BOBBY BLOCKER
This meeting of the Northwest Omaha Rotary Club honors BOBBY BLOCKER, television actor.
Bobby Dan Davis Blocker was born in De Kalb, Texas. He attended the Texas Military Institute (a San Antonio prep school) and Hardin-Simmons University, where he starred in football and earned a teacher’s degree. He served two years in the Army and then earned a master’s degree in dramatic arts at Sul Ross State University. He worked his way through graduate school as a rodeo performer and bouncer. He taught English and drama in Sonora, Texas, then in New Mexico before getting a teaching job in California. He was able to get guest star roles on television shows in Los Angeles. Then he was cast as Hoss Cartwright on the series Bonanza in 1959. He played the role for 415 episodes.
A popular actor on Bonanza, Blocker was part owner of Bonanza Steakhouses. He was also a performance automobile fan, owning a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 and a 1965 Huffaker Genie MK10 race car.
Blocker met his wife at Sul Ross State. They had four children. He died in 1972 of a pulmonary ambulism after gallbladder surgery. He was 43 years old.