Saddle up for a trip through entertainment history with a weekly highlight from Santa Clarita’s Walk of Western Stars! This week, western star Clint Walker. 

Clint Walker, formerly known as Norman Eugene Walker, was born in Hartford, southwestern Illinois, to Gladys Huldah (Schwanda), a Czech immigrant, and Paul Arnold Walker, who was from Arkansas. 

Growing up in the Depression era meant taking work wherever you could get it, and Walker found himself working such jobs as Mississippi River boatman, carnival roustabout and golf caddy. 

Walker quit high school at 16 and, at 17, joined the Merchant Marines. After the war, he worked his way cross-country, including in the oil fields in Brownwood, Texas. 

Walker eventually ended up in California, where he worked as an undercover agent for a private detective agency on the Long Beach waterfront. 

After a while, Walker took a job as a security officer at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. 

It was there, at his job, that he met quite a few Hollywood people who told him that his size, physique, and good looks would serve him well in Hollywood and that he should go to Los Angeles and give it a try. 

In 1948, Walker married his first wife, Verna Garver, with whom he had only one child. They divorced in 1968 after being married for 20 years. 

Walker met actor Henry Wilconxon, who introduced him to director Cecil B. DeMille. Walker then played the part of Captain of the Guard in The Ten Commandments (1956). 

Someone from Warner Brothers saw the film, and found out that Walker was under contract to producer Hal B. Wallis bought up Walker’s contract and gave him the lead in “Cheyenne.” 

The series was a huge hit and spawned countless other Western series from Warner Bros and other studios. 

However, the actor was dissatisfied with the way Warner Bros was handling his career. They would let other contract players make films, but he was not allowed to, which triggered a dispute that ended with him walking away from the show. 

Walker and Warner Bros. eventually settled their disagreements.

When the show ended, Walker began getting supporting parts in features, his biggest and most successful one being “The Dirty Dozen” (1967). 

The actor starred in the well-received, “The Night of Grizzly” (1966) and “None But the Brave” (1965), a WW2 film that was Frank Sinatra’s one and only stab at directing. 

On May 26, 1974, the actor married his second wife. The two were married for 20 years before they divorced and had no children together. 

Walker also played the lead in “Baker’s Hawk” (1976) and turned in a good performance as a villain in the TV movie “Scream of the Wolf” (1974). 

In March 1997, Walker married his third wife, Susan Cavallari, with whom he stayed married until 2018, when he died of congestive heart failure. 

Walker’s Star is located on the east side of Main Street in Old Town Newhall, in front of Mac’s Pool and Spa Supply Store. 

Last week’s feature, Robert Fuller. 

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