Chill Wills

Colorful character actor of American Westerns. Named "Chill" as an ironic comment on his birth date being the hottest day of 1902. A musician from his youth, he performed from the age of 12 with tent shows, in vaudeville, and with stock companies. While performing in vaudeville in Kansas City, he married ballet dancer Betty Chappelle, with whom he had two children. He formed a musical group, Chill Wills and His Avalon Boys. During an appearance at the Trocadero in Hollywood, they were spotted by an RKO executive, subsequently appearing as a group in several low-budget Westerns.

After a prominent appearance with The Avalon Boys as both himself and the bass-singing voice of Stan Laurel in Way Out West (1937), Wills disbanded the group and began a solo career as a usually jovial (but occasionally sinister) character actor, primarily in Westerns.

Had two children: Jill Wills (born 1939) and Will Wills (born 1942).

He was the most prominent member of The Avalon Boys and broke away to start a new career as a solo performer. RKO put him in B Weterns as a sidekick to George O'Brien. In 1940 he was signed up by MGM for whom he played comical cowpokes.

Chill Wills composed the song "The Blue-Eyed Sailor Man" that he performed in the 1942 MGM Feature "Stand By for Action".

Was in three Oscar Best Picture nominees: The Yearling (1946), Giant (1956) and The Alamo (1960).

His delightful portrayal of Beekeeper in The Alamo (1960) won him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but his blatant and embarrassing campaign for the Oscar cost him the award and subjected him to a great deal of humiliation -- and probably cost the film a number of awards as well.

Endorsed George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election.

His wife died in 1971, and he remarried, to Novadeen Googe, in 1973.