Spike (dog actor)

The title role in Disney's Old Yeller (1957) The yellow dog who made a generation cry was a lop-eared Mastiff and Labrador mix rescued as a pup from a shelter in Van Nuys, California. He became the pet and pupil of animal trainer Frank Weatherwax. Old Yeller was the peak, but Spike kept working: he played Patrasche in A Dog of Flanders and appeared in every episode of Brian Keith's western series The Westerner. Sources disagree about his birth and death years, so treat any precise dates you see with care.