Stanley Kubrick attempted to cast Dan Blocker in his film Dr. Strangelove, after Peter Sellers elected not to add the role of Major T.J. "King" Kong to his multiple other roles, but Blocker's agent rejected the script. The role subsequently went to Slim Pickens, who played the iconic scene of riding an atomic bomb down while waving his cowboy hat. Blocker, who was born in De Kalb, Texas and raised in O'Donnell, Texas, was best known for playing "Hoss Cartwright" on TV's "Bonanza" series.