George 'Gabby' Hayes

George Francis 'Gabby' Hayes (May 7, 1885 - February 9, 1969) was an American actor. He was best known for his numerous appearances in western movies as the colorful sidekick to the leading man. May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ...

Hayes was born in Wellsville, New York and did not come from a cowboy background. In fact, he did not know how to ride a horse until he was in his forties and had to learn for movie roles. Hayes' early show business career including working in the circus, in vaudeville, on stage, and playing semi-professional baseball. Wellsville, New York is a village and a town in Allegany County, New York. ... Vaudeville is a style of theater, also known as variety, which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ...

Hayes married Olive Dorothy Ireland in 1914. They remained together until her death in 1957. The couple had no children.

Hayes' film career began in 1923 with his appearance in the silent film Why Women Marry. In his early career, Hayes was cast in a variety of roles, including villains, and occasionally played two roles in a single film. Hayes briefly retired in the 1920's but lost most of his money in the 1929 stock market crash and had to return to acting. He fortunately found a niche in the growing genre of western films, many of which were series with recurring characters. Ironically, Hayes would admit he had never been a big fan of westerns. A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic loss of value of shares of stock in corporations. ...

Hayes, in real life an intelligent, well groomed, and articulate man, was cast as a grizzled codger who uttered phrases like "consarn it", "yer durn tootin", "durn persnickety female", and "young whipper snapper". Hayes played the part of Windy Halliday, the sidekick to Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd), from 1935 to 1939. In 1939, Hayes left Paramount in a dispute over his salary and moved to Republic Pictures. Paramount held the rights to the name Windy Halliday, so a new nickname was created for Hayes' character; Gabby. As Gabby Whitaker, Hayes appeared in over forty pictures between 1939 and 1946, usually with Roy Rogers but also with Gene Autry or Bill Elliot. Hayes also was cast as a sidekick to western icons Randolph Scott and John Wayne. Hayes was a popular performer and consistently appeared among the ten favorite actors in polls taken of movie-goers of the period. Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy, a squeaky clean character who rides a horse named Topper. ... William Boyd (June 5, 1895–September 12, 1972) was an American actor who became famous playing squeaky clean cowboy Hopalong Cassidy. ... Paramount can refer to: Paramount, California - a city in Los Angeles County Paramount Pictures - a motion picture company Paramount Records - a record label United Paramount Network (UPN), a television network in the United States, owned by Viacom Inc. ... Republic Pictures Corporation is considered by some to be one of the first major independent movie studios, best known for creating B-movie product featuring A-movie stars. ... Leonard Frank Slye, famous as Roy Rogers (November 5, 1911 - July 6, 1998), was a singing cowboy actor, massively famous in his time. ... Gene Autry (September 29, 1907 - October 2, 1998) was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television. ... George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 - March 2, 1987), generally known as Randolph Scott, was an American film actor whose career spanned the sound era from the late 1920s to the early 1960s. ... John Wayne (May 26, 1907 - June 11, 1979), nicknamed Duke, was an American film actor whose career spanned the evolutionary phase of American cinema, appearing in silent movies and talkies alike. ...

The western film genre declined in the late 1940's and Hayes made his last film appearance in The Cariboo Trail (1950). He moved to television and hosted The Gabby Hayes Show, a children's western series, from 1950 to 1954. When the series ended he retired from show business. An American family watching television in the 1950s. ...

For his contribution to radio, Gabby Hayes has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6427 Hollywood Blvd. and a second star at 1724 Vine Street for his contribution to the television industry. In 2000, he was posthumously inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A small part of the Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, California, United States, which is embedded with more than 2,000 five-pointed stars featuring the names of celebrities honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce... The Hall of Great Western Performers is a Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. ... The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum was established in 1955 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. ... The State Capitol of Oklahoma Looking at Downtown Oklahoma City The Flag of Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (sometimes abbreviated as OKC) is the capitol and largest city of the state of Oklahoma in the United States of America. ...

Gabby Hayes died in Burbank, California in 1969 and was interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. This article or section should be merged with Burbank, Los Angeles County, California This article is about the Burbank in Southern California. ... Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery is located at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles, California, on the south edge of the San Fernando Valley by Burbank (and on the north side of the Santa Monica Mountains from Hollywood). ... This article is about the largest city in California. ...

Homage was paid to Hayes in a different way, in the 1974 satirical western Blazing Saddles. A lookalike actor named Claude Ennis Starrett, Jr. played a Gabby Hayes-like character. In keeping with one running joke in the movie, the character was called Gabby Johnson. After he delivered a rousing, though largely unintelligible, speech to the townspeople, David Huddleston's character proclaimed, "Now, who can argue with that?!" 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... Blazing Saddles is a Warner Bros. ...

See also: Other notable figures in Western films Notable figures in Western style motion pictures and/or television series some of whom have been voted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. ...