" ... the list goes on, and is as impressive as it is long.

You probably recognize him, but don't know his name, let alone that he's from Galesburg. Meet Hugh Clair Gillin.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, just how did this Galesburg native go from attending grade school with William "Billy" Pritchard and playing neighborhood basketball with Pete Bohan to acting on the big screen with Anthony Perkins and being friends with Charlton Heston?

A quick Wikipedia search for Galesburg lists "Hugh Gillin, actor" among the Notable People for our town. But finding Gillin's link to Galesburg through online searches is sketchy at best, and since he died May 4, 2004, a direct interview was impossible. Through a little detective work, however, we were able to track down Gillin's son Tim, living in Kansas.

Bingo!

Growing up in Galesburg

Through some memory recall, and more importantly from the pages of the autobiography "Hugh Gillin's Story: This Is How It Happened," Tim Gillin was able to connect his father's early years in Galesburg.

Hugh Clair Gillin Jr. was born at 6:05 a.m. July 14, 1925, at Cottage Hospital to Hugh Clair and Marguerite Clarke Gillin. They lived at 1154 N. Prairie St. — his father a shoe store clerk and his mother a housewife.

The Gillins landed in Galesburg when Marguerite's father was transferred to town with the Santa Fe railroad. The 1926 Galesburg City Directory lists HC Gillin as being a salesman for Atterbury, and the 1928 directory lists him as a traveling salesman for Liggett & Myers. The 1931-32 city directory lists Mrs. Gillin as a student at Brown's Business College.

"My dad's father left when he was about 2 years old, so basically he lived with his mother," said Tim Gillin, the second-oldest of Hugh's four children and now living in Overland Park, Kansas.

Hugh attended Silas Willard Elementary School, where his first grade teacher was Mrs. Higgins.

Hugh Clair Gillin Jr. — he was called "Junie" and later Clair as a youngster — lived in Galesburg until about 1936 and starting sixth grade, when he, his mother and her mother moved to Pittsburg, Kansas.

Love for basketball started in Galesburg

In his book, Gillin describes how he fell in love with the game of basketball.

Luckily, I was introduced to basketball in Galesburg, Illinois when I was a kid ... probably in about the 6th grade. Billy Pritchard, a neighbor, said, "Come on down to the YMCA and I'll see if I can't get you on the basketball team." So I went home and my mom said, "Yeah, your grandpa just joined the YMCA so you can go down there." So I went down and not only did I get on the team, I ended up on the YMCA all-star team and played different YMCA's around that part of the country.

I had found a little niche. I didn't know how important it was going to be to me.

I was tall for my age. I used to shoot baskets in the neighborhood at Pete Bohan's house. He had a basket out in the backyard and a great big cement driveway. I remember many times staying there until after dark shooting baskets. I guess I didn't want to go home ... nothing happened when I got there. I remember one night going home, I ran into the damned clothesline and got rust in my eyes and had to go to the doctor to get that all cleaned up. But I didn't care — I was playing basketball.

Notable Galesburg natives: Galesburg man could get anyone on White House line for Nixon, from astronauts to Kissinger

Grandpa worked for the railroad

In his book, Gillin has memories of Grandpa John Crawford Clarke working as a chief fuel inspector for Santa Fe Railway.

Occasionally he used to take me with him down to the local Santa Fe Railroad Station in Galesburg, Illinois, where we lived. It was on the main line of the Santa Fe between Chicago and Los Angeles and we'd pick up his mail. I felt important because my grandpa was kind of like the boss and I was there with him. 

I can still remember the smell of that train station. All train stations have a fragrance ... not an odor ... an odor's like passing wind. This is a pleasant, woody train station odor. It was a solid man-type fragrance. It was distinctive to me. You could have taken me in blind folded, and I'd say, 'Oh, yeah, we're in a train station.'

And I'd just sit on the wooden benches or just absorb the whole atmosphere of the station. Pretty soon there would be a train chugging in ... that was exciting ... blowing steam out and people getting on and off.

They were all steam engines. This was before the diesels. I remember in about 1936 when one of the first diesel trains came out on the Burlington Railroad line and it was called the Burlington Zephyr. It was a streamlined, modern looking train. I took my little teeny two dollar camera out and my mother took me to the trains on the edge of town because we knew this train was coming through on its maiden run from Chicago to wherever the hell it was going. And I took a picture of it, which I still have, with my little camera. And I felt good — boy, I got a picture of the Zephyr! This doesn't happen every damned week.

Q&A with Laura Tiehen: Galesburg native brings economic knowledge to White House council

Memories, but few return trips to Galesburg

Tim Gillin said his father sometimes mentioned Galesburg, but he had little reason to return to his birthplace.

"I know we came back to Galesburg at least once, when I was a kid," Tim said. "But I don't think he went back to Galesburg a lot after he left. It wasn't that he didn't like Galesburg, there just wasn't a lot there for him."

Life after Galesburg: Kansas and World War II

Gillin finished school in Pittsburg, Kansas, graduating from Pittsburg High School in 1943. He briefly attended Kansas State Teacher's College before getting his draft notice. He reported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He served in combat in France and Germany, where he served as squad leader in the 100th Infantry Division. Wounded in combat, he was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and the Combat Infantry Badge.

