Remembering Slim Pickens

2019-12-08

Slim Pickens
June 29, 1919 – December 8, 1983

One of those ubiquitous character actors of my early existence was Slim Pickens. Louis Burton Lindley Jr began in rodeo and became a staple of the various westerns which were characteristic of that era. Two of those roles I remember most fondly were characters in Blazing Saddles and Dr Strangelove.

Louis Burton Lindley Jr aka Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer turned film and television actor. During much of his career, he played mainly cowboy roles and is perhaps best remembered today for his comic roles in Dr Strangelove and Blazing Saddles.

He passed on this day in 1983 of complications from surgical intervention for a brain tumor. I can still hear his very characteristic voice on occasion and when I encounter him in a old western I am thrust back in time to my childhood to those old days when I had no cares in the world.

I remember the first time I saw Dr Strangelove and his riding the nuclear weapon to the ground after release from the bomb bay. It inspired various thoughts which have ultimately contributed to my "outside of the box" attitudes regarding life and technology.