Bobby Dan Davis Blocker (December 10, 1928 – May 13, 1972) was an American television actor and Korean War veteran, who played Hoss Cartwright in the NBC Western television series Bonanza.
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Biography
Early life
Blocker was born on December 10, 1928, in De Kalb, Texas to Ora "Shack" Blocker and Mary Arizona (Davis) Blocker.
As a boy, Blocker attended Texas Military Institute. He enrolled in a San Antonio school in 1940. In 1946, Blocker played football at Southern Baptist-affiliated Hardin–Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. In 1947, he transferred to Sul Ross State Teacher's College in Alpine, Texas, where he was a star football player, and graduated in 1950 with a degree in speech and drama. After two years of military service, he earned a master's degree in the dramatic arts.
Blocker worked as a rodeo performer and a bouncer in a bar while a student. He is remembered from his school days for his height of 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) and weight of 300 lb (140 kg), and for being good-natured despite his intimidating size.
Blocker was a high-school English and drama teacher in Sonora, Texas, from 1953 to 1954. He was a sixth-grade teacher and coach at Eddy Elementary School in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and then a teacher in California. Blocker and his wife Dolphia moved to Los Angeles, where he secured some acting roles.
U.S. Army
Blocker was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War. He had basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. In Korea, he served as an infantry sergeant in F Company, 2nd Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, from December 1951 to August 1952. He received a Purple Heart for wounds in combat.
In addition to the Purple Heart, Blocker received the National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal with two bronze campaign stars, Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, United Nations Service Medal, Korean War Service Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge.
Acting career
In 1957, Blocker appeared in a Three Stooges short, Outer Space Jitters, playing the Goon, billed as "Don Blocker".
He made two appearances on Gunsmoke. First as a cavalry lieutenant on August 24, 1956, in "Alarm at Pleasant Valley" (S1E39) and on October 18, 1958, in "Thoroughbreds". He appeared in 1957 as Will in the episode "A Time to Die" of the ABC/Warner Bros. Western series Colt .45.
In 1957, Blocker was cast in episodes of David Dortort's NBC series The Restless Gun as a blacksmith and as a cattleman planning to take his hard-earned profit to return to his family land in his native Minnesota. In 1957, he had at least two roles as a bartender in an episode of the syndicated Western-themed crime drama Sheriff of Cochise, starring John Bromfield, and in the film Gunsight Ridge. Also in 1957, he appeared in the Cheyenne episode "Land Beyond the Law", playing one of the outlaw minions (Pete). He also appeared in The Rifleman.
In 1958, he played a prison guard and later had a recurring role as Tiny Budinger in the NBC Western series Cimarron City, starring George Montgomery, John Smith and Audrey Totter. He was seen in "The Señorita Makes a Choice", a 1958 episode of Walt Disney's Zorro series, as well as an episode, "Underground Ambush", of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, playing Mule Conklin.
In 1958, Blocker had a supporting role as Sergeant Broderick in "The Dora Gray Story" on NBC's Wagon Train. That same year, he appeared in "Stagecoach Episode" of the NBC Western Jefferson Drum, starring Jeff Richards.
In March 1958, he appeared as Joe, a thief, in season one of Have Gun – Will Travel, in the episode "Gun Shy".
Blocker was cast as bearded poker-playing rodeo performer Cloudy Sims in the 1958 episode "Rodeo" on the David Janssen crime drama, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. In the storyline, a rodeo performer named Ed Murdock, portrayed by Lee Van Cleef, is murdered before he can make his final performance at the annual event in Madison Square Garden.
Personal life
Originally from Bowie County, Texas, Blocker arrived in Los Angeles in 1958 planning to do post-grad work at UCLA but began getting acting roles. Previously, while attending Sul Ross State College, he had a non-speaking part in a stage play and found that he was attracted to acting. He played in Summer Stock in Boston in 1950 after getting his degree at the college.
Blocker was a Free Methodist. He married Dolphia Parker, whom he had met while a student at Sul Ross State University. Their children are Hollywood actor Dirk Blocker, Hollywood producer David Blocker, and twin daughters Debra Lee (artist) and Danna Lynn. David Blocker won a 1998 Emmy for producing Don King: Only in America.
Blocker, a liberal Democrat, was among Hollywood celebrities who supported Pat Brown's re-election in 1966 as governor of California against Ronald Reagan. In 1968, Blocker backed then-U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota for the Democratic presidential nomination. Blocker later supported the eventual Democratic Party nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, also of Minnesota, for the presidency against the Republican Richard Nixon.
Blocker kept a house in Inglewood, California, and a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) Tudor-style mansion in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.
On the 2010 PBS special, Pioneers of Television: Westerns, actor Mitch Vogel, who played adopted brother Jamie Cartwright on Bonanza, said Blocker, "was the most down to earth—the kind of guy you could go and have a beer with."
Blocker, a performance automobile fan, once owned a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 "Z-16" (RPO Z16 option), as Chevrolet was the commercial sponsor of the show. He also owned a 1965 Huffaker Genie MK10 race car, nicknamed the "Vinegaroon". The car was run by Nickey Chevrolet in the 1965 and 1966 U.S. Road Racing Championship series, as well as the 1966 Can-Am championship.
Death
On May 13, 1972, Blocker died in Inglewood, California, at age 43, of a pulmonary embolism, following gallbladder surgery at Daniel Freeman hospital. A news item provides these specifics: "Blocker went into the hospital for gall bladder surgery, developed a blood clot in his lung, and died".
The writers of Bonanza took the unusual step of referencing a major character's death in the show's storyline that autumn. A 2011 report added that "this was to be the first time in television history that a show had dealt with, or even mentioned, the death of one of its characters". Specifics as to the death were not discussed in the series, but some years later, in the sequel series Bonanza: The Next Generation, one character stated that "Hoss drowned trying to save another's life".
Bonanza lasted another season without Hoss, and the 14th and final season ended on January 16, 1973. That season was "by far the least popular and least requested season in the show's rerun package". Bonanza co-star Michael Landon said years later that whenever he needed to cry for a scene, he would think of Dan Blocker's death.
Blocker's remains were interred in a family plot in Woodmen Cemetery, in De Kalb, Texas. The common grave site is marked by a plain stone with the name "B. Dan D. Blocker" engraved. Three family members are buried beside him – his father, mother, and sister.
Dan's wife, Dolphia died on April 19, 2026 from a stroke at a local hospital near her home in Santa Barbara, California. She was 93.
Namings
The following are named after Blocker:
The Dan Blocker Room is on the second floor of the O'Donnell Heritage Museum in O'Donnell, Texas, where he was brought up.
Dan Blocker Beach is in Malibu, California.
Dan Blocker Avenue is a street in the Boulder Ranch development in Henderson, Nevada.