the Democratic presidential nomination. Blocker later supported the eventual Democratic Party nominee, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, also of Minnesota, for the presidency against the Republican Richard M. Nixon. Blocker kept a house in Inglewood, California, and a Tudor-style mansion in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, not far from singer Nat King Cole. The house was later purchased by American heavy metal singer Rob Zombie, and was featured on an episode of MTV Cribs. On the 2010 PBS special, Pioneers of Television: Westerns, actor Mitch Vogel, who played adopted brother Jamie Cartwright on Bonanza, said Blocker, "was so easy to get to know—the kind of guy you could go and have a beer with." Blocker, a performance automobile fan, once owned a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 "Z-16" (RPO Z16 option), as Chevrolet was the commercial sponsor of the show. He also owned a 1965 Huffaker Genie MK10 race car, nicknamed the "Vinegaroon". The car was run by Nickey Chevrolet in the 1965 and 1966 U.S. Road Racing Championship series, as well as the 1966 Can-Am championship. Death On May 13, 1972, Blocker died in Los Angeles, at age 43, of a pulmonary embolism following gallbladder surgery at Daniel Freeman hospital. A news item provides these specifics: "Blocker went into the hospital for gall bladder surgery, developed a blood clot in his lung, and died". The writers of Bonanza took the unusual step of referencing a major character's death in the show's storyline that autumn. A 2011 report added that "this was to be the first time in television history that a show had dealt with, or even mentioned, the death of one of its characters". Specifics as to the death were not discussed in the series, but some years later, in a subsequent series, Bonanza: The Next Generation one character stated that "Hoss drowned trying to save another's life". Bonanza lasted another season without Hoss, and the 14th and final season ended on January 16, 1973. That season was "by far the least popular and least requested season in the show's rerun package". Bonanza co-star Michael Landon said years later that whenever he needed to cry for a scene, he would think of Dan Blocker's death. Blocker's remains were interred in a family plot in Woodmen Cemetery, in De Kalb, Texas. The common grave site is marked by a plain stone with the name "B. Dan D. Blocker"