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Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010)[1] was an American country music singer, television host, actor, and businessman, best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as its TV commercials' drawling spokesman.
He became a national television personality starting on CBS in 1957. He rose to fame for his 1961 country music crossover hit into rock and roll with "Big Bad John" and his 1963 television series The Jimmy Dean Show, which gave puppeteer Jim Henson his first national media exposure.
His acting career included appearing in the early seasons in the Daniel Boone TV series as the sidekick of the famous frontiersman played by star Fess Parker. Later he was on the big screen in a supporting role as billionaire Willard Whyte in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
He lived near Richmond, Virginia, and was nominated for the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010, although he was inducted posthumously at age 81.
He became a national television personality starting on CBS in 1957. He rose to fame for his 1961 country music crossover hit into rock and roll with "Big Bad John" and his 1963 television series The Jimmy Dean Show, which gave puppeteer Jim Henson his first national media exposure.
His acting career included appearing in the early seasons in the Daniel Boone TV series as the sidekick of the famous frontiersman played by star Fess Parker. Later he was on the big screen in a supporting role as billionaire Willard Whyte in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
He lived near Richmond, Virginia, and was nominated for the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010, although he was inducted posthumously at age 81.
Jimmy Dean - Wikipedia
Posted from en.wikipedia.org
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Nashville's A-Team on The Jimmy Dean Show
Grady Martin (lead guitar), Joe Zinkan (bass fiddle), Harold Bradley (tic-tac bass guitar), Buddy Harman (drums), Ray Edenton (rhythm guitar), Walter Haynes ...
Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that August 10 is the anniversary of the birth of American country music singer, television host, actor, and businessman Jimmy Ray Dean best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as its TV commercials' drawling spokesman.
Rest in peace Jimmy Ray Dean
Background from imdb.com/name/nm0212818/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Biography
Overview | Mini Bio | Spouse (2) | Trivia (20)
Overview
Born August 10, 1928 in Plainview, Texas, USA
Died June 13, 2010 in Varina, Virginia, USA
Birth Name Jimmy Ray Dean
Height 6' 3" (1.91 m)
Mini Bio
Jimmy Dean, the musician, actor and entrepreneur, was instrumental in the mainstreaming of country music, a genre that now ranks as the most popular in the United States but which, back in the 1960s, was accorded little respect in the mass media. Jimmy Dean had a #1 hit in the US and England with his song "Big Bad John," which established his fame, a fame that continues to this day due to his long stint as a spokesman for "Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage," a company he founded and then sold to Consolidated Foods in 1984. He continued on as the pitchman for the eponymous brand for 20 years.
Jimmy Dean, a distant cousin of the actor James Dean, was born Jimmy Ray Dean on August 10, 1928 in Plainview, Texas. He took to the life of a professional singer after serving in the U.S. Air Force during the late 1940s. Dean began building his reputation as a musician touring with his band, The Texas Wildcats, which featured Roy Clark as lead guitarist. In 1953, he scored his first hit, "Bummin' Around."
Dean landed a gig as the host of a TV program in the Washington D.C. market, "Town and Country Time." (The District of Columbia has in many ways always been a Southern town.) Dean was a popularizer of rising country acts, and such top country singers as Clark and Patsy Cline got their starts with Dean. (He eventually fired Clark but later promoted his career.) Dean subsequently moved to New York after signing with Columbia Records, where he hosted a TV variety show for the CBS network.
In 1961, his song "Big Bad John" went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts and won him the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. Several of his subsequent songs charted in the Top 40, and he scored a Top 10 hit in 1962 with a song commemorating President John F. Kennedy's plywood torpedo boat, "PT 109." Because of his affability and his burgeoning popularity, he occasionally was booked to guest-host "The Tonight Show." ABC offered him a variety show in the mid-1960s, and Dean used it as a forum to present country music on his terms, as a mainstream entertainment. His show offered the first major TV exposure to a number of country singers, including George Jones, Charlie Rich, and Buck Owens. His show also introduced the first Muppet, Jim Henson's Rowlf the Dog.
Aside from a featured part as a Howard Hughes-like billionaire in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971) (Dean said he was offered the role on the basis of his having had a #1 hit with "Big John" in Britain, which surprised him as it had been a decade before), Dean has mostly stuck to his music and the business he founded in 1969, "Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage." The TV commercials featuring the very likable Dean were the best advertising the new brand could have had, and it became #1 in its product category.
In the fall of 2004, Jimmy Dean published his autobiography, "30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham." He is semi-retired now, and lives with his second wife, the former singer Donna Meade Dean.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood
Spouse (2)
Donna Meade (27 October 1991 - 13 June 2010) ( his death)
Mary Sue Wittauer (11 July 1950 - 30 October 1990) ( divorced) ( 3 children)
Trivia (20)
1. Is the creator of Jimmy Dean Breakfast Foods (sausage, bacon, sandwiches, etc.).
2. Country singer.
3. Best known for his million-selling 1961 hit "Big Bad John"; the song topped both Billboard magazine's country and Hot 100 charts. On the Billboard country charts, Dean had one other No. 1 hit: 1965's "The First Thing Ev'ry Morning and the Last Thing Ev'ry Night".
