Whip Wilson
Whip Wilson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Roland Charles Meyers June 16, 1911 Granite City, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | October 22, 1964 (aged 53) Los Angeles, California |
| Resting place | Sunset Hill Cemetery, Glen Carbon, Illinois |
| Occupation | Film actor |
| Years active | 1946–1955 |
| Spouse | Monica H. Heberlie Meyers (m. 1938–1964) (his death) |
Whip Wilson (born Roland Charles Meyers, June 16, 1911 – October 22, 1964) was an American cowboy film star of the late 1940s and into the 1950s, known for his roles in B-Westerns.
He was one of eight children. Wilson had been a moderately successful singer before coming to Hollywood. Following Buck Jones's death in the famous Cocoanut Grove fire of 1942, which claimed the lives of 492 people, Monogram Pictures had been searching for someone to replace him. Producer Scott R. Dunlap saw Meyers, and thought he looked similar to Jones. This, apparently, was enough to build him into a cowboy star. Because of the fame being generated by Lash LaRue, who used a bullwhip in his films, Monogram decided to make Meyers a similar whip-wielding character, renaming him Whip Wilson.