Chill Wills' Real Name: Theodore Childress Wills

Quick answer: Chill Wills' real name was Theodore Childress Wills. He was born on July 18, 1902, in Seagoville, Texas (some sources give 1903), and died on December 15, 1978, in Encino, California. "Chill" was a nickname.

Chill Wills' real name

Wills was born Theodore Childress Wills. The nickname "Chill" is often said to have been a family joke, because he was born during a summer heat wave, though that story is anecdotal. His birth year appears as both 1902 and 1903 in different references.

Early life and the Avalon Boys

Wills grew up in Texas and started performing as a child in tent shows, vaudeville and stock companies. In the 1930s he led a singing group, Chill Wills and the Avalon Boys, which appeared in Western films. The group's best-remembered moment is singing alongside Laurel and Hardy in Way Out West (1937), where Wills also supplied the deep bass voice for Stan Laurel in "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (TCM).

Character actor at MGM and beyond

When the group broke up, Wills stayed in Hollywood as a character actor, often playing folksy, drawling Westerners. His credits include Boom Town (1940), The Westerner (1940), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and The Harvey Girls (1946).

In the 1950s he became famous for a voice rather than a face: he was the voice of Francis the Talking Mule in Universal's popular Francis comedies starring Donald O'Connor, beginning with Francis (1950).

He also played Uncle Bawley in George Stevens' Giant (1956), with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean.

The Alamo and the Oscar campaign

Wills received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for playing Beekeeper in John Wayne's The Alamo (1960) (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). His publicist's aggressive trade-paper campaign became infamous: one ad claimed the cast was praying "harder than the real Texans prayed for their lives" at the Alamo. Wayne publicly disavowed it, and the episode is still cited as one of the most notorious Oscar campaigns. Peter Ustinov won the award for Spartacus.

Later career and death

Wills kept working in film and TV into the 1970s, including McLintock! (1963) and the series Frontier Circus. He died of cancer in Encino, California, on December 15, 1978.

Giant (1956) Blu-ray Francis the Talking Mule film collection DVD