Bill Thurman

American actor Bill Thurman is one of several Southern performers specializing in "regional" pictures -- films made exclusively for distribution in the deep South by states' rights exhibitors. In the '60s, Thurman appeared in a group of inexpensive horror films, many of them remakes of earlier American-International Pictures releases, and most of them directed in a hurry by Larry Buchanan: titles in this series include Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966), Zontar, the Thing From Venus (1968) and In the Year 2889 (1968). The actor has had numerous roles in other exploitation quickies like Gator Bait (1975) and Slumber Party 57 (1977). Bill Thurman had one shining moment of glory in an A-picture, as the high school coach husband of frustrated Cloris Leachman in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1972); but as late as 1986, Thurman was back at his old stand, appearing as Reverend Bill McWilley in Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1986).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide