Bill Thurman

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Bill Thurman (November 4, 1920 – April 13, 1995) was an American film and television actor born in Texas. He worked from the early 1960s until his death in 1995, often appearing in B movies and independent films as rednecks or sheriffs, and frequently collaborating with low-budget director Larry Buchanan on films like In the Year 2889 and It’s Alive!. Thurman specialized in regional pictures made mainly for Southern audiences. He also appeared in two Steven Spielberg films and played Coach Popper, the husband of Cloris Leachman’s character, in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971). On television, he appeared in Dallas and Centennial. One of his later roles was Reverend McWiley in Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1983).