Slim Pickens
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| Slim Pickens | |
 Slim Pickens riding the bomb in the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb |
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| Birth name | Louis Bert Lindley, Jr. |
| Born | June 29, 1919 Kingsburg, California, USA |
| Died | December 8, 1983 Modesto, California, USA |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret (Maggie) Pickens |
Louis Bert Lindley, Jr. (June 29, 1919 – December 8, 1983), better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was a cowboy and actor.
Pickens, who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, was born in Kingsburg, California. He was an excellent rider from age four and quit school to join the rodeo at age twelve. He was told that working in the rodeo would be "slim pickings" (very little money), giving him his name, but he did very well, eventually rising to become a well known rodeo clown - one of the most dangerous jobs in show business.
After twenty years on the rodeo circuit, his distinctive voice and drawl, his wide eyes and moon face, and his strong physical presence and grace gained him a role in the western Rocky Mountain (1950), starring Errol Flynn. He subsequently appeared in many westerns, playing both villains and comic sidekicks to the likes of Rex Allen. In the opening scene of the revenge western "Eye for an Eye" (1966), he shoots a baby in its crib.
His most famous role was as B-52 pilot Major T. J. "King" Kong in Dr. Strangelove, which ended with Pickens riding an H-bomb down to global destruction. He was chosen because he naturally fit the role of an absurdly patriotic and gung-ho cowboy-type officer, and in fact was not even told that the movie was a comedy: he was instructed to play the role straight, and was only given script portions for the scenes he was in, rather than a script for the whole film. He is best known for both the scene riding the bomb to destruction, and his over-the-top speech early in the film, after his character learns of the mission to bomb Russia:
- "Well, boys, I reckon this is it - nuclear combat toe to toe with the Roosskies. Now look, boys, I ain't much of a hand at makin' speeches, but I got a pretty fair idea that something doggone important is goin' on back there. And I got a fair idea the kinda personal emotions that some of you fellas may be thinkin'. Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human bein's if you didn't have some pretty strong personal feelin's about nuclear combat. I want you to remember one thing, the folks back home is a-countin' on you and by golly, we ain't about to let 'em down. I tell you something else, if this thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions and personal citations when this thing's over with. That goes for ever' last one of you regardless of your race, color or your creed. Now let's get this thing on the hump - we got some flyin' to do."
Pickens credited the film as turning point in his career, saying "After 'Dr. Strangelove', the roles, the dressing rooms, and the checks all started gettin' bigger."
Another of his memorable roles was as Taggart, head of the gang of cowboy thugs in Mel Brooks' classic 1974 comedy Blazing Saddles:
- "What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is a-goin' on here?! I hired you people to try to git a little track laid, not to jump around like a bunch of Kansas City faggots!"
The next year, Pickens was in another western, playing the evil limping bank robber in Walt Disney's The Apple Dumpling Gang.
Pickens lent his voice to the 1938 children's radio show The Cinnamon bear, where he plays a singing cowboy.
Pickens appeared in dozens of films, including, Old Oklahoma Plains (1952), Down Laredo Way (1953), One-Eyed Jacks (1961) with Marlon Brando, Major Dundee (1965) with Charlton Heston, The Cowboys (1972) with John Wayne, Ginger in the Morning (1974) with Fred Ward, Poor Pretty Eddy (1975), The Getaway (1972) with Steve McQueen and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) in a small, but memorable and moving role.
Pickens was offered the part of Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining. He refused, saying that filming with Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove was too strenuous. He later relented, saying that he would appear in the film as long as Kubrick was contractually required to shoot Pickens' scenes in fewer than 100 takes a shot. Kubrick, notorious for shooting scenes hundreds and hundreds of times, refused, and cast Scatman Crothers as Hallorann instead.[citation needed]
He also appeared many times on television, both in guest shots, and in regular roles in The Legend of Custer, Bonanza, B.J. and the Bear, and Filthy Rich (1982). He played the owner of station WJM, Wild Jack Monroe, on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Toward the end of his life, Pickens lived with his wife in Columbia, Tuolumne County in California. In 1982, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A year later, he died from a brain tumor at the age of 64. Pickens was living at the Evergreen nursing home in Modesto, California after his brain surgery and that was where he died. His funeral drew such luminaries as Rex Allen Sr.
His brother acted under the name Easy Pickens. His most notable appearance was as "Easy" in Sam Peckinpah's The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970).
In 1978 Slim Pickens lent his voice to theme park Silver Dollar City as a character named Rube Dugan for a ride called "Rube Dugan's Diving Bell". The Diving Bell was a simulation ride that took passengers on a journey to the bottom of Lake Silver and back. The ride was in operation from 1978 to 1984.
