Bobby Dan Davis Blocker (December 10, 1928 – May 13, 1972) was an American television actor and Korean War veteran, who played Hoss Cartwright in the NBC Western television series Bonanza.
Blocker was born on December 10, 1928, in De Kalb, Texas to Ora "Shack" Blocker and Mary Arizona (Davis) Blocker.
As a boy, Blocker attended Texas Military Institute. He enrolled in a San Antonio school in 1940. In 1946, Blocker played football at Southern Baptist-affiliated Hardin–Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. In 1947, he transferred to Sul Ross State Teacher's College in Alpine, Texas, where he was a star football player, and graduated in 1950 with a degree in speech and drama. After two years of military service, he earned a master's degree in the dramatic arts.
Blocker worked as a rodeo performer and a bouncer in a bar while a student. He is remembered from his school days for his height of 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) and weight of 300 lb (140 kg), and for being good-natured despite his intimidating size.
Blocker was a high-school English and drama teacher in Sonora, Texas, from 1953 to 1954. He was a sixth-grade teacher and coach at Eddy Elementary School in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and then a teacher in California. Blocker and his wife Dolphia moved to Los Angeles, where he secured some acting roles.
Blocker was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War. He had basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. In Korea, he served as an infantry sergeant in F Company, 2nd Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, from December 1951 to August 1952. He received a Purple Heart for wounds in combat.
In addition to the Purple Heart, Blocker received the National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal with two bronze campaign stars, Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, United Nations Service Medal, Korean War Service Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge.
In 1957, Blocker appeared in a Three Stooges short, Outer Space Jitters, playing the Goon, billed as "Don Blocker".
He made two appearances on Gunsmoke. First as a cavalry lieutenant on August 24, 1956, in "Alarm at Pleasant Valley" (S1E39) and on October 18, 1958, in "Thoroughbreds". He appeared in 1957 as Will in the episode "A Time to Die" of the ABC/Warner Bros. Western series Colt .45.
In 1957, Blocker was cast in episodes of David Dortort's NBC series The Restless Gun as a blacksmith and as a cattleman planning to take his hard-earned profit to return to his family land in his native Minnesota. In 1957, he had at least two roles as a bartender in an episode of the syndicated Western-themed crime drama Sheriff of Cochise, starring John Bromfield, and in the film Gunsight Ridge. Also in 1957, he appeared in the Cheyenne episode "Land Beyond the Law", playing one of the outlaw minions (Pete). He also appeared in The Rifleman.
In 1958, he played a prison guard and later had a recurring role as Tiny Budinger in the NBC Western series Cimarron City, starring George Montgomery, John Smith and Audrey Totter. He was seen in "The Señorita Makes a Choice", a 1958 episode of Walt Disney's Zorro series, as well as an episode, "Underground Ambush", of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, playing Mule Conklin.
In 1958, Blocker had a supporting role as Sergeant Broderick in "The Dora Gray Story" on NBC's Wagon Train. That same year, he appeared in "Stagecoach Episode" of the NBC Western Jefferson Drum, starring Jeff Richards.
In March 1958, he appeared as Joe, a thief, in season one of Have Gun – Will Travel, in the episode "Gun Shy".
Blocker was cast as bearded poker-playing rodeo performer Cloudy Sims in the 1958 episode "Rodeo" on the David Janssen crime drama, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. In the storyline, a rodeo performer named Ed Murdock, portrayed by Lee Van Cleef, is murdered before he can make his final performance at the annual event in Madison Square Garden.
Another 1959 role was as Del Pierce in "Johnny Yuma", the first episode of the ABC Western series The Rebel, starring Nick Adams.
Blocker's big break came in 1959, when he was cast as Eric "Hoss" Cartwright on the NBC television series Bonanza, playing that role for over 400 episodes until his death. Blocker said he portrayed the gentle-natured Hoss character with a Stephen Grellet statement in mind: "We shall pass this way on Earth but once, if there is any kindness we can show, or good act we can do, let us do it now, for we will never pass this way again."
In 1963, Blocker starred with Frank Sinatra in the comedy Come Blow Your Horn. He worked with Sinatra again in 1968 in the Tony Rome film sequel Lady in Cement, playing a menacing tough guy. Stanley Kubrick attempted to cast Blocker in his film Dr. Strangelove, after Peter Sellers elected not to add the role of Major T.J. "King" Kong to his multiple other roles, but according to the film's co-writer, Terry Southern, Blocker's agent rejected the script. The role went to Slim Pickens, who played the iconic scene of riding an atomic bomb down while waving his cowboy hat.
In 1968, Blocker starred as John Killibrew, a blacksmith, who had convinced a number of settlers to follow him to California and founded the town of Arkana. This TV film, Something for a Lonely Man, also featured Susan Clark, John Dehner, Warren Oates, and Don Stroud. In 1970, Blocker portrayed a love-shy galoot in The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County, with Nanette Fabray as a love prospect and a supporting cast featuring Jim Backus, Jack Elam, Noah Beery Jr., and Mickey Rooney. Blocker also appeared on NBC's The Flip Wilson Show comedy hour.