R.G. Armstrong obit

R.G. Armstrong, Character Actor in Dozens of Westerns, Dies at 95

He was not on the list.

He appeared in four films for Sam Peckinpah, three for Warren Beatty and in such TV series as “Gunsmoke,” “Wagon Train” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”

R.G. Armstrong, a veteran tough-guy character actor who appeared in dozens of TV Westerns and in four films for director Sam Peckinpah, died July 27 at his home in Studio City. He was 95.

Armstrong also was a favorite of Warren Beatty’s, appearing in Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981) and Dick Tracy (1990), in which he played the bad guy Pruneface.

For Peckinpah, whom he met on the set of the writer-director’s 1960 series The Westerner, Armstrong appeared in Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973).

His film résumé also includes El Dorado (1966), starring John Wayne; My Name Is Nobody (1973); Stay Hungry, with a young Arnold Schwarzenegger (1976); Children of the Corn (1984); Red Headed Stranger, with Willie Nelson (1986); and Predator (1987).

On a memorable 1961 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, Armstrong played a farmer who didn’t approve of his daughter wearing makeup. In the late 1980s, he was the demonic Lewis Vendredi in Friday the 13th: The Series.

During his four-decade-plus career, the Birmingham, Ala., native also appeared on such shows as Have Gun — Will Travel, The Californians, The Rifleman, Maverick, Lawman, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Rawhide, T.H.E. Cat, Walker, Texas Ranger, The Dukes of Hazzard, Cannon, Fantasy Island, Charlie’s Angels, L.A. Law and Dynasty.

Armstrong quickly launched a career on Broadway. He won considerable acclaim for his role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He also began writing his own plays, which were performed off-Broadway.

Armstrong's first film appearance was in the 1954 film Garden of Eden; however, it was television where he first earned a name for himself. He guest-starred in virtually every television western series produced in the 1950s and 1960s, including Have Gun - Will Travel, The Californians, Jefferson Drum, The Tall Man, Riverboat, The Rifleman, Zane Grey Theater, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Westerner, The Big Valley, Bonanza, Maverick (as Louise Fletcher's character's father in the episode which drew the series' largest single viewership, "The Saga of Waco Williams"), Gunsmoke, Rawhide, and Wagon Train.

On March 3, 1959, Armstrong was cast as the corrupt and cowardly Lou Stoner, a leading candidate for a territorial governorship in the episode "The Giant Killer" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Sugarfoot, with Will Hutchins in the title role. In the storyline, the recently widowed Doreen Bradley (Patricia Barry) exposes Stoner as the murderer of her husband. Much of the story is set in a hotel. Others appearing in the segment are Russ Conway as the town marshal, Dorothy Provine as Ada, and child actor Jay North as Bobby.[5]

On November 22, 1960, in the episode "License to Kill" of NBC's Laramie, Armstrong plays Sam Jarrad, a former bounty hunter and a sheriff in Colorado, who comes to Laramie, Wyoming, with a warrant for Jess Harper, played by series co-star Robert Fuller. Jess is accused of murdering a powerful rancher named Blake Wilkie. Slim Sherman, played by series co-star John Smith, is deputized to accompany Jarrad and Jess to Colorado. Denny Miller, later cast on Wagon Train as a regular in the role of Duke Shannon, along with Robert Fuller as Cooper Smith, appears in this episode as Wilkie's son, who frames Jess for Blake Wilkie's death. William Fawcett plays Ben, the Sherman Ranch housekeeper, a role that Fawcett also filled on NBC's Fury.[6]

In 1960 Armstrong appeared as Angus Emmett on Cheyenne in the episode titled "Alabi for the Scalped Man."[citation needed] Early in 1961, Armstrong was cast in the title guest-starring role of Nathanael Grimm in "The Return of Mr. Grimm" of the ABC/WB western series Cheyenne, starring Clint Walker. In the storyline, the wealthy Grimm seeks the hanging of Sheriff Cheyenne Bodie for the justifiable homicide of Grimm's wayward son, who was fleeing from a posse. Grimm closes the businesses he controls in town, and the threatened townsmen demand that Bodie stand trial though no crime has been committed. Anita Sands appears as Grimm's secret daughter-in-law, Grace Evans, who unknown to him is carrying his grandson.[7]

Armstrong appeared on The Twilight Zone, in the episode "Nothing in the Dark" along with Robert Redford. He appeared in three episodes of Perry Mason, twice in the role of the defendant. In 1958, he appeared in the episode "The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde" as character Matthew Bartlett. In 1959, he played character Harry Bright in "The Case of the Petulant Partner," then in 1962 he played John Gregory in "The Case of the Stand-in Sister." Armstrong also appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Everglades, The Andy Griffith Show, The Fugitive, Daniel Boone, T.H.E. Cat, Hawaii Five-O, Starsky and Hutch, The Dukes of Hazzard, Dynasty, and in the miniseries War and Remembrance. Armstrong had a recurring role in the second season of Millennium as a reclusive visionary known only as the Old Man. In the late 1980s, he played the demonic "Uncle Lewis Vendredi" in the Canadian horror series Friday the 13th: The Series.

