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Don's Biography
After Van Nuys High School, he enlisted in the Navy and saw action in the last days of World War II. Receiving his discharge, he headed to Oregon, working on a ranch and in a sawmill before enlisting in the Merchant Marine. On his first tour to Japan, he was called home by the illness of his only sister, who passed away when she was 13 from a surgery she had. He then started his career in the picture business. It initially began when he joined his father as a cowboy working for the legendary actor Francis Lederer on his cattle ranch in Canoga Park. When Lederer and actress Virginia Grey began conducting drama lessons at the ranch every Saturday afternoon, they asked the shy young cowboy if he would be interested in joining the group. When he finally agreed, his future was settled. Don's first role was that of an extra in the 1948 movie Massacre River, which starred Rory Calhoun and Guy Madison. It was released theatrically in 1949. In 1950, he got another job as an extra in Davy Crockett, Indian Scout with close friend George Montgomery. Some accounts list Fort Apache with John Wayne in 1949 as his second movie, but Don himself says it was Indian Scout. In both of these films, Don said he was used in many of the scenes, but he had no speaking parts. Don took time away from acting to pursue academics on a football scholarship for one year at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. He then went back to California for a few months before transferring to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, again on a football scholarship. After college, he went into the poultry business, but in 1956, he once again turned his sights on acting. He never once looked back, and the rest is history. When Don returned to the picture business, he did
plays and repertoire and extra work, taking every kind of acting job in
everything he could find. It paid After Outlaws, Don guest-starred in a plethora of movie and television roles with some of the top names in the entertainment industry, including Audie Murphy, Elvis Presley, John Wayne, Raymond Burr, Chuck Connors, James Drury, Mickey Mantle, James Arness, Jeffrey Hunter, and the cast of Bonanza, to mention a few. He was seen in westerns, crime dramas, baseball, surf, comedy, and in military parts. In the mid-1960's, Don returned to television in a big way. David Dortort, the creative genius behind Bonanza, was preparing another western to be called The High Chaparral. He wanted actors who could realistically fit the parts of his envisioned cattle empire in the Apache-infested Arizona desert of the 1870's. Don won the part of ranch foreman Sam Butler hands down. Not only did he have the rugged outdoors look of a typical ranch hand of the time, he was also one of the few experienced riders at the outset, having honed his skills back on that cattle ranch in his youth, not to mention his continuing roles in westerns ever since.
After
The High Chaparral, Don once again returned to guest roles in
movies and television, and the parts he took encompassed a wide range of
emotions and acting skills. He did Bonanza, Banacek, Gunsmoke, Chase,
Little House on the Prairie, How the West Was Won, Highway to Heaven, The
Undefeated, and many more. He also
Today,
Don is still an active actor. His current projects inclue
West of the Story,
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Don
Collier was born 17 October. He is a native of Southern California, and he grew up amid the
palm trees, sparkle, and magic of the area. 
off big time in 1959. He tested for the
leading male role in three different series. Westerns were all the rage across
America at this time, and Don was a cowboy in real life. He landed the coveted
role of United States Deputy Marshal Will Foreman in the NBC television western
As Sam Butler, Don achieved possibly his greatest fame with his fans. It was a
continuing role where he was brother, mentor, friend, and champion to everyone
on the ranch. What started off as a few great lines of dialog -- and the
prerequisite livestock roundup in the first few episodes -- quickly evolved into
greater and more demanding attention, as the stories progressed. Midway through
the first season, he had one whole episode as his vehicle, and his fans went
wild. He became so popular as Sam Butler that when he took time off to finish a
movie in the Third Season, his fans went into withdrawal. 
did two pilots which did not sell. He
worked with John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Rock Hudson, Michael Landon, and James Arness, to name a few. There were commercials, such as Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum,
Pace Picante Sauce, and Ray-O-Vac Batteries. In 1982, he made yet another pilot
for NBC-TV called Tow Heads in which he was the owner of a tow truck
business in a rural Texas town. Helping him in this comedy adventure were his
two movie kids, and each week pitted them against the dishonest shenanigans of
the competition. By this time, he had also moved to Southern Arizona, where he
had bought his own ranch and had turned his artistic talents to sculpting.
It
was in 1989 that he was once again talked into episodic television in the role
of William Tompkins, the shopkeeper in 
a historical western radio
drama, and