LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Woody Harrelson: Charles Harrelson
built 177 days ago
DENVER -- Actor Woody Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, died of a heart attack in the Supermax federal prison where he was serving two life sentences for the murder of a federal judge, officials said Wednesday. Charles Harrelson, 69, was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of March 15, said Felicia Ponce, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman in Washington.
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Woody, born Woodrow Tracy Harrelson on July 23, 1961, in Midland, Texas, had a childhood most people have never had to face. His father, Charles Voyde Harrelson, went to prison, convicted of murder when Woody was only seven. His mother Diane, a legal secretary, raised Woody and his two brothers in Lebanon, Ohio. Growing up strongly influenced by religion, Woody went to college on a presbyterian scholarship. After obtaining a degree in 1983 in English and theatrical arts from Hanover College, Indiana, Woody went to New York City to pursue a career in acting.
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Harrelson is ... an environmental activist. He once climbed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with members of North Coast Earth First! group to unfurl a banner that said, "Hurwitz. Aren't ancient redwoods more precious than gold?" in protest of MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber CEO Charles Hurwitz, who once stated, "He who has the gold, makes the rules".[3] Harrelson, an ethical vegan and raw foodist, has also denounced animal experiments in the cosmetics industry.
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Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, was a freelance hitman. He was accused of murdering a Texas businessman when Woody was just seven years old and was convicted of the crime six years later. When Harrelson was in college, his father received two life term sentences for the killing of a federal judge. His father died in prison of a heart attack on March 15, 2007.[4]
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Mr. Harrelson may be quick to find the funny in almost anything, but then he has credibly played stone cold killers. If there is any darkness of the soul, it derives from the fact that his father, Charles Harrelson, was sentenced to two life terms for the contract killing of a federal judge in 1979. Mr. Harrelson financed an expensive effort to win his father a retrial, but the senior Mr. Harrelson died in March at a high-security federal prison in Florence, Colo.
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This is a Dec. 12, 1982, file photo of Charles V. Harrelson arriving at the federal courthouse in San Antonio. Harrelson died of an apparent heart attack Wednesday, March 14, 2007, at the "Supermax" federal prison in Florence, Colo. Harrelson, was the convicted hired assassin of San Antonio federal judge John Wood and the father of actor Woody Harrelson. He was 69. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)
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Charles Harrelson