American actor Walter Barnes was what was described by casting directories as an "outdoor action type." His first regular TV work was as Finn on 1959's Tales of the Vikings, a Kirk Douglas-produced syndicated series filmed in the German Alps. Remaining in Europe, Barnes continued to work swashbucklers like Captain Sinbad (1963) and westerns like Frontier Hellcat (1966) and The Big Gundown (1968). He returned to America in the late 1960s, where he was featured in such westernized productions as John Wayne's Cahill: US Marshal (1970), The Travelling Executioner (1972), Mackintosh and J.J. (1975), and Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1973) (as Sheriff Sam Shaw) and Broncho Billy (1980). Walter Barnes was as sturdy and steadfast as ever in 1981, when he appeared as the father of sheriff Buford Pusser (Bo Svenson) on the weekly TV version of Walking Tall.