Gregory Walcott as he appeared in The High Chaparral
Gregory Walcott Filmography
Journeyman is his own best actor
Gregory Walcott, 82, whose face is more familiar than his name, says being in show business has been its own reward. His goal is to take all six of his grandchildren to the Oscars, one at a time.
by Steve Lopez
March 7, 2010
And the Oscar for humility goes to:
Gregory Walcott.
The 82-year-old retired actor will attend the Academy Awards on Sunday night with roughly 300 film and TV credits to his name. He's one of those journeymen whose face you recognize and whose name you don't.
Walcott's date will be 14-year-old Isabel, his granddaughter, who will help her grandfather complete a goal he set for himself many years ago.
That goal had nothing to do with fame or fortune or an Oscar nomination. Walcott said his career was a thrill, and all he ever wanted was to be a good actor rather than a star. His simple wish was to be healthy enough in his golden years to get all three of his children -- as well as his six grandchildren -- to the Oscars ceremony on the two tickets he receives each year as a member of the Academy.
"This gives me great delight," Walcott said Friday morning as Isabel, the youngest of the six grandchildren, was preparing to travel north from Escondido for her big weekend with Papa Greg, as he's known. "I've always wanted them to be a part of this excitement."
Walcott's own story sounds something like an old-time movie. He had humble beginnings in North Carolina, where his dad sold furniture and Walcott's biggest thrill was going to the movies. After a service stint, he hitchhiked to California to see if he could be part of the make-believe world.
"I thought the West Coast must be in Technicolor," he said.
Acting classes on the GI Bill led to small parts, which in turn led to bigger ones. But back home in the South, his mother was a wreck. She wrote a blind letter to a movie star who seemed like a down-to-earth person, Dale Evans, wife of Roy Rogers, with "Hollywood, California" as the only address. She asked Evans to please watch over a certain aspiring actor and make sure he didn't fall in with the wrong women.
Evans invited Walcott to a party attended by a smart young beauty named Barbara who had just graduated from San Diego State and was working at a church.
"It clicked," Walcott said.
He asked Barbara out -- to a movie, of course. They saw a movie on Hollywood Boulevard, dined at Musso & Frank, and Walcott later was so lovesick while shooting a movie in Arizona that he caught a fast train back to L.A.
"I want to get married," he told Barbara, who was waiting for the handsome, tall drink of water at Union Station.
Well, certainly, Barbara said. She'd call the relatives and start planning.
"No," Walcott said. "I want to marry you right now." They got into his '52 Olds and hit the highway for Vegas.
"We eloped," Barbara said Friday morning, smiling as if the honeymoon hasn't ended.
"That's where the grandchildren get all their beauty," Walcott said, smiling back admiringly at his wife of nearly 60 years.
Walcott said he was lucky in more ways than one, hooking up early on with good Hollywood people. He worked with Clint Eastwood in "The Eiger Sanction" and other films. Henry Fonda helped him flesh out a scene in "Mister Roberts." He half-regretted starring in Ed Woods' widely panned cult classic "Plan 9 from Outer Space," but loved working with director Delbert Mann in "The Outsider," starring Tony Curtis.
In TV he was everywhere, popping up on "Rawhide," "Bat Masterson," "Maverick," "87th Precinct," "Kojak," "Dallas" and "Murder, She Wrote." Last year, international fans of "Bonanza" voted him their favorite recurring guest star on the long-running western.
Through it all, Walcott was a family man first, and he regretted not being able to take his loved ones on location. Taking them all to the Oscars, at least, became an obsession. He took his wife many times, then son Todd and daughters Jina and Pam. He started on the grandchildren in the late 1990s.
"He has a deep love and respect for film, and it's been ingrained not just in me but the entire family," said granddaughter Jessica, 23. She works in development for New Line Cinema, sometimes consults her grandfather on plot points and accompanied him to the awards in 2006.
"The Oscars are our Super Bowl, and to be perfectly honest, what I remember most was how happy I was to be there with my grandfather," Jessica said.
Lucas, 18, remembers being "two feet away from Penelope Cruz" on the red carpet. Stacey, 21, recalls her grandfather talking to Peter O'Toole. Hailey, 17, wants to be an actress, so she was especially thrilled about going. She spent three years planning her outfit. Isabel, the last of the lot, said she jokes with friends "about having Johnny Depp step on my foot or something."
Ashley, the eldest at 26, made it to the Oscars in 1997, but not without one disappointment. Walcott had a heart attack before the event, and she instead went with her father while her grandfather recovered.
If he's well enough next year, said Walcott, who walks with a cane, maybe he'll invite Ashley again.
Hailey, meanwhile, says her goal is to be nominated herself when she becomes an actress. And if it happens, she already knows who she'd like her date to be.
A tall, handsome gent from North Carolina.
