(Courtesy of Don Kay Reynolds)
Don Kay Reynolds
Nicknames: "Jug", "Little Brown Jug" 1937 - 2019
Reynolds was born in Texas in 1937, and his first professional appearance before a rodeo crowd was just before he turned three years of age. He had a Shetland pony and an Angora goat act with his dad Fess Reynolds (often misspelled as "Fez"). Roy Rogers brought them to Hollywood after working with them in NY rodeo. He was in Rogers' YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS in 1944, a total of 5 films before being cast as "Little Beaver". "Jug" made 14 films, including THE RED PONY with Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum, and he worked at Republic, M-G-M, Columbia and Equity Productions/Eagle-Lion. Spent his life in a variety of jobs both show biz and non-show biz. He was divorced after 31 years of marriage and has two grown boys, a granddaughter of 16 and a grandson 16 months old. He worked in a number of films as animal trainer, including BIG TOP PEE WEE and the made for television movie THREE KINGS with Jack Warden and Stan Shaw. "Jug" worked for Universal for six and a half years in the animal department until they closed it down in January, 2002. He is also a ferrier. |
(Courtesy of Donn & Nancy Moyer) Early 1990s - Donn J. Moyer and 'Jug' Reynolds were both working at the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup, Washington. (Courtesy of Donn & Nancy Moyer) Left to right are Donn J. Moyer, Cheryl Rogers Burnett, Don Kay Reynolds and Nancy Moyer - 2006 in California. (Courtesy of Donn & Nancy Moyer) Above - 'Jug' Reynolds (on the right) with Donn and Nancy Moyer at their home in Washington state. |
Received word from Donn and Nancy Moyer that their friend 'Jug' Reynolds passed away in Texas on January 9, 2019. A tribute and remembrance follows:
We were stunned and saddened this morning to receive word of the passing of a dear and close friend and showman Don K. 'Jug' Reynolds in a Dallas Hospital Wednesday, January 9, 2019. He was 81. Reynolds had gone to Dallas to have eye surgery done and before he was discharged doctors noticed that he had a very slow pulse. They immediately did tests and found a main artery almost 100% blocked and were preparing to do angioplasty surgery and insert a stent when his vitals dropped and after 20 minutes of life saving procedure he was declared dead.
Renolds was inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2015: https://texasrodeocowboy.com/inductees/don-little-brown-jug-reynolds/ Linda Brock and her father were friends with Fess Reynolds, and she has a blog with info and pictures titled "My Dad and Fess Reynolds": http://ocmist-acountrygrammyswalkwithgod.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-dad-and-fess-reynolds.html The website on Paul "Sled" Reynolds and his "Gentle Jungle" is at: http://www.gentlejungle.com/ Sir Ian McKellen talks about THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Gandalf, Shadowfax ... and Don Reynolds: https://mckellen.com/cinema/lotr/001003.htm Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has film appearance information on Don Reynolds: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0721690/ |
(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Don Kay 'Little Brown Jug' Reynolds (as Little Beaver), Jim Bannon and sidekick Emmett Lynn in a scene from RIDE, RYDER, RIDE (Eagle Lion, 1949), the first of the four Bannon Red Ryder adventures. (Courtesy of Don Kay Reynolds) (Courtesy of Donn & Nancy Moyer) The above composite includes photos of Reynolds in the mid to late 1940's. |