William Denison McKinney

 William Denison McKinney (September 12, 1931 – December 1, 2011)

He played the sadistic mountain man in John Boorman's 1972 film Deliverance and performed in seven Clint Eastwood films, most notably as Captain Terrill, commander pursuing the last rebels to "hold out" against surrendering to the Union forces in The Outlaw Josey Wales. He made 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 provided his breakthrough in 1972. He played villains in the 1970's with appearances in Junior Bonner, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and The Parallax View. It was with Clint Eastwood that McKinney would become most associated, becoming part of Eastwood's stock company after they worked together in Michael Cimino's Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. In addition to The Outlaw Josey Wales, he appeared in six more Eastwood films including The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Any Which Way You Can and Pink Cadillac. Other memorable roles include Jay Cobb, who is done in by John Wayne's The Shootist. He also appeared in such later films as First Blood, Back to the Future Part III and The Green Mile. He appeared in the TV movie The Execution of Private Slovik (1974) and guest-starred on such television shows as the 1976 western Sara, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Starsky & Hutch, The A-Team, Hunter, Murder, She Wrote, Columbo: Swan Song and In The Heat of The Night.. He also had an uncredited role in the TV miniseries Roots (1977), playing alongside Georg Stanford Brown, Lloyd Bridges and Burl Ives.

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. On December 1, 2011, McKinney died from esophageal cancer at his home in San Fernando, California. He was 80 years old