The Day Dan Blocker Was “Discovered” in a Phone Booth — A Hollywood Story Too Good Not to Be True Before he became Hoss Cartwright—the gentle giant America fell in love with on Bonanza—Dan Blocker was just a Texas schoolteacher driving his family on a summer road trip in a beat-up station wagon. And Hollywood had absolutely no idea what was about to hit it. It was the mid-1950s. Blocker, born and raised in Sonora, Texas, was taking his wife and their kids on vacation—no big plans, no Hollywood d