Biography

Cactus Mack

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Born
August 8, 1899 · Weed, New Mexico, USA
Died
April 17, 1962 · Hollywood, California, USA (heart attack)
Birth name
Taylor McPeters
Nicknames
- The Arizona Wranglers
- Taylor Curtis McPeters
- Curtis Taylor McPeters

A cousin of cowboy actors Rex Allen and Glenn Strange, Taylor Curtis McPeters was the oldest son born to John and Leona Byrd McPeters in Weed (Otero County), New Mexico, USA on August 8, 1899. He was the second of eleven children. Glenn Strange's mother was Leona's sister. Rex Allen was 21 years McPeters junior on his father's side. McPeters and Strange learned ranching in Coke,Texas, USA before their families moved to Willcox (Cochise County), Arizona, USA. McPeters married Etta Sarah Jessee on July 4, 1922 in Tombstone, Arizona, USA. Cactus Mack was a talented musician. He played violin with Ray Whitley's "Six Bar Cowboys" and guitar with Fred Scott's "The Cimarron Cowboys". He later played villain roles in many westerns, along with other character parts. Injured during his final appearance on Gunsmoke, he required abdominal surgery in late 1961. As he was filming his closeups on location for The Ugly American with Marlon Brando, he died of a heart attack on April 17, 1962 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- IMDb mini biography by: A. Nonymous

His daughter Norma McPeters Johnson represented her late father at the funeral of Roy Rogers on June 11, 1998, at The Church of the Valley in Apple Valley, CA. She reminisced that her father taught Rogers to play the guitar when he was 16-year-old Leonard Slye. They lived in the same San Fernando Valley neighborhood.
Although typically relegated to "barfly" or "face-in-the-crowd scenes, during the final three years of his career on Gunsmoke (1955) he was selected by Dennis Weaver, director of Marry Me (1961), to co-star as Pa Cathcart, a hillbilly who, with his two sons, kidnaps Miss Kitty. In one scene he picked up Miss Kitty and passed her through a window. This caused him to injure his abdomen, after which he underwent surgery. His doctor advised him to take it easy for a while, so he took time off from "Gunsmoke" to recover. Four months later he died unexpectedly from a heart attack.
Along with John Wayne and Glenn Strange, he made the first Western filmed by Republic Pictures--Westward Ho (1935).
He and cousin Glenn Strange headed to Hollywood in the early 1930s to join the Hoot Gibson Rodeo, where Mack became its announcer.
Registered for the draft during World War I and was ordered to report for induction on Oct. 31, 1918, but the armistice was signed on Nov. 11, 1918, and the war ended.

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