Blocker was born in De Kalb, Bowie County, Texas
December 10, 1928. Soon after his birth, the
family moved to O'Donnell, Texas in Lynn County,
where they operated a store. The former Blocker
Store is now an abandoned building in downtown
O'Donnell.

As a boy, he attended Texas Military Institute,
and in 1946 played football at Hardin-Simmons
University in Abilene, Texas. In 1947, he
transferred to and later graduated from Sul Ross
State Teacher's College in Alpine, Texas, in
1950, where he was a star football player.
Blocker's career as a football player was cut
short when he was drafted into the United States
Army during the Korean War in 1951. He received
a Purple Heart for wounds in combat. After two
years of military service, he went on to earn a
master's degree in the dramatic arts. While a
student, Blocker worked as a rodeo performer and
as a bouncer in a beer bar.
After college, Blocker worked as a high-school
English and drama teacher in Sonora, Texas in
Sutton County, from 1953 to 1958. Later, he was
a sixth-grade teacher and coach at Eddy
Elementary School in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and
then a teacher in California.
Blocker's acting career started in 1956 when he
appeared in a Three Stooges short, Outer Space
Jitters, having portrayed the part of The Goon,
billed as "Don Blocker". He made two appearances
on the long-running Gunsmoke series: the first
on August 25, 1956, in "Alarm at Pleasant
Valley" and the second o n October 18, 1958, in
"Thoroughbreds". He also appeared in 1957 as
Will in the episode, "A Time to Die" of the
ABC/Warner Brothers Western series, Colt .45,
starring Wayde Preston.
Blocker's big break came in 1959, when he was
cast as Eric "Hoss" Cartwright on the
long-running NBC television series Bonanza, and
played the role in 415 episodes until his death.
On May 13, 1972, Blocker died in Los Angeles at
age 43 of a pulmonary embolism following gall
bladder surgery. Blocker's remains are interred
in a family plot in Woodmen Cemetery, in De
Kalb, Texas, although he had lived there only
briefly. The common grave site is marked by a
plain stone with the name "B. Dan D. Blocker"
engraved; two family members are buried beside
him.
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