Mills Watson (born William Oscar Watson on July 10, 1940)
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/ref> is an American actor who is probably best known for his comedic portrayal of the law enforcement character Deputy Perkins, first on ''

B. J. and the Bear ''B.J. and the Bear'' is an American action comedy television series which aired on NBC from February 10, 1979, to May 9, 1981. Created by Glen A. Larson and Christopher Crowe, the series stars Greg Evigan. The series was produced when the CB ...

'' and later as a series star on ''

The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo ''The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo'' is an American action comedy television series that ran on NBC from September 18, 1979, to May 5, 1981. For its second season the show was renamed ''Lobo''. The program aired Tuesday nights, at 8:00p.m. Easte ...

''. He played Uncle Buster in the sitcom '' Harper Valley P.T.A.''.

Personal life

Watson was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

and grew up on a ranch near Stockton. His father was a sheep rancher and his mother a school teacher. His grandparents were from Texas. He attended Franklin Elementary School and graduated from Elk Grove High School in 1958. His family did not have a television during his childhood and like most families of that era listened to the radio for news and entertainment. After high school he went to

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

for two semesters where he studied acting for a short time under

Victor French Victor Edwin French (December 4, 1934 – June 15, 1989) was an American actor and director. He is remembered for roles on the television programs ''Gunsmoke'', ''Little House on the Prairie'', ''Highway to Heaven'', and ''Carter Country''. ...

. After appearing in a small independent film, he wanted to pursue more formal acting training and he applied to and was accepted as a student at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...

in London, where he acquired a lot of stage experience. Says Watson, "I figured if I got in, I wouldn't have any excuse to fail on a training level. I could never say I didn't get the right kind of training, because this was the best in the world." Returning from England, he moved to Los Angeles and began appearing in television shows and movies, eventually retiring from acting in the early 1990s. During the 1970s, he raised a son, Mason, as a single parent, with the help of neighbors and professionals when he was at work acting. Now residing in

Marcola, Oregon Marcola is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States, northeast of Springfield on the Mohawk River. Demographics History The post office at this location was established in 1876 and originally called "Isabel" for early ...

, where he lives on a 15-acre farm with his second wife Sue.When asked in an interview if he missed acting, he replied: "No. I was very fortunate to have been able to do as much as I wanted. I did enough of that. Today I have a fifteen-acre farm, growing hay. I just relax here with Sue. There's no pressure up here in Oregon. It's safe and it's not stressful at all, which I feel is keeping me alive."

Career

Watson appeared in guest roles in numerous TV series such as ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character ...

, Mission:Impossible,

Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to: * ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series * ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productio ...

'', ''

Emergency! ''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing the two short-lived situatio ...

'', '' McCloud'', ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. The ...

'', ''

The Rockford Files ''The Rockford Files'' is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974 to January 10, 1980, and remains in syndication. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investigator ...

'', ''

The A-Team ''The A-Team'' is an American action-adventure television series that ran on NBC from January 1983 to March 1987 about former members of a fictitious United States Army Special Forces unit. The four members of the team were tried by court marti ...

'', ''

CHiPs ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. It follows the lives of two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The serie ...

'', and ''

Murder She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series ...

'', ''

The Six Million Dollar Man ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin is reb ...

'', as well as movies including '' ...tick...tick...tick...'' (1970), ''

The Wild Country ''The Wild Country'' is a 1970 American adventure film, adventure Western (genre), western film directed by Robert Totten and starring Steve Forrest (actor), Steve Forrest and Vera Miles. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Produ ...

'' (1970), ''

Dirty Little Billy ''Dirty Little Billy'' is a 1972 American revisionist western film co-written and directed by Stan Dragoti and starring Michael J. Pollard and Richard Evans. Set in Coffeyville, Kansas, the film was influenced by the darker, more sinister styl ...

'' (1972), ''

Charley and the Angel ''Charley and the Angel'' is a 1973 American Disney family/comedy film set in an unidentified small city in the 1930s Depression-era Midwestern United States and starring Fred MacMurray in one of his final film appearances and his last movie fo ...

'' (1973), '' Papillon'' (1973), '' The Midnight Man'' (1974), ''

Treasure of Matecumbe ''Treasure of Matecumbe'' is a 1976 American adventure western film directed by Vincent McEveety and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was based on the novel ''A Journey to Matecumbe'' by Robert Lewis Taylor. The filming locations were in ...

'' (1976), '' Up In Smoke'' (1978), ''

Cujo ''Cujo'' () is a 1981 psychological horror novel by American writer Stephen King about a rabid Saint Bernard. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982 and was made into a film in 1983. Background Cujo's name was based on the alias of Wi ...

'', (1979) ''CHiPs'', episode "Repo Man" as Doyle Ware (1983) and ''

Bulletproof Bulletproofing is the process of making an object capable of stopping a bullet or similar high velocity projectiles (e.g. shrapnel). The term bullet resistance is often preferred because few, if any, practical materials provide complete protectio ...

'' (1988). He also had a part in the TV miniseries ''

War and Remembrance ''War and Remembrance'' is a novel by Herman Wouk, published in October 1978 as the sequel to Wouk's ''The Winds of War'' (1971). ''The Winds of War'' covers the period 1939 to 1941, and ''War and Remembrance'' continues the story of the extended ...

'' (1988), which he filmed in Hawaii. His last role was in the 1992 television film '' Gunsmoke: To the Last Man''. The acting role he considers his personal favorite and most fun was as Deputy Perkins on ''The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo''. He appeared on the March 22–28, 1980 cover of ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' as the character along with co-stars

Claude Akins Claude Aubrey Akins (May 25, 1926 – January 27, 1994) was an American character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and television. He was best known as Sheriff Lobo on the 1979–1981 television series ''B.J. and the Bear'', and l ...

and

Brian Kerwin Brian Kerwin (born October 25, 1949) is an American actor who has starred in feature films, on Broadway, and television series and movies. Life Kerwin was born in Chicago and raised in Flossmoor, Illinois. He has three siblings: Anne, Dennis, an ...

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Mills 1940 births American male film actors American male television actors Living people Male actors from Oakland, California 20th-century American male actors