That guy you’ve seen but can’t remember his name: Inside cult actor Warren Oates

Idiosyncratic actor Warren Oates, the frequent partner in crime to maverick director Sam Peckinpah in such landmark films as “The Wild Bunch” and “Ride the High Country,” is profiled in an entertaining interview with biographer Susan Compo. Seen above as G.T.O., an intense Oates stares into the camera during a sunny afternoon spent shooting Monte Hellman’s cult classic “Two-Lane Blacktop,” ultimately released on July 7, 1971. Image Credit: Cinema.de / Universal Studios

Though never a household name, cult actor Warren Oates lit up the screen in a 25-year career inexplicably extinguished much too soon by a massive heart attack at age 53 on April 3, 1982.

The American New Wave actor’s preeminent biographer, Susan Compo, exclusively elaborates in a fascinating interview about Oates’ hell-raising…