Matinee Classics - Red West Biography & Filmography

Red West ACTOR

PHOTOS

RED WEST BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Red West was born in 1936 in Memphis, Tennessee with the birth name Robert Gene West, to Lois and Newton Thomas West. During high school, he excelled in athletics and later played football at Junior College. He also excelled as a boxer and fought in the Golden Gloves Championships.

He was close friends with Elvis Presley whom he met during high school. He later worked as Elvis's personal chauffeur and later his body guard. For a brief time, West served in the United States Marine Corps and later he pursued a career as an actor, stuntman and song writer. He is most well known today for his role as, Red in the film, "Road House" (1989) starring Patrick Swayze, Sam Elliott, Kelly Lynch and Ben Gazzara.

His career in the industry began as a stuntman where he appeared during the 60's on a total of sixteen films that starred Elvis Presley including Flaming Star, Wild in the Country, Kid Galahad, Follow That Dream and Viva Las Vegas. He also worked on a number of television series such as, "The Wild Wild West" (1965), "Black Sheep Squadron" (1976), "Baa Baa Black Sheep" (1978) both starring Robert Conrad and "The Duke" (1979).

Other television appearances he added to his credits were on such series as, "Magnum, P.I", "Knight Rider", "The A-Team" and "The Twilight Zone". He remains working as an actor today with his most recent appearances being on, the films, "Father of Invention" (2010), "The Black Dove" (2012) and "At Any Price" set to release in 2012.

Red West also excelled as a song writer and wrote a variety of songs for his friend Elvis as well as other songs recorded by such artists as Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson. He married once to Elvis Presley's secretary and he had one son, John Boyd West who also works as an actor today.