Fred Pickler is an American actor, author, former Deputy Sheriff and photographer, Instructor in Police Chemical Munitions in US, Australia and New Zealand, Counter-Terrorist Munitions Instructor, whose photographs have appeared in Life Magazine. He is possibly best remembered as Detective Tom Gordon/Yellow Man in David Lynch’s controversial film Blue Velvet, in which Pickler almost walked out of during its premiere. He was also Deputy with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department for eight years , and as Chief Evidence Technician at the death scene of Robert Harrill, in which Pickler would eventually co-write The Reluctant Hermit of Fort Fisher about the life of Harrill, and would go on to be elected President of the Fort Fisher Hermit Society, formed in Harrill's honor.