Bill Mckinney
About
Biography
Biography
No matter what else he did, actor Bill McKinney was always destined to remain the crazed hillbilly who did terrible things to Ned Beatty in "Deliverance." After serving in the Korean War, McKinney moved to southern California and decided he wanted to become an actor. He attended drama school at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1957 and, after being admitted to Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, made his movie debut a full decade later in 1967's ultra-low-budget "She Freak." McKinney made his TV debut in 1968 on the rock-'n'-roll sitcom "The Monkees," and subsequently began to show up frequently on the small screen. In 1972, McKinney earned widespread attention for his villainous role in the backwoods thriller "Deliverance." Afterwards, McKinney collaborated with some of the industry's most famous directors, playing a heavy in Sam Peckinpah's rodeo Western "Junior Bonner" and appearing in a supporting role in Alan J. Pakula's conspiracy thriller "The Parallax View." Following these roles, McKinney began a long collaborative relationship with actor and director Clint Eastwood. He first starred alongside Eastwood in Michael Cimino's comedy thriller "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" in 1974, and reteamed with him on such films as the revisionist Western "The Outlaw Josey Wales," the tough thriller "The Gauntlet" and the comedy "Every Which Way But Loose."