Don Megowan

Don Megowan was born on May 24, 1922 in Inglewood, California, USA.

Was an avid card player. Clint Eastwood, Clint Walker and Jack Elam were a few of his more famous regular card-playing buddies back in the 1950s.

He was an actor, known for The Werewolf (1956), Blazing Saddles (1974) and The Creation of the Humanoids (1962). He was married to Alva Megowan and Betty Eleanor Wright.

Suffered major injuries in a 1963 car accident. His car hit a light pole and he was thrown halfway through, pinned by the windshield and nearly "scalped." Because of his huge size, paramedics needed a crane to pull him out of the car. In Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966), his head was shaved to emphasize the nasty scar from the accident.

His former wife Bette was a stewardess when they met. They had two children, Vikki and Greg. He married his second wife, Alva Lacy May, in the late 1970s. She appeared in a few movies as Alva Megowan.

To supplement his income, he managed apartment buildings in the North Hollywood area. He also was a restaurateur, owning and operating Johnny's Bar and Grill on Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood. After that closed he opened Megowan's Clubhouse, which specialized in hamburgers and lasagna, also in North Hollywood. This he owned until his death in 1981.

According to an interview article on him for "Classic Images" film magazine, February 2013, by Tom Weaver, his daughter Vikki claimed that he once owned several exotic animals: an Ocelot, monkey and an Italian alligator named Juliet.