4. Other major country hits in his career included "P.T. 109" (1962, based on the World War II sinking of John F. Kennedy's torpedo boat) and the million-selling ode of thanks to his mother, "I.O.U." (1976).
5. Founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company in 1969 in his hometown of Plainview, Texas, and sold it in 1984 to the Sara Lee Corporation.
6. In January 2004, was dismissed by the Sara Lee Corp. as product spokesman for Jimmy Dean Sausage, the very sausage he founded more than 30 years ago. The Chicago-based food products firm will retain the rights to Dean's name and likeness.
7. Was working at the Desert Inn hotel when he was cast as Willard Whyte in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Whyte was clearly modeled after Howard Hughes, who owned the Desert Inn and was therefore, by extension, Dean's employer at the time.
8. Several trivia and source books, including Billboard's Top Forty Book, mistakenly gave his birth name as Seth Ward. Actually, Seth Ward is the tiny unincorporated community outside Plainview where Dean was born.
9. When his "Big Bad John" was first released, it ended with the words "at the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man". It was changed on later releases to "at the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man".
10. During the run of his TV show, Dean was offered 40% ownership of Jim Henson's Muppets Inc., but he declined because that he felt he didn't have anything to do with Henson's work and it was unfair to profit from the puppeteer's labor. It was a decision of conscience Dean never regretted making.
11. Release of his autobiography, "Jimmy Dean's Own Story: Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham" by Jimmy and his wife, 'Donna Meade' Dean. [2004]
12. Lives in Varina, Virginia- just outside of Richmond. [October 2004]
13. Jimmy Dean had the strange talent of being able to fold his ear into a neat little ball, which would then pop out on its own after several seconds. He a demonstrated this "talent" at least once on his TV show.
14. In 1963 he became Johnny Carson's first guest host on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.".
15. Became spokesperson for Jimmy Dean Sausage in 1969 and continued until 2004.
16. Sold the company to Sara Lee Corporation.
17. More than eight years after his passing, his image and voice are still used in commercials for Jimmy Dean Sausage products.
18. His last theatrical feature film appearance would be top billing in "Big Bad John" (1990), which was inspired by his big crossover hit song.
19. Professional wrestler William Desmond Goodman wrestled under the name "Big Bad John" after the popularity of Jimmy Dean's hit song. He is best remembered for doing the "rubber legs" routine after being struck by his opponent.
20. Born on the same date as Eddie Fisher.
Nashville's A-Team on The Jimmy Dean Show
Grady Martin (lead guitar), Joe Zinkan (bass fiddle), Harold Bradley (tic-tac bass guitar), Buddy Harman (drums), Ray Edenton (rhythm guitar), Walter Haynes (steel guitar), Floyd Cramer (piano) + The Jordanaires (vocals)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvlf8bvIrhk
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Wayne Brandon LTC Bill Koski Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown Maj Marty Hogan MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SPC Margaret Higgins MSgt Jason McClish AN Christopher Crayne SPC Tom DeSmet SGT Charles H. Hawes SGT (Join to see) SSG David Andrews
Rest in peace Jimmy Ray Dean
Background from imdb.com/name/nm0212818/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Biography
Overview | Mini Bio | Spouse (2) | Trivia (20)
Overview
Born August 10, 1928 in Plainview, Texas, USA
Died June 13, 2010 in Varina, Virginia, USA
Birth Name Jimmy Ray Dean
Height 6' 3" (1.91 m)
Mini Bio
Jimmy Dean, the musician, actor and entrepreneur, was instrumental in the mainstreaming of country music, a genre that now ranks as the most popular in the United States but which, back in the 1960s, was accorded little respect in the mass media. Jimmy Dean had a #1 hit in the US and England with his song "Big Bad John," which established his fame, a fame that continues to this day due to his long stint as a spokesman for "Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage," a company he founded and then sold to Consolidated Foods in 1984. He continued on as the pitchman for the eponymous brand for 20 years.
Jimmy Dean, a distant cousin of the actor James Dean, was born Jimmy Ray Dean on August 10, 1928 in Plainview, Texas. He took to the life of a professional singer after serving in the U.S. Air Force during the late 1940s. Dean began building his reputation as a musician touring with his band, The Texas Wildcats, which featured Roy Clark as lead guitarist. In 1953, he scored his first hit, "Bummin' Around."
Dean landed a gig as the host of a TV program in the Washington D.C. market, "Town and Country Time." (The District of Columbia has in many ways always been a Southern town.) Dean was a popularizer of rising country acts, and such top country singers as Clark and Patsy Cline got their starts with Dean. (He eventually fired Clark but later promoted his career.) Dean subsequently moved to New York after signing with Columbia Records, where he hosted a TV variety show for the CBS network.
