Famous Veterans Celebrating Birthdays Today (June 29th):

Famous Veterans Born June 29, 1919:

Slim Pickins (born Louis Burton Lindley Jr.) – was an American actor and rodeo performer. Starting off in the rodeo, Pickens took up acting, and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. For much of his career, Pickens played cowboy roles. He played comic roles in Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles, 1941, and his villainous turn in One-Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando. Prior to going on to fame and fortune, Lindley graduated from Hanford High School (in Hanford) and was a member of the Future Farmers of America. He joined the rodeo, billed as Slim Pickens, and eventually became a well-known rodeo clown. During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces. Reportedly when the recruiter asked him his profession, Lindley responded “rodeo”; misread on a form as “radio”, he spent his entire enlistment at a radio station in the Midwest – Died: December 8, 1983 at age 64 (after surgery for a brain tumor).