- Born
- Died
- Birth nameShelby Fredrick Wooley
- Height6′ 1½″ (1.87 m)
- American character actor in many Westerns, Sheb Wooley was also a figure in country-western music. Born and raised in Oklahoma, he spent his youth as a cowhand. His musical ability led to radio and subsequently film work. He played minor supporting roles for a dozen years starting in 1950, including one of the Frank Miller gang in High Noon (1952). In 1958 he had a giant hit record with his own song "The Purple People Eater" (years later there was a movie made based on the song, Purple People Eater (1988)) and he followed it with a string of similar humorous country ditties, often recorded under the name Ben Colder. For a number of years he had a regular role as scout Pete Nolan on the hit TV series Rawhide (1959). He worked infrequently as an actor after that, concentrating on the music business.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
- SpousesLinda Sue Dotson(January 31, 1985 - September 16, 2003) (his death, 2 children)Deanna G Grubisic(March 27, 1976 - ?) (divorced)Beverly Irene Torrence (Addington)(January 26, 1955 - June 1974) (divorced, 1 child)Edna Ethel Talbott(1947 - April 2, 1953) (divorced)Melva Loree Miller(May 21, 1940 - ?)
- ParentsOra E. WooleyWilliam C. Wooley
- Sheb Wooley is the voice of the 'Wilhelm Scream' as used in countless beloved classics, from the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises to the likes of Toy Story, Reservoir Dogs, Beauty and the Beast ... the list goes on and on.
- In 1969 he was one of the original members of the cast of Hee Haw (1969), the-long running country slapstick series. He also wrote the familiar theme song. He left the show after only filming 13 episodes due to other professional demands. He returned from time to time as a guest.
- It is believed that it was he who recorded the famous Wilhelm Scream for the movie Distant Drums (1951) (in which he played a soldier). He was one of the few actors assembled for the recording of additional vocal elements for the film. It is likely he was asked on the spot to perform other things for the film, including the screams of a "man getting bitten by an alligator" (as the Wilhelm Scream takes were slated).
- Was one of the four gunslingers who stalked Gary Cooper in the western film classic High Noon (1952) (for the record, the others were Ian MacDonald, Robert J. Wilke, Lee Van Cleef).
- The running lyric to his huge 1958 novelty song hit "The Purple People Eater" was: "It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater." It spent six weeks at #1 and sold 3,000,000 copies. Other silly songs included "Talk Back Blubbering Lips," "Sunday Morning Fallin' Down," "Harper Valley PTA (Later That Same Day)," "The Happiest Squirrel in the Whole U.S.A." and "Fifteen Beers Ago." He also recorded the parody "Don't Go Near the Eskimos," based on Rex Allen's 1962 hit "Don't Go Near the Indians.".
- I came out to Hollywood to become a singing cowboy but when I got here in 1950 they didn't want any singing cowboys, even if you had your own guitar. So I got into the other end of the cowboy business and played mostly heavies in my film career.
- [on how he got the idea for his "Purple People Eater" hit song] The Space Age was upon us. Everyone was thinking about rockets and wondering if maybe we would find people up there. A songwriter friend of mine told me his son had come home from school with a joke about a people eater from space. I wrote the song in a matter of minutes--just dashed it off as a sort of afterthought.
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