Mark Slade

Mark Slade is an American actor, artist, and author who started on the Broadway stage in There Was a Little Girl, which Joshua Logan directed, and is best remembered as Billy Blue Cannon on the NBC Western The High Chaparral. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, he decided to pursue acting after substituting for a classmate in a production of The Male Animal and trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He earned a role in Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass and was cast in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), later returning for the ABC television series as Seaman Malone. He became a semi-regular on the CBS sitcom Gomer Pyle and played Taylor Reed in Salty (1973) and its syndicated series. He won the Bambi and the Western Heritage Award. He also scripted the Cliffy episode of The Rookies, published several books, and had a collaboration with Danny Arnold that produced the comic strip Howard and Friends.