Bobby Dan Davis Blocker (1928 - 1972)

Born 10 Dec 1928 in De Kalb, Bowie, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Died 13 May 1972 at age 43 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

Dan Blocker is Notable.

Sergeant Dan Blocker served in the United States Army in the Korean War
Service started: December 1951
Unit(s): Co F, 2nd Battalion, 179th Regiment, 45th Infantry Division
Service ended: August 1952

"Bobby Dan Davis Blocker (December 10, 1928 – May 13, 1972) was an American television actor and Korean War veteran, who played Hoss Cartwright in the long-running NBC Western television series Bonanza. Dan Blocker was a teacher (English/ Drama) before he went into acting. He was a Substitute Teacher in Southern California

Dan Blocker was born in De Kalb, Texas, the son of Ora "Shack" Blocker and Mary Arizona Blocker, née Davis. As a boy, he attended Texas Military Institute. In 1940, he enrolled in school Hardin-Simmons University and Sul Ross State University and earned a degree in speech and drama. In 1946, he played football at Southern Baptist-affiliated Hardin–Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. In 1947, he transferred to Sul Ross State Teacher's College in Alpine, Texas, where he was a star football player, and graduated in 1950. After two years of military service, he earned a master's degree in the dramatic arts. He worked as a rodeo performer and a bouncer in a bar while a student. He is remembered from his school days for his height of 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) and weight of 300 lb (140 kg), and for being good-natured despite his intimidating size. Dan Blocker was a high-school English and drama teacher in Sonora, Texas, from 1953 to 1958; a sixth-grade teacher and coach at Eddy Elementary School in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and then a teacher in California. Dan Blocker and his wife Dolphia, moved to Los Angeles where he secured some acting roles. Dan Blocker was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War. He had basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and served as an Infantry Sergeant in F Company, 2nd Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division in Korea, from December 1951 to August 1952. He received a Purple Heart for wounds in combat. In addition to the Purple Heart, Blocker received the National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal with two bronze campaign stars, Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, United Nations Service Medal, Korean War Service Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge.

Originally from Bowie County, Texas, Dan Blocker arrived in Los Angeles in 1958 planning to do post-grad work at UCLA but began getting acting roles. Previously, while attending Sul Ross State College, he had a non-speaking part in a stage play and found that he was attracted to acting. He also played in Summer Stock in Boston in 1950 after getting his degree at the College.

Dan Blocker was a Free Methodist. He married Dolphia Parker, whom he had met while a student at Sul Ross State University. Their children are Hollywood actor Dirk Blocker, Hollywood producer David Blocker, and twin daughters Debra Lee (artist) and Danna Lynn. David Blocker won a 1998 Emmy for producing Don King: Only in America ^[1]

