System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Oct 2, 1998
Gene Autry, singing cowboy of ’50s, dies
LOS ANGELES – Cowboy singer Gene Autry, a TV and film star in the 1950s who built a multimillion-dollar business empire that included the Anaheim Angels baseball team, has died at his southern California home, a spokeswoman says.
Though a pennant for his Angels eluded him, Autry succeeded at just about anything he undertook: radio, records, songwriting, movies, TV, real estate and business.
He first sang on radio in 1928, and then went on to make 95 films and star in a TV show from 1950 to 1956.
He also cut 635 records, including ”Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and his signature ”Back in the Saddle Again,” which was back on the charts in 1993 as part of the soundtrack to the hit movie ”Sleepless in Seattle.”
Autry hung up his performing spurs in 1956, but continued to own four radio stations, the Gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs, and several other properties. In 1982, he sold Los Angeles television station KTLA for $245 million.
He ranked for many years on the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans, before he fell in 1995 to the magazine’s ”near miss” category with an estimated net worth of $320 million.
Autry, who once turned down a chance to play in the minor leagues, had been the Angels’ owner since the team was formed as an American League expansion franchise in 1961.
