DOSSIER - POWERS BOOTHE

 

“I have always been attracted to good scripts and try hard to make characters as believable as possible.”

BORN: June 1^st, 1948 in Snyder, Texas

DIED: May 14^th, 2017 at age 68 in Los Angeles, California (pancreatic cancer)

BIRTH NAME: Powers Allen Boothe

HEIGHT: 6' 2”

• Powers was the youngest of three boys growing up on a cotton farm in Snyder, texas. His father, Merrill Vestal Boothe was a rancher and Powers mother was Emily (Reeves) Boothe. Powers father named him after his best friend who had been killed in the Second World War.

• Boothe attended Snyder High School where he played football and appeared in school plays. He was the first in the family to go beyond high school, graduating with a BA from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. He earned an MA in drama from Southern Methodist University.

• Boothe joined the Oregon Shakespeare Festival after graduating from Southwest Texas State University. He played roles in Henry IV, Part 2, Troilus and Cressida, and others.

• 1974 – New York stage debut at the Lincoln Center in production of Richard III.

• 1980 – Boothe came to national attention playing Jim Jones in TV-movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. He received critical acclaim for his perfomance as the crazed cult leader. He went on in other parts in 1980s: Philip Marlowe, Southern Comfort, A Breed Apart, Red Dawn, The Emerald Forest, Rapid Fire, Extreme Prejudice, Into the Homeland, By Dawn's Early Light.

• 1990 – Boothe appeared in CBS-TV film Family of Spies.

• 1993 – Boothe portrayed Curly Bill Brocius in the hit, Western classic, Tombstone. Portrayed a disloyal Army officer in Blue Sky and a sinister terrorist in Sudden Death. Boothe was also cast in U-Turn.

• 2001 – Boothe starred as Flavius Aëtius, the Roman general who stopped the Hun invasion in the film Attila.

• 2005 – Boothe played a feature role as Cy Tolliver in the HBO series Deadwood. He played the corrupt senator Ethan Roark in Sin City. He is the voice of a character in the video game Area 51.

• 2008 – Voiced a villain in video game Turok. Boothe narrated a television campaign for Senator John McCain.

• 2012 – Boothe appeared in The Avengers, reprising the role in 2015 in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He appeared in the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys as Judge Valentine Hatfield. He was also cast in the musical drama Nashville. Boothe used his voice in video game Hitman: Absolution.

• 2014 – Cast in the Sin City sequel: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

PERSONAL INFORMATION & TRIVIA

• Boothe married his college sweetheart Pam Cole in 1969 and they remained married until his death. They had two children, Parisse and Preston.

• Boothe is buried in Deadwood Cemetery (appropriate), located in Panola County, Texas.

• During his acting career he played figures of authority, military or government agents, clergy and Western characters. His deep resonating voice provided him opportunities for voice and narrative roles.

• In September of 1980, Boothe showed up at the Emmy Awards ceremony to collect his award he won for portraying Jim Jones in defiance to the Screen Actors Guild union strike. Members boycotted the ceremony until the strike was settled. Boothe was the only winner to show up.

• For many generations, the Boothe clan had lived in the South being of British ancestry.

• For his role in Tombstone (1993), he was trained by Hollywood Gun Coach Thell Reed, who also trained actors as: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliot, Michael Bien, Brad Pitt, etc.

• Boothe was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in Austin, Texas in 2009.

• His favorite role was in the Sci-Fi horror film Mutant Species (1995).

• His resident was in Los Angeles where he raised racing quarter horses.

• When accepting his Emmy Award in 1980, he said: “This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest … I also thought long and hard whether or not I would attend, but I came here because this is America and one must do what one believes. I believe in the Academy. I also believe in my fellow actors in their stand.”

• Powers enjoyed shooting trap.

• In 2016 he became a Knight in the International Order of St. Hubertus, a hunting and fishing organization that supports wildlife conservation.

• Powers Boothe left behind his wife, Pamela, of 48 years of marriage; his daughter Parisse and son-in-law Dallas and grandson, Ryder James.

• Producer/Director Robert Rodriquez stated at his funeral: “He was a towering Texas gentleman and world class actor.” Instead of flowers being sent to the funeral, the family asked to send donations to the Gary Sinise Foundation to benefit American veterans.

The following two videos are from scenes of his most famous films. The first is from the film Tombstone portraying Curly Bill. The second video is a scene from Deadwood, an HBO series where he portrayed a gambling hall owner.