William Denison McKinney was born September 12, 1931, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had an unsettled life as a child, moving 12 times. At the age of 19, he joined the Navy during the Korean War. He served two years on a mine sweeper in Korean waters, and was stationed at Port Hueneme in Ventura County, California. After being discharged in 1954, he settled in California, attending acting school at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1957. His classmates included Dustin Hoffman and Mako Iwamatsu. During this time, McKinney became an arborist to earn money, a job which he would hold until the mid-1970s.[2]
Career
After the Pasadena Playhouse, McKinney moved on to Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, making his movie debut in exploitation pic She Freak (1967). For 10 years he was a teacher at Cave Spring Middle School. He made his television debut in 1968 on an episode of The Monkees and attracted attention as Lobo in Alias Smith and Jones. The film Deliverance (1972) proved to be his breakthrough, playing the backwoods mountain man who violently rapes Ned Beatty's character.[1]
McKinney took up singing in the late 1990s, eventually releasing an album of standards and country and western songs appropriately titled Love Songs from Antri, reflecting Don Job's pronunciation of the infamous town featured in Deliverance. One of his songs featured in the film Undertow, directed by David Gordon Green.[5] He voiced Jonah Hex in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series called "Showdown". He appeared in a cameo in 2001 Maniacs (2005) and had a role in the Robin Hood–inspired horror film Sherwood Horror (2010).[6][7]
Death
On December 1, 2011, McKinney died from esophageal cancer at his home in San Fernando, California. He was 80. McKinney's death was announced on his Facebook page on the same day. The announcement read:[8][9][10]
Today our dear Bill McKinney passed away at Valley Presbyterian Hospice. An avid smoker for 25 years of his younger life, he died of cancer of the esophagus. He was 80 and still strong enough to have filmed a Dorito's commercial 2 weeks prior to his passing, and he continued to work on his biography with his writing partner. Hopefully 2012 will bring a publisher for the wild ride his life was. He is survived by son Clinton, along with several ex-wives. R.I.P. Bill sept.12 1931 – dec. 1 2011 [sic].
^Rosebrook, Jeb; Rosebrook, Stuart (2019). "Act One". Junior Bonner: The Making of a Classic with Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah in the Summer of 1971. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN978-1-62933-289-5.
^"Bill McKinney". Facebook. December 1, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
^"Bill McKinney (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved September 12, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
