# Clint Walker
**Clint Walker** (born Norman Eugene Walker; May 30, 1927 – May 21, 2018) was an American actor and singer, best known for starring as the wandering cowboy Cheyenne Bodie in the ABC television western *Cheyenne* from 1955 to 1963.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clint-walker) Standing 6 feet 6 inches tall, he rose from work as a Las Vegas casino security officer to become one of the defining stars of the 1950s television western.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Norman Eugene Walker, May 30, 1927, Hartford, Illinois[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clint-walker) |
| Signature role | Cheyenne Bodie on *Cheyenne* (ABC, 1955–1963), television's first hour-long western[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clint-walker) • [3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) |
| Series output | 107 episodes over an eight-year run, an average of about thirteen per season[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) |
| Contract dispute | Walked out before the 1958–59 season over his Warner Bros. contract; replaced by Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne; returned after renegotiation for 1959–60[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) |
| Notable films | *Fort Dobbs* (1958), *Send Me No Flowers* (1964), *None But the Brave* (1965), *The Night of the Grizzly* (1966), *The Dirty Dozen* (1967)[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) |
| Recording | Baritone singer; 1959 Warner Bros. album *Inspiration* with the Sunset Serenades[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clint-walker) |
| Died | May 21, 2018, Grass Valley, California, of congestive heart failure, aged 90[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) |
## Early life and work before acting
Walker was born in Hartford, Illinois, on May 30, 1927, alongside a twin sister, Lucy.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clint-walker) • [4](https://www.insp.com/heroes/clint-walker/) He left high school at 16 to work, holding jobs in a factory and on a riverboat before joining the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II at 17.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) • [4](https://www.insp.com/heroes/clint-walker/) After the war he worked a series of physical jobs across Texas and California, including nightclub bouncer, sheet-metal worker, doorman, and deputy sheriff, and was working as a security officer at a Las Vegas casino when an agent saw him and suggested he try Hollywood.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) • [4](https://www.insp.com/heroes/clint-walker/) • [5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/clint-walker/)
His first screen work came in [Cecil B. DeMille](https://www.edgepedia.org/cecil-b-demille)'s biblical epic *The Ten Commandments* (1956), in which he appeared as a Sardinian guard. During filming, Warner Bros. bought his contract and offered him the lead in a new television western.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) In his own account of the screen test, he was nervous on the first day against Hollywood's established leading men and relaxed on the second; studio head Jack Warner reviewed the footage and said, "That is 'Cheyenne.'" Warner also changed his professional name to Clint.[6](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/clint-walker)
## Cheyenne
*Cheyenne* premiered on ABC in 1955 as part of the Warner Bros. showcase *Warner Brothers Presents*, alongside *King's Row* and *Casablanca*, and became the program's breakout hit.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) • [6](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/clint-walker) It was television's first hour-long western, and the first hour-long drama with regular characters to last more than one season.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) • [5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/clint-walker/) Walker played Cheyenne Bodie, a former frontier scout who drifts through the post-Civil War West taking jobs on ranches, wagon trains, and cattle drives, meting out justice as he goes.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) • [3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) As the only series regular, he appeared in virtually every scene, working with guest stars including [Dennis Hopper](https://www.edgepedia.org/dennis-hopper), John Carradine, Ellen Burstyn, Angie Dickinson, and [James Garner](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-garner).[5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/clint-walker/)
The show's eight-year run produced only 107 episodes, because each hour-long episode took six working days of principal photography and Walker appeared in nearly every scene, making it impossible to shoot more than one episode at a time.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) In markets with affiliates of all three networks, *Cheyenne* immediately entered the top ten, and by 1957 it was the number one program in those markets.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne)
