Paul Brinegar

Paul Brinegar
Paul Alden Brinegar Jr. (December 19, 1917 – March 27, 1995) was an American character actor best known for his roles in three Western series: The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Rawhide, and Lancer.
Early years
Brinegar was born in 1917 in Tucumcari in eastern New Mexico, the first child of Louise (née McElroy) and Paul A. Brinegar, Sr., who was a farmer. His family relocated several times during his childhood, first moving to Alamogordo, then to Las Cruces, and finally to Santa Fe. In Santa Fe, Brinegar became interested in acting, performing in stage productions at his local high school.
After his graduation in 1935, Brinegar left Santa Fe to attend Pasadena Junior College in California. There, he studied drama, literature, and art. According to the United States Census of 1940, he was back in Santa Fe by May of that year, living with his parents and his two younger brothers, Warren and Robert.
The 1940 census also identifies him at that time as an independent "writer" and his father then as a freelancing "general short-hand reporter". Soon thereafter, young Brinegar joined the United States Navy to serve four years during World War II as a chief radio operator in the South Pacific. After the war, he returned to California, where he applied his military training and experience to earn a living in the Los Angeles area as a radio repairman. He also resumed his pursuit of an acting career in his spare time, playing bit parts in movies.
Career
Brinegar's first credited appearance in a feature film was in Larceny (1948). From there, he launched a steady film career that slowed considerably in the late 1950s, after he began appearing on television, but did not end until 1994, when Brinegar made his final screen appearance, as a stagecoach driver, in the 1994 film version of Maverick.
Brinegar was cast in more than 100 Western films produced between 1946 and 1994, often specializing in playing "feisty, grizzled cowboy sidekicks". On television, from 1956 to 1958, he played James H. "Dog" Kelley, the mayor of Dodge City, Kansas, in the ABC/Desilu series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp starring Hugh O'Brian. Brinegar appears in that series 33 times as Kelley and in one other episode in another role. He also portrays Ludwig, a bartender, in the 1959 episode "The Ringer" of The Texan starring Rory Calhoun. Brinegar, however, is best remembered as the cattle-drive cook George Washington Wishbone on the CBS series Rawhide (1959–1966). Earlier, he had played a similar role, as the character Tom Jefferson Jeffrey, in the 1958 movie Cattle Empire upon which Rawhide was based.
Brinegar also made two guest appearances on CBS courtroom drama Perry Mason. His first appearance on that series, prior to Rawhide, is in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary". His second appearance on Perry Mason is in the series' ninth and final season, in the 1966 episode "The Case of the Unwelcome Well".
In the 1968-1970 CBS Western series Lancer, Brinegar had the role of Jelly Hoskins; and in 1969 he appeared in Charro! starring Elvis Presley. Then, in 1973, he played the barman in Clint Eastwood's film High Plains Drifter. From 1982 to 1983, returning to television, Brinegar portrayed a humorous cowboy-like character, Lamar Pettybone, during the first season of the ABC series Matt Houston. Later, he reprised a revised version of his Rawhide Wishbone character for the 1991 TV movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, in which he delivers a brief monologue that contains references to several old television Westerns.
Death
Brinegar died of emphysema at the age of 77 in Los Angeles on March 27, 1995. His family directed memorial contributions for Brinegar to the Motion Picture and Television Fund in Woodland Hills, California.
