Terry W. Wilson (September 3, 1923 – March 30, 1999)[1] was an American actor most noted for his role as "Bill Hawks", the assistant trail master, in all 267 episodes of the NBC and ABCwesterntelevision series, Wagon Train, which aired from 1957 to 1965.
Military Service
Wilson was on active duty was from May 1943 to March 1946. His first choice was to join the United States Marine's Raiders, but instead he served in the Service Battalion, 7th Service Regiment 5 Division where he was a carpenter and heavy equipment operator with some truck driving. . He was deployed 6 Dec 1945 via USS Whiteside, which was in Okinawa Dec 1945. Wilson was discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps on April 21, 1946 with the rank of Private First Class during World War II.[2]
Life and career
Wilson served with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.[3] Upon leaving the service, Warner Bros. chose Wilson amongst a group of athletes to train for the stunt profession with his initial specialties fistfights and horse work.[3] He appeared in more than thirty-five films and television programs between 1948 and 1981. Many of his early roles were uncredited. On July 2, 1953, he was cast as a stagecoach guard in episode 121, "Woman from Omaha", of The Lone Ranger. In 1956, he had another uncredited role as a robber in the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Cheyenne, the first television western in an hour-long format, starring Clint Walker.
In his early years, Wilson was a stunt performer for John Wayne in such films as Sands of Iwo Jima in 1949 and Rio Grande in 1950, (see below for more). He was part of the John Ford stock troupe and appeared as an uncredited extra in numerous dance scenes. He often appeared with his friend and fellow stunt performer Frank McGrath. In 1957, Ward Bond specifically requested Wilson and McGrath to be regulars on Wagon Train. When Bond died, it was Wilson who broke the news to Bond's best friend, John Wayne. He said, "Hold on ... Ward just dropped dead". It has been said that they both cried together on the phone. Wilson, along with John Wayne, McGrath, Harry Carey, Jr. (Dobe), and Ken Curtis, later Festus Haggen on Gunsmoke, were Bond's pallbearers.
Along with McGrath, Wilson appears in a dance scene as a Texas Ranger and both are in the "wedding party" in the John Wayne/John Ford film The Searchers. In Hondo, Frank McGrath has a speaking part, and Wilson doubles for John Wayne in the knife fight with the Indian Silva.
Wilson and his wife are interred at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village in Los Angeles County. They had three children.