Bigfoot - Hairy, seven-to-ten foot brown, black or
red ape-like creature that
has been the focus of documentaries, television programs and motion pictures.
Since 1840 some 100 sightings of this forest beast (called Sasquatch in American
Indian folklore) have been seen in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, California,
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Large Bigfoot tracks up to 17 inches long have been
found but because a full-body specimen has never been discovered, scientists
tend not to believe in its existence. In the Himalayan Mountains, a similar
being known as the Yeti has been reported.
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Kevin Peter Hall
'Harry & Hendersons' |
Ray Young
'Bigfoot & Wildboy' |
Alleged photograph of
a real Bigfoot |
Bigfoot was the subject of the contemporary adventure BIG FOOT
AND WILDBOY/ABC/1979 about the exploits of a Bigfoot (Ray Young), his foundling
wildboy and two teenagers as they wandered the rugged landscapes of the Pacific
Northwest. This 30-minute live-action program originally premiered as a segment
on THE KROFFT SUPERSHOW/ABC/1977-79.
"Out of the great Northwest comes the legendary Bigfoot who, eight years ago,
saved a young child lost in the vast wilderness and raised that child until he
grew up to be Wildboy." – Opening
Narration
Later, the sitcom HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS/SYN/1991-93 starred Bruce Davison as the father of the Henderson
family who adopted Harry the Bigfoot after they accidentally hit the Bigfoot
with their car. Harry's towering frame, immense weight, strength and earthy
smell were the focus of many comic moments.
The eight-foot one-inch, 680 pound
Bigfoot character (makeup by monster maker Rick Baker) was played by Kevin Peter
Hall, a seven-foot two-inch black actor who reprised his hairy Harry role first
seen in the motion picture Harry and the Hendersons (1987). When Kevin Peter
Hall died in the Spring of 1991, actors Dawan Scott and Brian Steele replaced
him.
Movie Cast from 'Harry & the Hendersons'
Another Bigfoot portrayal appeared on the made-for-TV Disney movie
adventure Bigfoot (1987) about a crusty anthropologist (Coleen Dewhurst) and her
adventures with two youngsters and a Sasquatch.
TRIVIA NOTE: The Humboldt Times in Eureka,
California coined the term ``Bigfoot'' in a front-page story about the sighting
of an Abominable Snowman-like ape creature that surfaced in the Pacific
Northwest in the late 1950s.
Ray L. Wallace, the man who caused the whole Bigfoot phenomenon died in
December 2002. In August 1958, a bulldozer operator who worked for Wallace's
construction company in Humboldt County, California, found huge footprints
circling and then leading away from his rig. Actually, Wallace had commissioned
a local craftsman to make 16-inch set of wooden feet that Ray and his brother
Wilbur used to make the tracks.
According to the Seattle Times, Mark Chorvinsky, editor
of Strange Magazine reported, "The fact is there was no Bigfoot in popular
consciousness before 1958. America got its own monster, its own Abominable
Snowman, thanks to Ray Wallace,''
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