(The Cartwright's thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch is ...)
The Cartwright's thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch is located near Virginia City, Nevada, site of the Comstock Silver Lode, during and after the Civil War. Each of the sons was born to a different wife of Ben's; with none of the mothers still alive. Join Ben (Lorne Greene), Adam (Pernell Roberts), Hoss (Dan Blocker) and Little Joe (Michael Landon) as they rewrite the book on the western genre. These were the days where family values and the fight for justice were backed up by six-guns that always had right on their side. Included in this set are three bonus episodes of the classic TV western Wagon Train.
Disc 1
• Gunmen, The
• Fear Merchants, The
• Spanish Grant, The
• Blood on the Land
• Desert Justice
• Stranger, The
• Escape to Ponderosa
• Avenger, The
Disc 2
• San Francisco Holiday
• Bitter Water
• Feet of Clay
• Dark Star
• Death at Dawn
• Showdown
• Mission, The
• Badge Without Honor
• Mill, The
Disc 3
• Hopefuls, The
• Denver McKee
• Day of Reckoning
• Abduction, The
• Breed of Violence
• Last Viking, The
• Trail Gang, The
• Savage, The
Disc 4
• Last Trophy, The
• Silent Thunder
• Ape, The
• Blood Line, The
• Courtship, The
• Spitfire, The
• Alias Bill Hawks (Wagon Train)
• Dr. Denker Story, The (Wagon Train)
• Malachi Hobart Story, The (Wagon Train)
Dan Blocker was an American actor, businessman and educator. He was a high school English and drama teacher in Sonora, Texas, from 1953 to 1958.
Background
Dan Blocker was born on December 10, 1928, in DeKalb, Texas, United States, the son of Ora Shack Blocker and Mary Davis. At nearly fourteen pounds, reportedly the largest baby ever born in Bowie County, Blocker was listed as "Bobby Don" on the birth certificate belatedly filed in March 1929. When Dan was six, the family moved to the small West Texas town of O'Donnell, southwest of Lubbock, where the family business was a general store. By the time he was twelve, Blocker was six feet tall and weighed 200 pounds. He was often challenged to fight by older boys and later boasted that he was never beaten.
Education
After grade school Dan Blocker was sent to Texas Military Academy, a prestigious prep school in San Antonio, Texas, where he participated in Golden Gloves boxing. After graduation Blocker enrolled in Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, and then in 1947 transferred to Sul Ross State College in Alpine, where he graduated in 1950 with a degree in speech and drama. Blocker, an athlete valuable for both skill and size (at six feet, four inches and weighing 275 pounds), played college football, racking up an undefeated season and conference championship that earned the Lobos a postconference invitation to the Florida Tangerine Bowl. Later he obtained his master's degree in English and drama and pursued a Ph. D. at UCLA
Career
Despite pro offers in boxing and football, Blocker's increasing interest in drama took him to Boston, where he acted in summer stock. Drafted into the U. S. Army in 1950, he saw combat in Korea with the Forty-fifth Infantry Division, rising to the rank of sergeant. Upon his discharge in 1952, he returned to Sul Ross. Blocker taught school in Sonora, Texas, and Carlsbad, New Mexico, before moving to California in 1956. That move soon brought professional acting opportunities as well, and the year 1957 saw both his first film (Outer Space Jitters, a short) and his first major TV appearance on "Restless Gun, " a Western, in a December 23 episode entitled "The Child. " During the next two years, Blocker appeared in many of the episodes of this series, as well as numerous others. His first feature film, The Young Captives, was released in 1959, the same year NBC launched the Western series "Bonanza" (1959 - 1973).
Blocker's role in "Bonanza, " a series depicting the life of a widower with three sons on the mythical Ponderosa Ranch, was that of the middle son, Eric ("Hoss") Cartwright. Despite popular belief, the nickname was not derived from the character's resemblance to his equine companions, but was given him by his Scandinavian mother; in her native tongue, hoss meant "good luck. " As Hoss, Blocker was the gentle giant, sweet-natured, somewhat gullible, wearing the ten-gallon hat of an earlier West. That high-domed hat became his trademark for the thirteen years "Bonanza" was one of the top ten television programs, as each Sunday at 9:00 P. M. the thundering beat of the theme music brought the four Cartwrights, Ben and his boys, riding into American households. Blocker rode a Morgan horse, since his size could not be supported by the quarterhorses the others rode. An article in Look in January 1962 quoted Blocker as joking that he had "the only horse in TV with fallen arches. "
The success of "Bonanza, " the longest-running Western on television after "Gunsmoke, " was credited to the ensemble roles portrayed by Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Blocker, and Michael Landon, who performed both on TV and in road shows, capitalizing on their widespread popularity. Jack Gould, TV critic for the New York Times, suggested that the series' popularity was in no small part due to the "remarkably consistent performance of a huge hulk of a man not afraid to use his strength but also invoking gentleness and humor. " Blocker's sometimes sophisticated wit was rarely evident in the roles he played. Blocker was cast in several films during his tenure with "Bonanza": The Errand Boy (1961), Come Blow Your Horn (1963), Lady in Cement (1968), and The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County (1970).
Enormously popular among adults and children alike, Blocker, unlike many successful actors, was also a competent businessman. As part-owner, he helped launch a successful nationwide chain of still-popular steak houses, appropriately named "Bonanza, " offering westernstyle food. Dan Blocker died in Los Angeles of a pulmonary embolism several weeks after undergoing gall bladder surgery. He is buried in Woodman Cemetery in DeKalb, Texas.
Achievements
Dan Blocker is best remembered for his role as Hoss Cartwright in the NBC Western television series Bonanza. Well known and admired throughout the country, Blocker was singled out for honors by his native state. He was named Texan of the Year in 1963 by the Texas Press Association and served as honorary chairman of the Texas Cancer Crusade in 1966.
(The Cartwright's thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch is ...)
Religion
Blocker was a Free Methodist.
Politics
A Democrat, Blocker appeared publicly in support of that party's candidates.
Views
Quotations:
"Most people think big men are slobs. They aren't. They're just cast that way. "
Connections
On August 25, 1952, Dan Blocker married his college sweetheart, Dolphia Lee Parker, an Oklahoma native whose family raised quarterhorses; they had four children.
