Smiley Burnette was a popular American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and other B-movie cowboys. His career, beginning in 1934, spanned four decades, including a regular role on CBS-TV’s Petticoat Junction in the 1960s. But what was the cause of death of this talented and versatile entertainer?
Early Life and Career
Smiley Burnette was born as Lester Alvin Burnett on March 18, 1911, in Summum, Illinois, and grew up in Ravenwood, Missouri. He began singing as a child and learned to play a wide variety of instruments by ear, yet never learned to read or write music. In his teens, he worked in vaudeville, and starting in 1929, at the state’s first commercial radio station, WDZ-AM in Tuscola, Illinois.
Burnette came by his nickname while creating a character for a WDZ children’s program. He was reading Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” at the time, which included a character named Jim Smiley. He named the radio character Mr. Smiley and soon adopted the moniker as his own, dropping the title.
His break came in December 1933, when he was hired by Gene Autry to play accordion on National Barn Dance on Chicago’s WLS-AM, on which Autry was the major star. As sound films became popular, Hollywood sought musical talent for Western films; and in 1934, producer Nat Levine cast Autry and Burnette in their film debut (unbilled) as part of a bluegrass band in Mascot Pictures’ In Old Santa Fe starring Ken Maynard. Burnette sang and played accordion, and the film included two of his compositions.
He had other small parts until a secondary, but more prominent role in the 1935 serial The Adventures of Rex and Rinty. That same year, Levine gave Autry his first starring role in the 12-part serial The Phantom Empire, with Burnette playing Oscar, a comic-relief role. Mascot was soon absorbed by Republic Pictures, and Republic enjoyed enormous success with its musical Western features starring Autry.
In each of the films, Burnette played Autry’s comic sidekick, Frog Millhouse, with his trademark floppy black hat and trick voice (imitating a deep, froglike croak). Their association produced 62 feature-length musical Westerns. He also provided a lot of the music as he wrote over 300 western songs and sang quite a few in the films. Smiley was the first supporting actor to regularly appear on the Top Ten Western money-maker list.
He became well known for his white horse with the black circle around one eye. When he used a team of white horses, as when he was ‘Spec Specialist’ Smiley Burnette, each white horse had one black circle around one eye.
Later Years and Death
When the ‘B’ movie Western reign ended in 1953, Smiley retired from the screen. He made occasional appearances on television including being a regular on the music show “Ozark Jubilee”. His last performance was as railroad engineer Charlie Pratt on Petticoat Junction from 1963-67.
On February 16, 1967, a month before his 56th birthday, he died in Encino, California, from leukemia and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California. He was survived by his wife Dallas MacDonell and their four adopted children: Stephen Burnette, Linda Burnette, Brian Burnette and Carolyn Burnette.
He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 22, 1986. He was also posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971 and the Western Music Association in 1998.
Smiley Burnette was a beloved cowboy star who brought joy and laughter to millions of fans with his music and comedy. He left behind a legacy of songs and films that will always be remembered by generations of Western lovers.