Stardust And Spurs: Exploring Santa Clarita’s Walk Of Western Stars – Wilford Brimley

Saddle up for a trip through entertainment history with a weekly highlight from Santa Clarita’s Walk of Western Stars! This week, actor Wilford Brimley!

Anthony Wilford Brimley was born in Salt Lake City on Sept. 27, 1934, as the son of Lola Nelson and real estate broker Wilford Brimley.

Brimley’s paternal grandfather was an Englishman from Wigan while his paternal grandparents were a Scottish couple from Glasgow.

Prior to acting, Brimley dropped out of high school at age 14 and worked as a cowboy in Arizona, Idaho and Nevada.

Brimley joined the Marines in 1953 and served in the Aleutian Islands for three years, according to officials.

Before becoming an actor, Brimley worked as a bodyguard for businessman Howard Hughes, a ranch hand, a wrangler and a blacksmith.

At the behest of his close friend and fellow actor Robert Duvall, Brimley began acting in the 1960s as a riding extra and stuntman in Westerns.

In 1979, Brimley told the Los Angeles Times that the most he ever earned in a year as an actor was $20,000.

Brimley had no formal training as an actor and his experience in acting in front of a live audience was in a theatre group at the Los Angeles Actors Theater.

Brimley’s onscreen breakthrough came when he was cast in the popular 1970s television series The Waltons as Walton’s Mountain resident and blacksmith Horace Brimley; he made seven appearances between 1974 and 1977.

Brimley became an established character actor in the 1970s and 1980s, appearing in films such as The China Syndrome (1979), The Thing (1982), Tender Mercies (1983), The Natural (1984) and Cocoon (1985).

The actor was known for playing characters at times much older than his age and was the long-term face of American television advertisements for the Quaker Oats Company.

Brimley also promoted diabetes education and appeared in related television commercials for Liberty Medical, a role for which he became an Internet meme.

Brimley made a brief but pivotal appearance in Absence of Malice (1981) as the curmudgeonly, outspoken Assistant Attorney General James A. Wells.

In the movie The Thing (1982), he played the role of Blair, a biologist among a group of men at an American research station in Antarctica who encounter a dangerous alien that can perfectly imitate other organisms.

Brimley frequently appeared in commercials, including a series of commercials for Quaker Oats, a campaign which became famous for his repeating their slogan ‘It’s the right thing to do.’

Developed by advertising agency Jordan McGrath, Case & Taylor, the campaign began in 1987, added officials.

Brimley appeared in numerous television advertisements for Liberty Medical, a company that specializes in home delivery of medical products, including diabetes testing supplies.

The actor appeared in commercials for the American Diabetes Association and provided the voice-over for a Bryan Foods television commercial campaign.

Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1979, Brimley began working to raise awareness of the disease.

In October 2007, Brimley married Beverly Berry until his death in August of 2020.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) honored the actor in 2008 with an award to recognize his lifetime of service.

The ADA presented him with the award at Liberty Medical’s Port St. Lucie headquarters on Dec. 19, 2008.

Brimley visited Veterans Administration hospitals and communities to advise patients on how to manage their diseases.

Brimley’s television advertisements for Liberty Medical became an Internet meme due to his dialectal pronunciation of “diabetes,” often rendered as “diabeetus,” which contrasted with his overall serious tone.

The actor passed away on August 1, 2020, at a hospital in St. George, Utah, at the age of 85 after suffering from a kidney condition for two months.

Where is Wilford Brimley’s Plaque on the Walk of Western Stars?

In 2001, Brimley was honored with a plaque on the Walk of Western Stars. The plaque is on the east side of Main Street, south of Market Street, in front of Newhall Refinery.

Click here to view last week’s feature.

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