**The 1958 contract dispute.** Walker had signed with Warner Bros. in 1955 as a virtual unknown at $175 per week, a salary that had risen gradually to $1,250 per week. After the 1957–58 season, in which *Cheyenne* finished as ABC's second-highest-rated series, he demanded to renegotiate, seeking autonomy over outside projects. When the studio refused, he left and did not appear for the entire 1958–59 season; Warner Bros. substituted a new character, Bronco Layne played by [Ty Hardin](https://www.edgepedia.org/ty-hardin), and interspersed the new episodes with reruns. The studio renegotiated after the boycott, and Walker returned for the 1959–60 season, while [Bronco](https://www.edgepedia.org/bronco-tv-series) survived as its own series.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) Even after returning, Walker disliked the routine of series production, telling reporters he felt "like a caged animal" and calling a TV series "a dead-end street."[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne)
## Film and later television career
Warner Bros. cast Walker in his first starring film role, the western *Fort Dobbs* (1958), opposite [Virginia Mayo](https://www.edgepedia.org/virginia-mayo), followed by *Yellowstone Kelly* (1959).[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) New York Times film critic Howard Thompson described him as "about the biggest, finest-looking western hero ever to sag a horse, with a pair of shoulders rivaling King Kong's," while characterizing his acting as an exercise in "taciturn earnestness."[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html)
Through the 1960s he took supporting and leading parts in a range of films: the [Doris Day](https://www.edgepedia.org/doris-day)–Rock Hudson comedy *Send Me No Flowers* (1964), the war film *None But the Brave* (1965), directed by and co-starring [Frank Sinatra](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-sinatra), the western *The Night of the Grizzly* (1966), which he called his personal favorite, and the ensemble war classic *The Dirty Dozen* (1967).[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) • [1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clint-walker) • [4](https://www.insp.com/heroes/clint-walker/) He continued in westerns and action films through the 1970s, including *Sam Whiskey* and *The Great Bank Robbery*, and returned to regular television in 1974 with the short-lived series *Kodiak* and TV movies such as [Aaron Spelling](https://www.edgepedia.org/aaron-spelling)'s *Yuma*.[4](https://www.insp.com/heroes/clint-walker/) • [6](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/clint-walker)
In 1971 Walker survived a near-fatal skiing accident in which a ski pole pierced his heart; he recovered and returned to acting within months.[4](https://www.insp.com/heroes/clint-walker/) He made guest appearances on shows including *The Jack Benny Program*, *Maverick*, *77 Sunset Strip*, *The Lucy Show*, *The Love Boat*, and *Kung Fu: The Legend Continues*, reprised Cheyenne Bodie in the 1991 TV movie *The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw* and on a 1995 *Kung Fu: The Legend Continues* episode, and voiced a commando in the 1998 animated film *[Small Soldiers](https://www.edgepedia.org/small-soldiers)*, his final role.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clint-walker) • [5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/clint-walker/) • [7](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/clint-walker/) In 2003 he collaborated with western author Kirby Jonas on the novel *Yaqui Gold*, and in 2004 he was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/clint-walker/) • [4](https://www.insp.com/heroes/clint-walker/)
## Personal life and death
Walker married three times: his first marriage, to Verna Garver, ended in divorce in 1968; his second wife, Giselle Hennessy, died in 1994; and he was survived by his third wife, Susan Cavallari. He had one daughter, Valerie, from his first marriage.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) • [8](https://www.wral.com/clint-walker-towering-western-star-is-dead-at-90/17572774/?comment_order=forward)
He died on May 21, 2018, at a hospital in [Grass Valley, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/grass-valley-california), of congestive heart failure, nine days before his 91st birthday. The Associated Press initially reported his age as 91 and issued a correction confirming he was 90.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html) • [9](https://www.ksl.com/article/46325603) The Wood River History Museum in Illinois extended its exhibit on Walker through June 2026, ahead of what would have been his 100th birthday in 2026.[10](https://m.riverbender.com/news/details.cfm?id=94049)
## References
1. [Clint Walker, Television Academy performer bio](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clint-walker)
2. [Clint Walker, star of TV's 'Cheyenne,' dies at 90, The Washington Post (May 22, 2018)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/clint-walker-star-of-tvs-cheyenne-dies-at-91/2018/05/22/41923ee6-5e0f-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html)
3. [Cheyenne, Television Academy Interviews (Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television)](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/cheyenne)
4. [Clint Walker, INSP](https://www.insp.com/heroes/clint-walker/)
5. [Clint Walker, Los Angeles Times Hollywood Star Walk](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/clint-walker/)
6. [Clint Walker, Television Academy Interviews (2012)](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/clint-walker)
7. [Clint Walker, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/clint-walker/)
8. [Clint Walker, Towering Western Star, Is Dead at 90, WRAL (New York Times obituary)](https://www.wral.com/clint-walker-towering-western-star-is-dead-at-90/17572774/?comment_order=forward)
9. [Correction: Obit-Clint Walker story, KSL.com / Associated Press (May 23, 2018)](https://www.ksl.com/article/46325603)
10. [Actor Clint Walker Tribute Stays Open Through June 2026 At Wood River History Museum, RiverBender.com](https://m.riverbender.com/news/details.cfm?id=94049)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1940s to 1960s › Surnames Su to W*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license