After being discharged from the Army in the fall of 1945, he started at the University of Kansas as a freshman in January 1946. He majored in geology and played on the 1947 Jayhawks men's basketball team for legendary coach Phog Allen. In his only season with the Jayhawks, No. 20 Clair Gillin played in just three games and scored 4 points as KU went 9-15 (4-8, sixth in Big 7) during the 1947-48 season.

He married his first wife, Mimi, while at KU and they had their first son, Mark, in November 1948.

Hugh Gillin graduated from Kansas in January 1950 and landed a job with National Associated Petroleum Company. Tim Gillin was born in August 1950, daughter Marcia was born in 1953 and youngest son, Jed, was born in 1955.

During these years, Hugh Gillin openly battled alcoholism, causing a divide with his wife and children. He was sober the final 40 years of his life.

The acting bug bites — Hollywood calls

Seven years sober at the time, Gillin was bitten by the acting bug while working as a geologist and living in Kansas City.

"He was about 45 years old, and he saw an ad in the newspaper — the Kansas City Star," Tim Gillin recalled. "It said, 'Looking for big, local businessman to audition for movie.'

"For a variety of reasons, he did. He had no acting experience, again, except acting like he was a lot of things. He went down and auditioned, and really, he had no business doing it, because he'd never done it. Except something told him to go do it."

Tim continued, "They ended up hiring him, flew him to Canada, and he's in a movie with Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman and Sissy Spacek. I'm in college, and pardon my language, but I'm like, 'What the F, Dad? Seriously?'

"So that's how he got started. And he was bit by the acting bug. He packed up a U-Haul and moved to California around 1972. He was 45 or 48 and said, 'I'm a recovering alcoholic, and I don't have time to waste.'"

Of Paramount success:: This former Galesburg resident shines in 'eye opening' industry

Hugh Gillin's first film credit was in the 1972 movie "Prime Cut." His next movie was the acclaimed "Paper Moon," starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. Gillin played the role of a deputy.

"My dad was a character," Tim said. "And he ultimately ended up being a character actor. He had a good sense of humor and was likable.

"People would say, 'How did your dad become an actor?' And I'd say, 'Well he acted his whole life.' And then people would say, 'Your dad's such a great actor.' And I said, 'I don't know — that's just him.'"

'I didn't even know how to read the script'

Hugh Gillin recalled his start in show biz in a 1978 article in Kansas City Magazine.

"I didn't even know how to read the script, that first time," he admits. "They said, 'Read this,' and I read everything, stage directions and all. Page numbers, everything. Finally, they said, 'Let's start over, and try it this way.' I didn't realize it until later, but I was following direction in that very first meeting, I was learning to be open to someone else's idea of how it should be done. They said, 'I don't know what is is you've got, Gillin, but you've got something.' I met with them three or four times, and I got the part. With Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman in Prime Cut."

Gillin was quoted in another clipping from the book that said:

"When I took the plunge, I was 46. My children thought I was crazy. But I just made up my mind there and then that this was something I had to do. You don't have to give up. Just keep knocking on doors — and you always find something new to learn."

Mixing television and movies

Once he started in Hollywood, the work seemingly kept pouring in for the blue-eyed, 6-foot-5, 300-pound Gillin. He made his first television appearance as a house detective on "Maude" in 1975. Next was the role of a sheriff on "The Six Million Dollar Man."

He appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows from 1972-98, claiming 92 credits according to his page on IMDb. He made multiple appearances on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," "Charlie's Angels," "Quincy ME," "Semi-Tough" and "The Facts of Life."

In his book, Hugh Gillin wrote:

I started working almost right away. Not big stuff, but little stuff. But little stuff was big stuff to me. Just to get in a film ... just to be in a film that was all I needed. Like later on with Back to the Future III I was on location three weeks, got about $20,000 and worked two half days. I'm on the screen for about 2 minutes once and about a minute another time.

Sheriff John Hunt — 'Psycho' II and III

Asked what his father's most recognizable role was, Tim didn't hesitate to say, "Probably as the sheriff in 'Psycho' II and III."

Tim noted the scene where his father, playing Sheriff John Hunt, reaches in to the ice machine and pulls out a handful of ice without noticing that the ice is covered in blood. Only Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates — seated on a bench next to the ice machine — knew a dead body was resting inside.

"I don't know that he was supposed to put the ice in his mouth, but what else was he supposed to do with it?" Tim said. "They don't direct you on everything, you just do what's natural.

"But that, and the look Tony Perkins had on his face sitting there, just made that scene."

Father and son share the screen

Like Hugh, Tim Gillin got into acting around the same time his father did. Tim appeared in more than 100 national television commercials, and also has credits in 10 TV or feature film roles.

Hugh and Tim Gillin appeared in several commercials together, and also in one episode of "Knight Rider."

Life after acting

Gillin's final acting credit came while playing the part of a bartender in a 1998 episode of the TV series "Pensacola: Wings of Gold."

He was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, serving on the Board of Directors for two terms.

At the time of his death on May 4, 2004, in San Diego, Gillin was survived by Jan M. Gillin of the home; his four children; and four grandchildren. He was buried in Pittsburg, Kansas.

"Dad wasn't short on ego, and fortunately he wrote his book called 'Hugh Gillin's Story: This Is How It Happened,'" Tim Gillin said. "It's basically his life story. Looking at the book still makes me laugh."

Tim said he was appreciative his father's story was being told, adding, "I think Dad would be very tickled to know someone from Galesburg is telling a story of one of their native sons."

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Meet the Galesburg native who played in MASH, Psycho II, Columbo & more