While working on The Westerner in 1960, Armstrong met the up-and-coming writer/director Sam Peckinpah. The two men immediately struck up a friendship. Peckinpah recognized Armstrong's inner turmoil regarding the religious beliefs of his family and utilized that to brilliant effect in his films. Armstrong would almost always play a slightly unhinged fundamentalist Christian in Peckinpah's films, usually wielding a Bible in one hand and a shotgun in the other. This character archetype appeared in Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), and perhaps most memorably in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973). However, Armstrong also appeared in The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), playing a more likeable character.

Armstrong is survived by daughters Daryl, Robbie, Laurie and Betty; son Wynn; and five grandchildren.

Selected filmography

    Garden of Eden (1954) as J. Randolph Latimore

    Baby Doll (1956) as Townsman Sid (voice, uncredited)

    A Face in the Crowd (1957) as TV Prompter Operator (uncredited)

    From Hell to Texas (1958) as Hunter Boyd

    Never Love a Stranger (1958) as Flix

    No Name on the Bullet (1959) as Asa Canfield

    The Fugitive Kind (1960) as Sheriff Jordan Talbott

    Ten Who Dared (1960) as Oramel Howland

    Ride the High Country (1962) as Joshua Knudsen

    He Rides Tall (1964) as Joshua 'Josh' McCloud

    Major Dundee (1965) as Reverend Dahlstrom

    El Dorado (1967) as Kevin MacDonald

    80 Steps to Jonah (1969) as Mackray

    Tiger by the Tail (1970) as Ben Holmes

    The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) as Quittner

    Angels Die Hard (1970) as Mel

    The McMasters (1970) as Watson

    The Great White Hope (1970) as Cap'n Dan

    J. W. Coop (1971) as Jim Sawyer

    Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1972) as Squire Fisk

    The Final Comedown (1972) as Mr. Freeman

    The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) as Clell Miller

    The Legend of Hillbilly John (1972) as Bristowe

    Gentle Savage (1973) as Rupert Beeker - Owner of 'Beeker's Bar'

    Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) as Ollinger

    White Lightning (1973) as Big Bear

    Running Wild (1973) as Bull

    My Name is Nobody (1973) as Honest John

    Cotter (1973)

    Boss Nigger (1975) as Mayor Griffin

    Race with the Devil (1975) as Sheriff Taylor

    White Line Fever (1975) as Prosecutor

    Mean Johnny Barrows (1976) as Richard

    Stay Hungry (1976) as Thor Erickson

    Dixie Dynamite (1976) as Charlie White - Bank President

    Mr. Billion (1977) as Sheriff T.C. Bishop

    The Car (1977) as Amos

    The Pack (1977) as Cobb

    Texas Detour (1978) as Sheriff Burt

    Heaven Can Wait (1978) as General Manager

    Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell as Dunworth

    The Time Machine (1978) as Gen. Harris

    Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979) as Mr. Hemmings

    Fast Charlie... the Moonbeam Rider (1979) as Al Barber

    Steel (1979) as Kellin

    Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) as Judge Simpson

    Evilspeak (1981) as Sarge

    Raggedy Man (1981) as Rigby

    The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper (1981) as Dempsey

    Reds (1981) as Government Agent

    The Beast Within (1982) as Doc Schoonmaker

    Hammett (1982) as Lt. O'Mara

    The Shadow Riders (1982) as Sheriff Miles Gillette

    Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) as T. Tyler

    Children of the Corn (1984) as Diehl

    The Best of Times (1986) as Schutte

    Red Headed Stranger (1986) as Sheriff Reese Scoby - Driscoll, Montana

    Jocks (1987) as Coach Bettlebom

    Predator (1987) as Gen. Phillips

    Bulletproof (1988) as Miles Blackburn

    Ghetto Blaster (1989) as Curtis

    Trapper County War (1989) as Pop Luddigger

    Dick Tracy (1990) as Pruneface

    Warlock: The Armageddon (1993) as Franks

    Dead Center (1993) as Art Fencer

    Payback (1995) as Mac

    Invasion of Privacy (1996) as Sam Logan - Storekeeper

    Purgatory (1999) as Coachman

    The Waking (2001) as Edward Sloan (final film role)