Whip Wilson

He was obviously handed one of those unique stage names, like Lash La Rue, in order for audiences (especially the kiddies) to immediately associate him with western heroics and the trademark he would be remembered for in films. Not one of the better remembered sagebrush heroes in today's world, Whip Wilson came along at the tail end of the huge western craze of the late 40s and early 50s and managed a three-year career at Monogram Pictures that encompassed about two dozen oaters.

Born with the more proper name of Roland Charles Meyers on June 16, 1911, in Granite, Illinois, he was one of eight children. A talented singer before going to Hollywood, he supposedly sang in a few pictures but was not considered or ever promoted as a "singing cowboy" per se. It was Scott R. Dunlap, a Monogram Pictures studio executive, who handed Whip his career on a silver platter. A close friend and business partner of the late western star Buck Jones, Dunlap had been searching for a replacement ever since Buck perished in the Boston Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in 1942. He was caught off guard when he met Whip, who happened to bear a strong resemblance to Jones. Dunlop excitedly signed him up despite having no prior experience. Cowboy star Lash La Rue had already displayed cowboy heroics cracking a bull whip so Dunlap decided to capitalize on the popular gimmick and handed Wilson a whip as well, grooming him into a combination of LaRue and Buck Jones.

To whip up (sorry) a bit of experience in front of the camera, Dunlap gave the movie tenderfoot a part in the Jimmy Wakely oater Silver Trails (1948). By the next year Whip was starring in his own tailor-made vehicles, the first being Crashing Thru (1949) as a white-hatted, white steed-mounting hero, accompanied by his very own sidekick in the form of veteran comic actor Andy Clyde. After about a dozen pictures, Clyde left the series and was replaced by Fuzzy Knight and/or Jim Bannon. Both blonde bombshell Reno Browne and dark-haired beauty Phyllis Coates served as frequent "prairie flower" co-stars in Whip's films. Browne was once married to cowboy actor LaRue and Coates was better known for playing Lois Lane on film and TV's Adventures of Superman (1952).

After only three years as a movie cowboy Whip rode off into the sunset after starring in the western programmer Wyoming Roundup (1952). He worked only one more time in the industry when he was hired to provide whip-wielding instructions to Burt Lancaster in a couple of scenes and also appeared unbilled in the western The Kentuckian (1955). He managed a Los Angeles apartment complex in later years. Whip died of a heart attack on October 22, 1964 at the relatively young age of 53, and was survived by third wife Monica. He had no children and was buried in his native state of Illinois.