Gone....But Not Forgotten

William (Bill) O. King

8 /15/1926-12/ 28/2020

For any of you who knew our father Bill King....we hope that he will be remembered as a great friend, neighbor and someone who was always welcomed to be a fellow crew member on any project needing his assistance in solving problems ...at any given time.

He was born in 1926 in Millersburg, Iowa and raised on his parent's farm working with his father opperating any of the mechanical farm equipment, tractors and working with “Draft”horses as well.

In 1943, at 17years-old, he got his parent's approval to leave the farm and enlist in the US Navy. His basic training was to opperate both the “Duck” boats and the much-larger LST ships that carried tanks, troops and other equipment to be delivered on the beach during an assault landing. On “D-Day” June 6th, 1944 he was “Steersman” for LST # 293 and landed on Normandy's “Gold Beach”along with making multiple beach landings in the smaller LCVB (36ft.) “Duck” boats of much-needed equipment and troops. After receiving an “Honorable Discharge” from the Navy in 1946, he attended a 6-month GI Bill-supported class in wood work, cabinetry and machinery operation. Bill married his high school sweetheart Hellen Durr and they started a family of 5 boys ...Bobby (Iowa),Billy and Gary (Arizona) Terry and Jay (Southern, Calif.)...also all IATSE Local 44 members.

Bill and his father (Wade King)decided to re-settle in Kingman,Arizona to work as union carpenters on the Davis Dam project(1947-1950). After construction ended, the King family moved to Hawthorne,California where he joined the Carpenter's union and was hired by a well-established General Contractor to build new homes and office buildings.

In 1958, at the suggestion of a neighbor (Richard Pearson), Bill began his new career in the TV and Film industry as a “Propmaker” and a (1961) IATSE Local 44 member at MGM constructing interior and exterior sets on “Mutiny On The Bounty” staring Marlon Brando. Many more shows followed..TV series of DanielBoone , 12 O'clock High, Bonanza, The Lucy Show, Lost In Space,Voyage To the Bottom Of The Sea,Time Tunnel, Land Of The Giants,The Green Lantern,and many more. Feature films...Von Ryan's Express, Moritory, Our Man Flint, In Like Flint, Batman, At Long Last Love, Topper, Planet Of The Apes (3) shows, The Towering Inferno, Way Way Out, Star, Valley Of The Dolls, Doctor Doolittle, Myra Breckenridge, Pretty Poison , It's A Wild,Wild World, Tora-Tora-Tora and Hello Dolly (he also was hired “on the set” by the Director Gene Kelly and landed a 1-day's acting (speaking) job as a painter sitting on a scaffold at the elevated train tressel while receiving a business card by Barbara Streisand )....the “stuntman” was afraid of heights...Billy King wasn't...!!!

His mechanical knowledge of rope, steel cable and music wire-flying rigging came “in-handy” with a combined-crew designed-technique using up-dated materials and rigging. “Fantastic Voyage” and “Lost In Space” featured the new wire-flying rigging and the innovations became well-known and used throughout the industry. After the “Lost In Space”TV series pilot show premiered, a N.A.S.A. Rep contacted the studios and requested to know who did the great “space walk” rigging. Along with his fellow wire-flying crew, Bill was sent to NASA's Astronaut training center in Houston,Texas to show their rigging for being adopted as a possible technique for future space walk training.

From 1972-1975, he served as Action Prop-Miniature Shop Department Head at Twentieth Century-Fox and enjoyed getting his 5 boys interested in working at Fox Studios with him from the late 1960's through to his retirement. From 1981-82, he served as Assistant for Mickey Woods and with Ivan Martin in Studio Opperations and (1982-86)as Herman David's Construction Superintendant for Studio Lot Maintenance until his retirement in 1988.

No matter what job title he had, Bill King loved to make sure that the jobs all finished safely and “close to the budget”whenever possible. He was known many times to have seen a problem, rolled up his sleeves and “jumped-into-the-middle of the problem”to make sure solutions always “worked out” safely-and-successfully. All of us...(his 5 sons) also worked in I.A.T.S.E. with our father and are all very proud and will forever be thankfull of our father's great life and accomplishments.




...THANK YOU...Pop...! .