The Singing Sheriff Hopes to Lasso a Film Gig

For 25 years, Will M. Clauson traveled the world, entertaining audiences as a classical guitarist and folk singer.

For the past six years he has been the Singing Sheriff at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, where the mustachioed troubadour was known as “El Charro Guero,” (blond-haired cowboy). But that job became a victim of the current recession.

“I sat in front of the sheriff’s office and picked my guitar all day. That was terrific, and I thought I would have a job there for the rest of my life,” he said.

Besides picking and singing, Clauson would also recite cowboy poetry, some of which he used in his songs.

Clauson claims to have recorded a number of albums and to have once been a wealthy man from royalties and other investments that included Mexican restaurants in Stockholm and Anaheim and a singing school in Hollywood. He sold his restaurant in Stockholm years ago and the one in Anaheim went broke.

It’s been a long time between concert performances, but he’s back on the trail again.

“I’ve had a rich full life, but I would hate to tell you how little (money) I have now,” said Clauson, who was once known as the Rainbow Man, a character in Santa’s Village in the San Bernardino Mountains.

He sang children’s songs there for five years while dressed in clothes that rivaled the colors of the rainbow.

“I enjoyed that work too,” said Clauson, who says he has sung in most elementary schools from San Diego to Santa Barbara.

In between writing songs about the Old West that he hopes will find their way into Western movies, Clauson is hunting for work in films as a character actor.

Caught up in Western lore, Clauson once collected Western artifacts but has sold them all. “I just didn’t have a place for them,” said the colorful Fullerton man who sometimes wears Western clothes, boots and hats.

“I went as far as I could in performing, and now my goal is to fulfill a lifetime dream of working as a character actor,” he said. “I would also like to write a book of Western songs to leave something behind me,” Clauson said.

Ohio-born and an admitted loner, Clauson found 25 years on the road a genuine kick.

“I loved singing and performing and didn’t realize at the time what a wonderful career I was having,” he said. “Traveling came easily to me. I liked being out there and seeing different places even though they were all short visits.”

Clauson began his musical career at age 7 with violin lessons and later the classical guitar with the urging of his mother and father, who were both church singers.

“My life has been completely devoted to music and acting,” he said, claiming bit parts in 25 movies as a child. “I usually played the role of a child and teen-ager.”

Although he has spent his fortune, “I still have my music, and as long as I have that and keep my spirit up, I can be optimistic about my future,” he said. “I’m in a kind of a business where things can happen overnight.”

Besides, he added, “I don’t require a lot of creature comforts to be happy. I once had them.”