Standing at 6 feet 6 inches, Clint Walker was the ultimate TV cowboy. As the star of the hit Western series Cheyenne, he was the gentle giant who could throw a punch that would send bad guys flying all the way across a dusty saloon. Premiering in 1955 on ABC, Cheyenne was the first hour-long Western series on TV, setting the standard for almost every Western that followed.
Walker’s Cheyenne Bodie was a good-hearted cowboy who traveled the post-Civil War West righting wrongs and defending the innocent. Journalist Ed Gross, writing for Woman’s World magazine, quoted Walker as saying this about the character he played: “He had a strong sense of justice, and he couldn’t bring himself to stand around or tolerate somebody being abused.”