Sheb Wooley

Wooley was born in 1921 in Erick, Oklahoma, the third son of William C. Wooley and Ora E. Wooley. Wooley claimed to be part Cherokee. He had two older brothers, Logan and Hubert, and a younger brother, William. Federal census records for 1930 and 1940 identify Sheb's father only as a "farmer". Sheb learned to ride his father's horses at an early age, became a working cowboy, and later an accomplished rodeo rider. At 19 years-old Wooley married 17-year-old Melva Miller, a cousin of future chart-topping singer, songwriter, and actor Roger Miller. Wooley became friends with Miller when he lived in Oklahoma, teaching the younger child how to play guitar chords and buying him his first fiddle. The Wooleys subsequently divorced. When the United States entered World War II in the early 1940s, Wooley tried to enlist in the military, but was unsuccessful due to his numerous rodeo injuries. Instead, he worked in the oil industry and as a welder. In 1946, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where he earned a living as a country-western musician, recording songs and traveling for three years with a band throughout the South and Southwest. In Fort Worth, he also married for the second time, to Edna Talbott Bunt, a young widow with an infant son named Gary. The three of them left Texas in 1950 and moved to Hollywood, California, where Wooley hoped to establish himself as an actor or singer in film or in the rapidly expanding medium of television.

At the age of 15, the musically talented Wooley formed a band called the "Plainview Melody Boys", that periodically performed on radio at station KASA in Elk City, Oklahoma. He started his recording career in 1945. His music encompassed Western swing, country, hillbilly, rock and roll, pop and novelty songs. At the start of the 1950s, Wooley began fusing Western swing with rhythm and blues, but later in his career, his music shifted to the more commercial Nashville sound. In 1958, Wooley earned considerable fame with his hit rock-and-roll comedy single, "The Purple People Eater", using tape manipulation inspired by the David Seville single "Witch Doctor". In the United Kingdom, he enjoyed a minor hit with the comedy single "Luke the Spook" on the flip side of "My Only Treasure", a ballad in the country and western tradition. Wooley also had a string of country hits, with his "That's My Pa" reaching number one of Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in March 1962. That same year, Wooley intended to record the song "Don't Go Near the Indians", but he was delayed by an acting job. Rex Allen beat him to it, and scored a hit. Wooley, however, did a sequel, "Don't Go Near the Eskimos", about a boy in Alaska named Ben Colder (who had never "been colder"). It was so successful that Wooley continued using the name Ben Colder, recording a parody of the hit "Achy Breaky Heart" with "Shaky Breaky Car". In December 1963, his single "Hootenanny Hoot" became a top-10 hit in Australia; in 1967 his song "The Love-in" (1967) was recognized as an acerbic commentary on the 1960s' counterculture. In the late 1960s, Wooley wrote the theme song for the television series Hee Haw, and became a regular on that long-running series in the 1970s. He often appeared as the character Ben Colder, portrayed as a drunken country songwriter. Wooley also released music and performed both as himself and as Ben Colder. Wooley's parody of the Tammy Wynette song "D.I.V.O.R.C.E." became an international hit when Billy Connolly covered it in 1975. Wooley continued to tour internationally and make personal concert appearances until his death in 2003. Wooley recorded his last written song just four days before he died.

Wooley's work in syndicated TV Westerns series included appearances on The Range Rider, portraying outlaw Jim Younger on Stories of the Century (1954), and five appearances on The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951-1955). He appeared in The Lone Ranger episodes “Stage to Estacado” (1953), “Wake of War" (1953), "Message to Fort Apache" (1954), "Wagontrain" and "Wanted: The Lone Ranger" (1955). He portrayed Bill Bronson on The Cisco Kid, Harry Runyon in "The Unmasking" on My Friend Flicka, and Shev Jones in "The Iron Trail" on Cheyenne. He appeared twice on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Wooley's big break professionally came when he was cast as the drover Pete Nolan on Rawhide (1959–1965). Wooley also wrote and directed some of the episodes.

Sheb Wooley is also credited as the voice actor for the Wilhelm scream, a stock recording used by sound-effects teams in over 200 films. Wooley originally performed the scream in the 1951 adventure film Distant Drums in which he had an acting role. Wooley's widow Linda Dotson confirmed Sheb performed the scream.

Wooley was married five times, first to Melva Miller in 1940. In 1946 he married Edna Talbott Bunt in Fort Worth, Texas. His third wife was Beverly Irene Addington; the couple adopted a daughter, Chrystie Lynn, and remained together for 19 years. In 1985, he married Deanna Grughlin. Last he married his manager Linda Dotson, who already had a daughter, Shauna.

Wooley was diagnosed with leukemia in 1996, which forced him to retire from public performing three years later. He died of the illness at the age of 82 at the Skyline Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 16, 2003. He was entombed in Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee.