Character actor Bill Thurman was born on November 4, 1920 in Texas. A large, rugged, stocky man with a hard, lined, puffy face, a deep, twangy, amicable voice, a strong, bulky build and a charmingly low-key and down-to-earth unaffected natural screen presence, Thurman often portrayed police officers and assorted scruffy redneck types in a huge number of entertainingly cheap'n'cheesy Southern-fried fright flicks and delightfully down'n'dirty drive-in fare made throughout the 60s and 70s. Bill frequently acted in features for legendary Grade Z low-budget independent filmmaker Larry Buchanan; said movies include "The Eye Creatures," "High Yellow," "Zontar the Thing from Venus," "Mars Needs Women," "Curse of the Swamp Creature," "In the Year 2889," the especially atrocious "It's Alive!," and "A Bullet for Pretty Boy." Moreover, Thurman had bit parts in two Steven Spielberg films: he's a hillbilly hunter in "The Sugerland Express" and an air traffic controller in "Close Encounters of the Th...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977
Silverado
1985
The Last Picture Show
1971
Tom Horn
1980
'Gator Bait
1974
Innocent Prey
1984
The Sugarland Express
1974
Raggedy Man
1981
Alamo Bay
1985
In Broad Daylight
1991
Creature from Black Lake
1976
A Bullet for Pretty Boy
1970
Mountaintop Motel Massacre
1983
It Takes Two
1988
The Evictors
1979
Skyward
1980
Painted Hero
1997
The Beasts Are on the Streets
1978
Where the Red Fern Grows
1974
Mars Needs Women
1968
Spiked Heels and Black Nylons
1967
The Long Summer of George Adams
1982
Curse of the Swamp Creature
1968
Hip Hot and 21
1967
Keep My Grave Open
1977
In the Year 2889
1969
Charge of the Model T's
1977
Stormin' Home
1985
Slumber Party '57
1976
Fair Play
1972
Encounter with the Unknown
1972
The Florida Connection
1975
Zontar: The Thing from Venus
1967
It's Alive
1969
Hot Blooded Woman
1965
The Sky Trap
1979
Hawken's Breed
1987
Ride in a Pink Car
1974
Night Fright
1967