Nickname:	The Singing Cowboy
Known for:	Sleepless in Seattle, The Stepford Wives, Christmas Vacation
Birth name:	Orvon Gene Autry
Birthday:	29 September 1907, Near Tioga, Texas, USA
Height:	5' 9" (1.75 m)

His first hit record was "That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine" in 1932. Autry was the first owner of the Los Angeles Angels American League baseball club, subsequently renamed the California Angels when the team was relocated to Anaheim in 1966. (The team has been renamed twice: the Anaheim Angels, and now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.) A radio station owner, Autry was interested in acquiring the broadcasting rights to the Angels games when he found out the team, part of the American League's first expansion, was for sale. He bought it. Autry owned the team in its entirety from its first year of play, 1961, until 1997, when he sold part of the franchise to Disney, who renamed the team the Anaheim Angels. Autry's widow sold the rest of the team to Disney after his death the next year at the age of 91. He has five stars in the Hollywood Walk Of Fame; for Recording, Movies, TV, Radio, and live theater. According to a Hollywood legend, published in The Orange County Register after his death, Autry was discovered singing in a telegraph office in Oklahoma by Will Rogers. Rogers told him that he had a pretty good voice, and suggested that he go to Hollywood where he could make some money singing in the movies. Gene followed Rogers' advice and became "The Singing Cowboy." Autry himself related this story in an interview with Cecil B. DeMille on the Lux Radio Drama Hour. In the interview, Gene added that the next time he saw Rogers was in Hollywood. According to Gene, Will just nodded and said, "I see you made it, kid." Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Sheltering Hills section, Grave #1048. Elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1969. Grandson of an itinerant preacher, the late Gene Autry became a multi-millionaire through his investments and real estate holdings. Inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1980. Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1972. He was the most popular of the "singing cowboys." In his heyday he was so popular that he starred in 6-8 new feature films in a single year. More than 50 years after the last Gene Autry western, he is better known to later generations as a singer. His remastered vintage recordings of "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" remain very popular holiday standards into the 21st century. The California/Anaheim Angels franchise retired #26 in his honor. Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 19-22. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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