Sheb Wooley

Wooley was born in 1921 in Erick, Oklahoma, the third son of William C. Wooley and Ora E. Wooley. Wooley claimed to be part Cherokee. He had two older brothers, Logan and Hubert, and a younger brother, William. The three of them left Texas in 1950 and moved to Hollywood, where Wooley hoped to establish himself as an actor or singer in film or in the rapidly expanding medium of television. ==Music career==

At the age of 15, with a talent for music, Wooley formed a band called the "Plainview Melody Boys", that periodically performed on radio at station KASA in Elk City, Oklahoma. He started his recording career in 1945. country, hillbilly, rock and roll, pop and novelty songs. This sequel was so successful that Wooley continued using the name Ben Colder, with one of his later recordings being "Shaky Breaky Car" (which parodied the song "Achy Breaky Heart"). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wooley became a regular on the television series Hee Haw and wrote the theme song for that long-running series. On Hee Haw, he often appeared as the character Ben Colder, playing him as a drunken country songwriter. ==Acting career==

TV Westerns Wooley's work in syndicated TV series included appearances on The Range Rider, portraying outlaw Jim Younger on Stories of the Century (1954), and five appearances on The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951-1955). He appeared in The Lone Ranger episodes “Stage to Estacado” (1953), “Wake of War" (1953), "Message to Fort Apache" (1954), and "Wanted: The Lone Ranger" (1955). He portrayed Bill Bronson on The Cisco Kid, Harry Runyon in "The Unmasking" on My Friend Flicka, and Shev Jones in "The Iron Trail" on Cheyenne. He appeared twice on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Wooley's big break professionally came when he was cast as the drover Pete Nolan on Rawhide (1959–1965). Wooley also wrote and directed some of the episodes. Films Wooley appeared in dozens of Western films from the 1950s through the 1990s. He was in Rocky Mountain (1950), and he portrayed outlaw Ben Miller in High Noon (1952) and Baxter in Terror in a Texas Town (1958). He also acted in major films, including Giant, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Silverado, and Hoosiers. The "Wilhelm scream" Sheb Wooley is also credited as the voice actor for the Wilhelm scream, a stock recording used by sound-effects teams in over 200 films. Wooley originally performed the scream in the 1951 adventure film Distant Drums in which he had an acting role. Wooley's widow Linda Dotson confirmed Sheb performed the scream. ==Personal life and death==

Wooley was married five times. His first wife was Melva Miller, whom he married in 1940. Six years later, he married Edna Talbott Bunt in Fort Worth, Texas. His third wife was Beverly Irene Addington. Beverly and he remained together for 19 years and adopted one daughter, Chrystie Lynn. Then, in 1985, he married Deanna Grughlin, and then his manager Linda Dotson, who already had a daughter, Shauna. Wooley was diagnosed with leukemia in 1996, which forced him to retire from public performing in 1999. He was entombed in Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee. ==Awards==

Wooley was the recipient of numerous awards over the years for his accomplishments as a singer, actor, and writer for both comedic and dramatic productions. In 1968, he received the Country Music Association's Comedian of the Year award. He also received the 1992 Songwriter of the Year and two Golden Boot Awards. ==Discography==

Albums Singles ==Filmography==