Michael Wallis (born October 7, 1945) is an American journalist, popular historian, author and speaker. He has written seventeen books,Danna Sue Walker
"Award-winning author speaks to library backers"
''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. Tulsa World Media Company is part of Lee Enterprises. The new owners announced in January 202 ...

'', March 7, 2010. including ''Route 66: The Mother Road'', about the historic highway

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

. His work has also been published extensively in magazines and newspapers, including ''Time'', ''Life'', ''People'', ''Smithsonian'', ''The New Yorker'', and ''The New York Times''.

Awards and honors

Wallis has received the John Steinbeck Award, the

Arrell Gibson Arrell Morgan Gibson (1921–1987) was a historian and author specializing in the history of the state of Oklahoma. Gibson was born in Pleasanton, Kansas on December 1, 1921. He earned degrees from Missouri Southern State College and the Univers ...

Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book, the Will Rogers Spirit Award, and the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall & Western Heritage Museum. He has been inducted into the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame, Writers Hall of Fame of America, and the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame, and was the first inductee into the Oklahoma Route 66 Hall of Fame. Michael Wallis and Joy Harjo - 01

Wallis was interviewed by Rep.

Roy Blunt Roy Dean Blunt (born January 10, 1950) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator for Missouri, a seat he was first elected to in 2010. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 33rd Missouri Sec ...

(R-Missouri) for ''

After Words ''After Words'' is an American television series on the C-SPAN2 network's weekend programming schedule known as ''Book TV''. The program is an hour-long talk show, each week featuring an interview with the author of a new nonfiction book. The pro ...

'' on

Book TV ''Book TV'' is the name given to weekend programming on the American cable network C-SPAN2 airing from 8 a.m. Eastern Time Sunday morning to 8 a.m. Eastern Time Monday morning each week. The 24-hour block of programming is focused on non-fictio ...

, 29 April 2007, discussing his latest book, ''Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride.''

Other work

Wallis also provided the voice of

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

in the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...

''Cars'' franchise.

Personal life

Wallis was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from

Western Military Academy Western Military Academy was a private military preparatory school located in Alton, Illinois, United States. It operated from 1879 to 1971. The campus is part of the National Register of Historic Places District (ID.78001167). The school motto wa ...

in Alton, Illinois, in 1963. He later attended the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

in Columbia, and moved to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, Florida, in 1978, where he worked for

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

's Caribbean Bureau. He currently lives in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

, Oklahoma, with his wife, Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis.

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *

Filmography

Film

*''

Cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

'' (2006) as Sheriff (voice) *''

Mater and the Ghostlight ''Mater and the Ghostlight'' is a 2006 American computer-animated short film released as a special feature on the DVD of Pixar's film ''Cars'', which was released in the United States on November 7, 2006. The short, set in the ''Cars'' world, tell ...

'' (2006, Video short) as Sheriff (voice) *''

Cars 2 ''Cars 2'' is a 2011 American computer-animated Spy film, spy comedy film produced by Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Cars (film), Cars'' (2006), the second film in the Cars (franchise), ''Cars'' f ...

'' (2011) as Sheriff (voice) *''Voices of History'' (2014, Short) as Narrator (voice) *''

Cars 3 ''Cars 3'' is a 2017 American computer-animated sports comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The sequel to ''Cars 2'' (2011) and the third installment of the ''Cars'' film series, the ...

'' (2017) as Sheriff (voice)

Television

*''

Cars Toons ''Cars Toons'' is a television series of American computer-animated short films produced by Pixar. It features the main characters Lightning McQueen and Mater from Pixar's ''Cars'' franchise non-canonically in the original plot. Larry the Cabl ...

'' (2010, 1 episode) as Sheriff (voice)

Video games

*''

'' (2006) as Sheriff (voice) *''

Cars Mater-National Championship ''Cars Mater-National Championship'' is a 2007 racing game published by THQ for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, and Wii. The game received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel, ''C ...

'' (2007) as Sheriff (voice) *''

Cars Race-O-Rama ''Cars Race-O-Rama'' is a racing video game based on the ''Cars'' franchise that was released on October 12, 2009. It is the sequel to ''Cars Mater-National Championship'', which was released on October 29, 2007. Gameplay ''Cars Race-O-Rama'' i ...

'' (2009) as Sheriff (voice) *'' Cars 2: The Video Game'' (2011) as Sheriff (voice) *'' Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure'' (2012) as Sheriff (voice)

Theme park attractions

*''

Radiator Springs Racers Radiator Springs Racers is slot car ride in Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. The attraction features a third-generation version of transport technology originally developed for the Test Track attraction at Epcot in Walt Disney World. Ra ...

'' (2012) as Sheriff

References

External links

Michael Wallis Online
(official website) *
Voices of Oklahoma interview with Michael Wallis.
First person interview conducted on March 3, 2011, with Michael Wallis. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallis, Michael 1945 births 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of the American West Historians of the United States Living people Journalists from Missouri University of Missouri alumni American male voice actors Writers from Tulsa, Oklahoma 21st-century American male actors Historians from Missouri Historians of transport Writers from St. Louis 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers