From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Tom Tryon (January 14, 1926 – September 4, 1991) was an American film and television actor, best-known for playing the title role in the film The Cardinal (1963) and the Walt Disney television character Texas John Slaughter (1958–1961). He later became a writer and authored several science fiction, horror and mystery novels. Description above from the Wikipedia article Tom Tryon, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.