In 1961, his song "Big Bad John" went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts and won him the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. Several of his subsequent songs charted in the Top 40, and he scored a Top 10 hit in 1962 with a song commemorating President John F. Kennedy's plywood torpedo boat, "PT 109." Because of his affability and his burgeoning popularity, he occasionally was booked to guest-host "The Tonight Show." ABC offered him a variety show in the mid-1960s, and Dean used it as a forum to present country music on his terms, as a mainstream entertainment. His show offered the first major TV exposure to a number of country singers, including George Jones, Charlie Rich, and Buck Owens. His show also introduced the first Muppet, Jim Henson's Rowlf the Dog.
Aside from a featured part as a Howard Hughes-like billionaire in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971) (Dean said he was offered the role on the basis of his having had a #1 hit with "Big John" in Britain, which surprised him as it had been a decade before), Dean has mostly stuck to his music and the business he founded in 1969, "Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage." The TV commercials featuring the very likable Dean were the best advertising the new brand could have had, and it became #1 in its product category.
In the fall of 2004, Jimmy Dean published his autobiography, "30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham." He is semi-retired now, and lives with his second wife, the former singer Donna Meade Dean.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood
Spouse (2)
Donna Meade (27 October 1991 - 13 June 2010) ( his death)
Mary Sue Wittauer (11 July 1950 - 30 October 1990) ( divorced) ( 3 children)
Trivia (20)
1. Is the creator of Jimmy Dean Breakfast Foods (sausage, bacon, sandwiches, etc.).
2. Country singer.
3. Best known for his million-selling 1961 hit "Big Bad John"; the song topped both Billboard magazine's country and Hot 100 charts. On the Billboard country charts, Dean had one other No. 1 hit: 1965's "The First Thing Ev'ry Morning and the Last Thing Ev'ry Night".
4. Other major country hits in his career included "P.T. 109" (1962, based on the World War II sinking of John F. Kennedy's torpedo boat) and the million-selling ode of thanks to his mother, "I.O.U." (1976).
5. Founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company in 1969 in his hometown of Plainview, Texas, and sold it in 1984 to the Sara Lee Corporation.
6. In January 2004, was dismissed by the Sara Lee Corp. as product spokesman for Jimmy Dean Sausage, the very sausage he founded more than 30 years ago. The Chicago-based food products firm will retain the rights to Dean's name and likeness.
7. Was working at the Desert Inn hotel when he was cast as Willard Whyte in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Whyte was clearly modeled after Howard Hughes, who owned the Desert Inn and was therefore, by extension, Dean's employer at the time.
8. Several trivia and source books, including Billboard's Top Forty Book, mistakenly gave his birth name as Seth Ward. Actually, Seth Ward is the tiny unincorporated community outside Plainview where Dean was born.
9. When his "Big Bad John" was first released, it ended with the words "at the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man". It was changed on later releases to "at the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man".
10. During the run of his TV show, Dean was offered 40% ownership of Jim Henson's Muppets Inc., but he declined because that he felt he didn't have anything to do with Henson's work and it was unfair to profit from the puppeteer's labor. It was a decision of conscience Dean never regretted making.
11. Release of his autobiography, "Jimmy Dean's Own Story: Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham" by Jimmy and his wife, 'Donna Meade' Dean. [2004]
12. Lives in Varina, Virginia- just outside of Richmond. [October 2004]
13. Jimmy Dean had the strange talent of being able to fold his ear into a neat little ball, which would then pop out on its own after several seconds. He a demonstrated this "talent" at least once on his TV show.
14. In 1963 he became Johnny Carson's first guest host on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.".
15. Became spokesperson for Jimmy Dean Sausage in 1969 and continued until 2004.
16. Sold the company to Sara Lee Corporation.
17. More than eight years after his passing, his image and voice are still used in commercials for Jimmy Dean Sausage products.
18. His last theatrical feature film appearance would be top billing in "Big Bad John" (1990), which was inspired by his big crossover hit song.
19. Professional wrestler William Desmond Goodman wrestled under the name "Big Bad John" after the popularity of Jimmy Dean's hit song. He is best remembered for doing the "rubber legs" routine after being struck by his opponent.
20. Born on the same date as Eddie Fisher.
Nashville's A-Team on The Jimmy Dean Show
Grady Martin (lead guitar), Joe Zinkan (bass fiddle), Harold Bradley (tic-tac bass guitar), Buddy Harman (drums), Ray Edenton (rhythm guitar), Walter Haynes (steel guitar), Floyd Cramer (piano) + The Jordanaires (vocals)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvlf8bvIrhk
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Wayne Brandon LTC Bill Koski Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown Maj Marty Hogan MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SPC Margaret Higgins MSgt Jason McClish AN Christopher Crayne SPC Tom DeSmet SGT Charles H. Hawes SGT (Join to see) SSG David Andrews
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