R. G. Armstrong

R. G. Armstrong
R. G. Armstrong
	Armstrong in T.H.E. Cat (1966)
Born	Robert Golden Armstrong Jr.; April 7, 1917; Pleasant Grove, Alabama, U.S.
Died	July 27, 2012 (aged 95); Studio City, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Howard College of Samford University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A.); The Actors Studio
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1954–2001
Spouses	; Ann Neale (m. 1952; div. 1972) ; Susan M. Guthrie (m. 1973; div. 1976) ; Mary Craven (m. 1993; died 2003)
Children	4

Robert Golden Armstrong Jr. (April 7, 1917 – July 27, 2012) was an American character actor and playwright. A veteran performer who appeared in dozens of Westerns during his 40-year career, he may be best remembered for his work with director Sam Peckinpah.^[2]^[3]

Early life

Armstrong was born in Pleasant Grove, Alabama, and was reared on a small farm near Birmingham.^[4] He came from a family of fundamentalist Christians, and his mother wanted him to be a pastor. After graduating from Hueytown High School in 1935, Armstrong initially enrolled at Howard College, now Samford University in Homewood, Alabama, where he became interested in acting, and then transferred to the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. While there, he began acting on stage with the Carolina Playmakers. Upon graduating, he attended the Actors Studio.^[2]

Armstrong wanted to write, rather than act, and said in 1966, "I struggled so hard to be a serious writer."^[5] As a student at UNC he wrote a three-act play that was produced. By 1966, he had written "nine full-length plays, four unpublished novels, and 50 unpublished poems."^[5]

Career

On Broadway, Armstrong portrayed Dr. Baugh and Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sheriff Talbott in Orpheus Descending (1957), and Captain Keller in The Miracle Worker (1959).^[6] 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 playing Sheriff Jaffey in S1 E28 "Killer's Widow" which aired 3/21/1958, 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 (S7E10 as hard nosed Union soldier Capt. Benter”), Rawhide, Wagon Train, Lawman, and Bat Masterson.

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 recurring character "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.

Even outside of Peckinpah's work, Armstrong became a tier-one character actor in his own right, appearing in dozens of films over his career, playing both villains and sympathetic characters. Some of his more memorable roles outside of Peckinpah's films include a sympathetic rancher in El Dorado (1966), Cap'n Dan in The Great White Hope (1970), outlaw Clell Miller in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), a bumbling outlaw in My Name is Nobody (1973), a secret Satanic cultist sheriff in Race with the Devil (1975), The Car (1977), as well as Children of the Corn (1984), Red Headed Stranger (1986) with Willie Nelson, and as General Phillips in Predator (1987). He appeared in several of Warren Beatty's films, including Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981), and as the character Pruneface in Dick Tracy (1990).

He semi-retired from films and television in the late 1990s, but he continued to be active in off-Broadway theater in New York and Los Angeles, until finally retiring from acting in 2005 because of near-blindness due to cataracts.^{[citation needed]}

In 1991, Armstrong portrayed the title character in the music video for "Enter Sandman" from heavy metal band Metallica, which won the 1992 MTV Video Music award for best metal/hard rock video.^[7]

Personal life and death

Armstrong was married three times:^[2] his first wife was Ann Neale, with whom he had four children; he was then married to Susan Guthrie until 1976;^{[citation needed]} he was married to his third wife, Mary Craven, until her death in 2003.^[8]

Armstrong died of natural causes at the age of 95 on July 27, 2012, at his home in Studio City, California.^[2]

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) as Jack
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 (1978) as Dunworth
The Time Machine (1978) as General 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 Lieutenant 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 General 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)

Selected television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Captain Bone	Season 6 Episode 13: "The Man Who Found the Money"
1962	The Twilight Zone	Construction Contractor	Season 3 Episode 16: “Nothing in the Dark”
1962	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Fred Riordan	Season 7 Episode 30: "What Frightened You, Fred?"
1962	Rawhide	Gantry Hobson	Season 5, Episode 6, "Incident of the Lost Woman"
1962	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	William Downey	Season 1 Episode 6: "Final Vow"
1963	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	John Cooley	Season 2 Episode 3: "Terror at Northfield"
1965	Gunsmoke	Jed Briar	Season 10 Episode 27: “The Lady"
1966-1967	T.H.E. Cat	Captain McAllister	Recurring role

References

^ Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [C] Group 3. Dramatic Composition and ... - Library of Congress. Copyright Office - Google Books. September 19, 1940. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Slotnik, Daniel E. (July 31, 2012). "R. G. Armstrong, Character Actor in Westerns, Dies at 95". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
^ Faulk, Kent (July 29, 2012). "R.G. Armstrong, prolific character actor from Birmingham, dies". The Birmingham News. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
^ Weddle, David (December 18, 2000). If They Move . . . Kill 'Em!: The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah - David Weddle - Google Books. Grove Press. ISBN 9780802137760. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
^ ^a ^b "R. G. Armstrong Explains Problems". The Idaho Sunday Statesman. Idaho, Boise. October 16, 1966. p. 99. Retrieved June 1, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "R. G. Armstrong". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on June 1, 2021. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
^ Apatoff, Ben (August 15, 2021). Metallica: The $24.95 Book. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 245. ISBN 978-1-4930-6135-8.
^ Humphreys, Justin (2006). Names You Never Remember, with Faces You Never Forget : Interview With the Movies' Character Actors. Duncan, OK: BearManor Media. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-59393-041-7. "R.G., like L.Q. Jones, is a member of the Cowboy Hall of Fame and received their Golden Boot Award. He was interviewed extensively for David Weddle's biography of Sam Peckinpah [...] He and Mary were also guests at the Peckinpah film festival in Padua, Italy in September, 2000. Sadly, in November 2003, Mary Craven Armstrong died, still only in her fifties."