Filmography
TV and film roles
(Non-Western roles included)
Abilene Town (1946) - Gambler (uncredited)
Larceny (1948) - Mechanic
Take One False Step (1949) - Reporter (uncredited)
Sword in the Desert (1949) - British Soldier (uncredited)
Pinky (1949) - Western Union Clerk (uncredited)
The Gal Who Took the West (1949) - Tailor (uncredited)
Young Man with a Horn (1950) - Stage Manager (uncredited)
A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950) - Henchman (uncredited)
Storm Warning (1951) - Cameraman #1 (uncredited)
Insurance Investigator (1951) - Mr. Spangler, Hotel Orderly (uncredited)
Journey Into Light (1951) - Bum
Here Come the Nelsons (1952) - Thin Cop (uncredited)
The Captive City (1952) - Police Sergeant
Pat and Mike (1952) - Caddy (uncredited)
We're Not Married! (1952) - Beauty Contest Spectator (uncredited)
It Happens Every Thursday (1953) - Mr. Sweetzer, Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
Fast Company (1953) - Smokey - Poker Player (uncredited)
Captain Scarface (1953) - Clegg
So Big (1953) - Farmer (uncredited)
Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) - Angry Accuser in Street (uncredited)
Rails Into Laramie (1954) - Bandleader (uncredited)
The Rocket Man (1954) - Dave Harris (uncredited)
Human Desire (1954) - Brakeman (uncredited)
Dawn at Socorro (1954) - Desk Clerk
Rogue Cop (1954) - Arcade Clerk (uncredited)
A Star Is Born (1954) - Man at Funeral (uncredited)
Four Guns to the Border (1954) - Barber (uncredited)
The Silver Chalice (1954) - Audience Member (uncredited)
The Public Defender (1954-1955, TV Series) - Bud / Vic Oliver / Bailbondsman
Cell 2455 Death Row (1955) - Prisoner (uncredited)
I Died a Thousand Times (1955) - Bus Driver (uncredited)
Highway Patrol (1955, TV Series) - Blainey
Ransom! (1956) - Bank Clerk (uncredited)
Inside Detroit (1956) - Irate Worker (uncredited)
Tales of the Texas Rangers (1956, TV series) - Hobo
World Without End (1956) - Vida (uncredited)
Santiago (1956) - Alkali (uncredited)
Fighting Trouble (1956) - Mailman (uncredited)
Flight to Hong Kong (1956) - Castairs (uncredited)
Noah's Ark (1957, TV series) - Doug Connor
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) - Okie (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1957, TV series)
(Season 1 Episode 2: "Premonition") (1955) - Mason
(Season 1 Episode 27: "Help Wanted") (1956) - Police Officer
(Season 2 Episode 31: "The Night the World Ended") (1957) - Mr. Stern
The Iron Sheriff (1957) - Gun Salesman (uncredited)
Tales of Wells Fargo (1957, TV series) - Shorty Tannin
The Vampire (1957) - Willy Warner
Hell on Devil's Island (1957) - Arneaux (uncredited)
Copper Sky (1957) - Charlie Martin
Perry Mason (1958) - Tom Sackett
Cattle Empire (1958) - Tom Jefferson Jeffrey
State Trooper (1958, TV series) - Storekeeper
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955-1958, TV series) - Mayor Jim Kelley
How to Make a Monster (1958) - Rivero
Lawman (1959, TV series) - George the Stage Line Clerk
The Texan (1959, TV series) - Ludwig
Trackdown (1959, TV series) - Deputy Zack Armstead
Peter Gunn (1961, TV series) - Chigger
Rawhide (1959-1965, TV series) - George Washington Wishbone
Country Boy (1966) - Link Byrd, Sr., the father of Nashville musician played by Randy Boone
Bonanza (1967, TV series) - Lev Buckalew
Iron Horse (1967, TV series) - Waco Hobson
Daniel Boone (1967, TV series) - Gurney
The Guns of Will Sonnett (1968, TV series) - Charlie Moss
Charro! (1969) - Opie Keetch
Death Valley Days (1966-1969, TV Series) - James "Jimmy" Dayton / Rupert Johnson / Sawbuck - Prospector
Lancer (1968-1970, TV series) - Jelly Hoskins
High Plains Drifter (1973) - Lutie Naylor
Emergency! (1974-1976, TV series) - Max / Grady / Husband (Tom)
Cannon (1974, TV series) - Charlie Tompkins
The Six Million Dollar Man (1975, TV series) - Rafe Morris
I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now? (1975) - Looney Pickup Driver
CHiPs (1977-1982, TV series) - Keith Lawton / Old Surfer
The Dukes of Hazzard (1979, TV series) - Dewey Stovall
The Texas Rangers (1981, TV movie) - Old Al
The Creature Wasn't Nice (1983) - Clint Eastwood / Dirty Harry
Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984) - Pee Wee
Annihilator (1986, TV movie) - Pops
Life Stinks (1991) - Old Bellboy
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (1993, TV series) - Francis Kilbride
Maverick (1994) - Stage Driver
References and notes
External links
1917 births
1995 deaths
American male film actors
American male television actors
Male actors from New Mexico
People from Tucumcari, New Mexico
Male Western (genre) film actors
Western (genre) television actors
Deaths from emphysema
Burials at Los Angeles National Cemetery
20th-century American male actors