Residence (1930) De Kalb, Bowie, Texas, United States

Residence (1935) Same House

Residence (1940) O'Donnell, Justice Precinct 4, Lynn, Texas, United States

"Weighing 14 pounds at birth, Dan Blocker was the largest baby ever born in Bowie County, Texas. At 18, he stood 6'3" and weighed close to 300 pounds, and was legendary for his physical prowess. Blocker attended the Texas Military Institute and studied for his B.A. at Sul Ross State College, where he initially majored in athletics. His build accidentally led him to the drama department for a production of Arsenic and Old Lace -- a stage hand was needed who was big and strong enough to quickly remove the dummies representing corpses on the set, between acts. While working on the production, Blocker was bitten by the acting bug and switched his major to drama. He pursued his theatrical aspirations in earnest after graduation, working in one season of summer stock before he was drafted. Blocker served in combat during the Korean War, after which he earned a master's degree, married, moved to Los Angeles, and settled down to raise a family, earning his living as a high school teacher. It was his successful audition for the small role of a cavalry lieutenant on Gunsmoke during the 1956 season, in the episode "Alarm at Pleasant Valley," that rekindled Blocker's interest in an acting career. Over the next three years, he took any work that he could get, on programs like Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, Cheyenne, Tales of Wells Fargo, Zane Grey Theater, Wagon Train, Colt .45, Zorro, Maverick, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Blocker also got some movie work, portraying a bartender in the offbeat murder mystery The Girl in Black Stockings and an android in Outer Space Jitters, a very late Three Stooges short. His career took an upturn when he got a guest-starring role in an episode of the series The Restless Gun, starring John Payne, in 1958; his work was good enough to catch the attention of the producer, David Dortort. A year later, Dortort was putting together a new, hour-long Western series called Bonanza and cast Blocker in the role of "Hoss" Cartwright, the big-boned, good-natured middle son in a ranching family near Virginia City, Nevada, set in the mid- to late 19th century (the time frame of Bonanza was always vague, with stories shifting between the early 1860s to the 1870s and 1880s). Blocker's character's real name, incidentally, was Eric, but Hoss -- a nickname from his mother's Norwegian language that meant "friend" -- was what he was known as to everyone on the series and all viewers. Despite the weaknesses in the scripts during the early seasons, the role was a dream part for the actor, who got a chance to display his gentle, sensitive side as well as his gift for comedy, and also work in a serious dramatic context as well on many occasions, and show off his brute strength as well. It is arguable that Blocker was the most popular member of the cast during the 1960s; he was especially beloved of younger viewers, in part because his character was always very sympathetic to children. In contrast to the other stars of the series, Blocker's big-screen career wasn't halted by his work on Bonanza. He appeared in The Errand Boy, playing himself in an uncredited cameo, and played a role in the Frank Sinatra movie Come Blow Your Horn. Blocker got his first major movie part five years later in the Sinatra film Lady in Cement (1968), playing Waldo Gronsky, a burly, potentially murderous thug who hires private detective Tony Rome (played by Sinatra) to find his missing girlfriend. By the end of the 1960s, Blocker was taken seriously enough as an actor to star in two features, Something for a Lonely Man, a beautiful and poignant Western/comedy-drama, and the broader comedy The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County. Some of Blocker's television appearances separate from Bonanza also reflected his personal side -- his politics were essentially liberal Democratic (in sharp contrast to the conservative Republican sympathies of his co-stars Michael Landon and Lorne Greene), and he appeared in several public service announcements promoting brotherhood and racial tolerance, as well as on one television special that gently satirized American popular culture, starring Henry Fonda. He was also part of the liberal contingent in the 1971 John Wayne-hosted patriotic special Swing Out, Sweet Land. In 1972, Blocker was chosen for what could have been the breakthrough role to a major movie career, when he won the part of Roger Wade, the has-been author in Robert Altman's revisionist detective movie The Long Goodbye. In May of that year, however, he went into the hospital for routine gall bladder surgery, and during recovery he died suddenly of a blood clot in his lung. Sterling Hayden replaced Blocker in The Long Goodbye, which was dedicated to the actor's memory. Blocker's passing, immediately before the shooting for the 1972-1973 season of Bonanza was to begin, signed the death knell for the series. The cast and crew were genuinely shaken by his sudden death; scripts had to be hastily rewritten to explain the passing of Hoss Cartwright, and Blocker's absence and the reason behind it removed any element of lightheartedness that the series had displayed. The final season, despite the best efforts of surviving stars Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, and David Canary, was characterized by grim, downbeat stories and a dark mood that seemed to repel longtime viewers. Coupled with this change in tone, the NBC network moved Bonanza from its longtime Sunday nighttime slot to Tuesday nights, where it died a quick death, cancellation coming halfway through the 1972-1973 season. Blocker left behind a wife and four children, among them actor Dirk Blocker and director/producer David Blocker. He also left behind a legacy of good will that survives to this day, as Bonanza is in perpetual reruns on various cable channels, decades after its cancellation. Significantly, the final season, in which he did not appear, is the body of episodes that is shown (and requested) the least of its 14 years' worth of programs. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi; Provided by Rovi http://familysearch.org/v1/Life Sketch

Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Blocker

Burial (May 1972) Woodmen Cemetery, De Kalb, Bowie, Texas, United States:

Find A Grave: Memorial #101 Dan Blocker

"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CQ9Q-4N2 : accessed 13 January 2017), Bob D Blocker in household of Ola Blocker, De Kalb, Bowie, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 19, sheet 4A, line 23, family 81, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2300; FHL microfilm 2,342,034.

"Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VDM4-R17 : 5 December 2014), Bobby Don Blocker, 10 Dec 1928; from "Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2005); citing Texas Department of State Health Services.

Wikipedia Dan Blocker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Heart

Wikidata: Item Q962647, en:Wikipedia

SECONDARY SOURCE: Family Tree "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 03 May 2018, 22:09), entry for Bobby Dan Davis Blocker(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LDPX-941); contributed by various users.