The Surprising Career Dan Blocker Nearly Chose Before ‘Bonanza’
Dan Blocker is best remembered as the gentle giant Hoss Cartwright on Bonanza, but his life could have taken a very different turn — long before the show, Blocker was preparing for a career that had nothing to do with television. For years, he worked as a teacher and was even working toward a PhD. So, what changed his career path forever?
Born in 1928 in De Kalb, Texas, Blocker’s early years were shaped by both athletics and academics. He played football, but he also loved theater and storytelling. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he went on to complete a master’s in dramatic arts. Teaching seemed like the perfect blend of his talents. He taught English and drama at a high school in Sonora, Texas, and later worked as a sixth-grade teacher and coach in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Everett Collection
Blocker’s passion for education did not stop there. After serving in the Korean War, he moved to California and began working toward a PhD in Dramatic Arts at UCLA. At the same time, he started landing small acting jobs. His earliest screen appearances included work in Westerns such as Gunsmoke, The Restless Gun, The Rifleman, and Wagon Train. He even popped up in the Three Stooges short Outer Space Jitters. By the late 1950s, he was steadily working, and in 1959, he got the role that would define him forever, playing Eric “Hoss” Cartwright on Bonanza.
Even after Bonanza made him a star, Blocker never lost his love for teaching. In fact, he once considered returning to the classroom. “Four years ago I attempted to go back to teaching,” he told the Associated Press in 1967, according to MeTV. “But my old principal said, ‘Forget it. You’ll never be Mr. Blocker again. You’ll always be Hoss.’”
Everett Collection
Fame brought both privilege and frustration for Blocker. “Bonanza has brought me all kinds of good things and some bad,” Blocker admitted. “Mainly, loss of privacy. We play to 500 million people around the world every week, and there’s nowhere my family and I can go and participate like a normal family.” He reflected on what that meant, adding, “Like money or health, we don’t appreciate the value of privacy until we’ve lost it.”
In interviews, Blocker admitted that it wasn’t always easy to separate himself from Hoss. “There was a time, of course, that I did,” he said, according to Wide Open Country. “I think after the second or third year, I started finally to divorce myself from him. But in the early days of the series, when I was trying to find this character, when I was really working at it, then, of course, I got wrapped up in him, to the extent that I was Hoss Cartwright practically all the time.” By the show’s fifth season, he felt he had finally struck a balance, able to leave Hoss behind at the studio each night and return to his real life.
Zinn Arthur/TV Guide/Everett Collection
Through it all, Blocker never stopped admiring teachers. “There are people who work so much harder than I do for so much less,” he once said. “Like every teacher in the country. It’s a damned shame.” Those words show how deeply he respected the profession he left behind.
Away from the screen, Blocker lived a family-centered life. He married his college sweetheart, Dolphia Parker, in 1952, and the couple had four children together, all with names beginning with “D.” Dirk Blocker would go on to become a successful actor, best known for playing Detective Michael Hitchcock in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, while David Blocker became an Emmy-winning producer.
Tragically, his life was cut short in 1972 when he died of a post-operative pulmonary embolism following gallbladder surgery. He was only 43. His passing was a turning point in television history, as Bonanza became one of the first series to kill off a major character after the actor died in real life. Writers decided that no one could replace him, and the show was never the same without its gentle giant.
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TV Westerns of the 50's & 60's
September 2021
’50s and ’60s TV Westerns roundup, celebrating the shows and stars of their golden age.
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