American character actor of Westerns, also a figure in country-western music. Raised in Oklahoma where he spent his youth as a cowhand, Wooley's musical ability led to radio work and subsequently movies. He played minor supporting roles for a dozen years starting in 1950, including one of the villains of 'High Noon' (1952). In 1958, he had a giant hit record with his own song 'The Purple People Eater', and he followed it with a string of similar humorous country ditties, often recorded under the name Ben Colder. For a number of years he was best known as scout Pete Nolan on the hit TV series "Rawhide" (1959). He worked infrequently as an actor after the Sixties, concentrating mostly on the music business.


His wife Linda was also his manager. Formed his own radio band, The Plainview Melody Boys, at the age 15. Was one of the four gunslingers who stalked Gary Cooper in the western film classic High Noon (1952) (for the record, the others were Ian MacDonald, Robert J. Wilke, Lee Van Cleef). He got the idea for his hit song, Purple People Eater, when a friend of his mentioned that his young son came home from elementary school with a joke he had heard: "What has one eye, one horn, flies and eats people?" "A one-eyed, one-horned flying people eater!".