Clint Walker spent decades playing larger-than-life heroes on television and the big screen, but one of the most unbelievable stories connected to the Hollywood star happened far away from a movie set.
The 6-foot-6 actor, best remembered as cowboy Cheyenne Bodie on the classic Western series Cheyenne, survived a horrific skiing accident in 1971 that left his heart pierced by a ski pole.
What happened next sounded like something Hollywood might have invented.
Walker later said two doctors pronounced him dead after he was rushed to a California hospital with no detectable pulse or heartbeat.
Then another doctor took a closer look.
That decision helped save Walker’s life and allowed the Western star to return to acting just months after an accident that easily could have ended his remarkable career.
A Skiing Accident Nearly Ended Everything
Walker was 43 years old and approaching his 44th birthday when the accident occurred at Mammoth Mountain in California’s Sierra Nevada.
During the accident, a ski pole penetrated his chest and pierced his heart.
The injury was catastrophic.
Walker was rushed to a hospital, where he later recalled that two physicians examined him and determined there were no apparent signs of life.
“They rushed me to a hospital where two doctors pronounced me dead,” Walker recalled in a 1987 interview.
He said there was “no pulse” and “no heartbeat.”
But Walker’s story did not end there.
According to accounts of the accident later repeated in major obituaries, another doctor examined Walker and detected signs that he was still alive.
The discovery triggered an emergency operation to repair the damage to his heart.
Walker survived.
The episode became one of the most extraordinary chapters in the actor’s life, especially considering how quickly he recovered afterward.
Walker Described an Extraordinary Experience
Years later, Walker also spoke publicly about what he remembered from the period when doctors believed he had died.
He described feeling unusually alert and aware and said he experienced what he considered an existence outside his injured physical body.
Those recollections are Walker’s personal account of what happened and cannot be medically verified, but they became part of the story he told about surviving the accident.
What can be documented is remarkable enough on its own.
A ski pole had pierced his heart. Two doctors had pronounced him dead. Another physician found evidence of life, and emergency surgery saved him.
Even more surprising, Walker reportedly returned to work roughly two months later.
He would live for another 47 years.
From Casino Security Guard to Western Superstar
By the time of the accident, Walker was already one of the most recognizable Western stars on American television.
Born Norman Eugene Walker in Hartford, Illinois, in 1927, he held an assortment of jobs before Hollywood came calling, including work aboard Great Lakes cargo ships and Mississippi River boats.
He eventually worked security at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where his imposing build and movie-star looks attracted attention.
At 6-foot-6, Walker was difficult to miss.
Hollywood soon noticed him as well.
He landed an early appearance in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments, but the role that changed his life was Cheyenne.
Beginning in 1955, Walker starred as Cheyenne Bodie, a wandering cowboy who traveled the post-Civil War West confronting criminals and helping people in trouble.
Cheyenne became a landmark television Western and ran for seven seasons, turning Walker into a major star during the genre’s golden age.
His combination of enormous physical presence and relatively restrained screen persona made him a natural fit for Westerns and action films.
He Joined One of Hollywood’s Most Famous War Movies
Walker successfully moved between television and movies as his fame grew.
He appeared in Yellowstone Kelly, Fort Dobbs, Gold of the Seven Saints and The Night of the Grizzly, along with the Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedy Send Me No Flowers.
He also appeared opposite Frank Sinatra in the 1965 war drama None but the Brave.
But one of his best-known movie appearances came in 1967’s The Dirty Dozen.
Walker played Samson Posey alongside a powerhouse cast that included Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown and Donald Sutherland.
The World War II film became a major hit and remains one of Walker’s most recognizable big-screen credits.
His career continued long after the skiing accident that nearly killed him.
Walker worked throughout the 1970s and beyond, appearing in projects including Pancho Villa, The White Buffalo and the television miniseries Centennial.
His final credited performance came decades after his brush with death when he provided a voice for the 1998 movie Small Soldiers.
He Lived Nearly Half a Century After the Accident
Walker ultimately enjoyed an extraordinarily long life considering what happened on that California mountain.
He died at a hospital in Grass Valley, California, on May 21, 2018.
His daughter, Valerie Walker, said the cause was congestive heart failure.
He was 90 years old — just nine days away from his 91st birthday.
The actor who had once been pronounced dead went on to survive for nearly another half-century, continuing his career, marrying for a third time and watching generations of television viewers discover Cheyenne.
For a performer who spent much of his career portraying tough men who survived seemingly impossible situations, Walker’s most astonishing survival story turned out to be his own.
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