In 1955, Warner Bros. cast Clint Walker in Cheyenne, which aired on the ABC network during its original run, beginning with the September 1955 telecast. Until the show’s end in 1962, it was rarely aired week-to-week. The show was a part of a series entitled Warner Bros. Presents, the studio’s first experiment with television that included the shows Conflict, Sugarfoot and, later, Bronco with Ty Hardin. From the beginning, Cheyenne was by far the most popular of the rotating shows on Warner Bros. Presents. The hour-long show was shot with movie-quality production values, proving very expensive for the early television era.
Walker was instantly catapulted to stardom but, after two years in the role, he realized that the long-term contract he signed with Warner Bros. was too professionally and financially restrictive. Walker and the studio could not reach an agreement on contract negotiations, so Walker walked out on the show in mid-1958. His contract would not allow him to do any other work, so he was forced to remain idle until the two sides finally agreed on a contract in February 1959. The settlement reached between Walker and Warner Bros. was not ideal, and Walker’s appearances in film were limited by his contract. Walker wished for the show’s end, but its high ratings kept the show going through the end of 1962, when it was canceled. For Cheyenne’s final season, from September to December 1962, the show was finally aired on a week-to-week basis, since Sugarfoot and Bronco had been pulled. ABC brought back reruns of Cheyenne on Friday nights in the summer of 1963. It would be more than ten years before Walker would agree to another TV series.
In May 1971, Walker experienced a near-fatal accident while skiing with his daughter at Mammoth Mountain. After a fall, his ski pole pierced his chest and injured his heart, necessitating open-heart surgery. After his recovery, his career pace slowed somewhat. He returned to television in a number of made-for-TV films, including The Bounty Man (1972; with Richard Basehart and John Ericson), Scream of the Wolf (1974; with Peter Graves and Philip Carey), and Killdozer (1974; with Carl Betz and Neville Brand). After the theatrical release of Deadly Harvest (1977; with Kim Cattrall), he went into semi-retirement, accepting only occasional acting jobs into the 1990s. Sadly, Clint Walker passed away from congestive heart failure on May 21, 2018, at age 90, just a week shy of his birthday. Divorced from his first wife and a widower following his second wife’s death, Walker was survived by his third wife, Susan, and a daughter, Valerie, from his first marriage.
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