Hoyt Axton Dies

(CBS)  Prolific songwriter and actor Hoyt Axton died in his sleep Tuesday at his ranch home in Hamilton, Montana. He was 61.

Axton suffered a massive heart attack two weeks ago and was struck by another while undergoing surgery in Missoula, said Jan Woods, a longtime friend in Nashville. He had never fully recovered from a 1996 stroke.

Axton, who was born in Oklahoma on March 25, 1938, died at home surrounded by family and friends. He moved to Montana's Bitterroot Valley after playing a sheriff in the movie Disorganized Crime, filmed there in 1988.

Axton wrote 220 published songs, many of them anthems of American pop culture.

His tunes include Joy to the World, which Three Dog Night recorded; Pusher Man, which was a hit for Steppenwol; The No-No Song, which Ringo Starr sang; and Greenback Dollar, a folk hit for the Kingston Trio. Other artists who recorded his songs included Elvis Presley, Joan Baez, Waylon Jennings, John Denver and Linda Ronstadt.

His own hits included Boney Fingers and When the Morning Comes.

Axton was a large, folksy man who specialized in playing good ol' boys on television and in film, including Gremlins, in which he played a bumbling inventor. He also played Huey P. Long, Sr. in the 1995 television movie Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long; narrated The Black Stallion Returns and played Alec's father in The Black Stallion itself; and provided one of the voices for the TV miniseries The Civil War in 1990.

He sang the Head to the Mountains jingle used to advertise Busch beer in the 1980s.

After his stroke in 1996, Axton was in a wheelchair much of the time.

He began singing folk songs in the clubs of San Francisco in 1958. He pitched Joy to the World to Three Dog Night when he was the group's opening act in 1969-70. The song became a No.1 hit.

"He just loved music," Woods said. "I don't think he could pick a favorite song."

His mother was also a songwriter. Mae Axton co-wrote Heartbreak Hotel. She died in 1997.

"When Mae died three years ago, she left me Hoyt," said Woods, a longtime friend of the singer's mother. "He was probably one of the most honest, humorous kids that never grew up."

Survivors include Axton's wife, Deborah, and five adult sons and daughters.

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