Time Machine: When actor Wilford Brimley toured Quaker Oats

Hollywood actor Wilford Brimley visited Cedar Rapids in November 1992 to tour the Quaker Oats plant, speak at a fundraiser for the Linn County Chapter of the American Diabetes Association, and do a little pheasant hunting.

Brimley, known for his role in the television series “Our House,” also had appeared in such hit movies as “Absence of Malice” (1981), “The Natural” (1984), “Cocoon” (1985) and its sequel, “Cocoon, The Return” (1988), “The Firm” (1993) and the 1984 movie about farm foreclosure, “Country,” filmed in Dunkerton, Iowa.

Brimley had been the spokesman for Quaker Oats since 1987, featured in TV commercials touting Quaker oatmeal with the slogan, “It’s good for you, and it’s the right thing to do.”

Brimley’s tour started at 9:30 a.m. It was standard procedure for anyone in the plant production area to wear hats and beard nets.

Stories circulated later that Brimley, who had a beard, refused to wear a net, but Gazette photos proved that to be false. Brimley may not have liked the rule, but he is wearing the beard net as he observed the Quaker plant’s syrup line.

After the tour, Brimley spent time in the plant conference room signing autographs and shaking hands with employees and retirees who dropped in to see him.

One lucky Quaker recent retiree, Emma Davidson, got a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Brimley.

Brimley told The Gazette he would rather be at his Utah ranch or visiting places like Cedar Rapids than be in Hollywood.

“No, I don’t care for Hollywood,” he said. “I prefer places where people walk up to you, look you in the eye, and say ‘Gee, I’m glad to see you, and by the way, can I have a hug?’

“If that happened in Hollywood, I’d have to check if I still had my wallet. I never tried to be anybody else besides who I am, never monkeyed around trying to become some character. I am who I am.”

Diabetes talk

The next day, Brimley, who had Type 2 diabetes, was scheduled to be a speaker at the Linn County Chapter of the American Diabetes Association’s “Dinner for Discovery” at the Collins Plaza Hotel, where Brimley was staying while he was in town.

He shared the stage with Dr. Barry Ginsberg, corporate medical director for diabetes care with Becton-Dickinson and Co., a medical technology company headquartered in New Jersey.

Brimley told his audience he had intended to take advantage of pheasant season while he was in Iowa, but he needed gear.

He headed to the Fin and Feather Sports Shop to pick up equipment for his expedition. While at the shop, he realized he had lost track of time and needed to get back to his hotel.

He asked the clerk to call a cab, but a customer in the shop intervened. He was heading toward the Collins Plaza and would be glad to give Brimley a lift.

Brimley, assuming his benefactor offered the ride because he knew who the actor was, made small talk by asking the driver his name and where he worked. The man told him and then asked Brimley, “And what do you do?”

As for the hunting, Brimley’s trip “was successful for the pheasants, unsuccessful for Wilford,” The Gazette reported in its “Around the Town” column.

‘Curmudgeon’

Brimley was born in Utah and spent decades as a ranch hand and working at racetracks. His background led to roles in Westerns in the 1960s. His first big movie role was as a nuclear power plant engineer in the 1979 movie, “The China Syndrome.”

A national newspaper columnist, Monika Guttman, who wrote “Ask Monika” for Tribune Media Services, commented in 1987 on Brimley’s role as 66-year-old Gus Witherspoon in “Our House.” The columnist said Brimley “is actually 53 and seems to pride himself on acting like a curmudgeon.”

Brimley, who often played older men in his movie and TV appearances, was 58 when he came to Iowa in 1992. His hair was often dyed and had age spots added for his character roles.

He was 85 when died Aug. 1, 2020, in a Utah hospital. He was survived by four children and his wife.

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