in Westerns. We've talked about the greatest westerns of them all, but who was the most believable cowboy. Enlighten me. Who would star in the Western to end all Westerns--living or dead? I guess John Wayne portrayed cowboys most often, but I kind of favor Gary Cooper myself.
("Dad was a true Westerner, and I take after him", Gary Cooper told people who wanted to know more about his life before Hollywood. Dad was Charles Henry Cooper, who left his native England at 19, became a lawyer and later a Montana State Supreme Court justice. In 1906, when Gary was 5, his dad bought the Seven-Bar-Nine, a 600-acre ranch that had originally been a land grant to the builders of the railroad through that part of Montana.)
48 comments:
Only because he was a real cool guy, my vote goes to Duncan Renaldo.
Otherwise, a tossup between Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Tom Mix, Randolph Scott and Henry Fonda.
Though he probably isn't considered cowboy material, Jimmy Stewart made some fine Westerns during his career like The Man from Laramie and The Naked Spur. I'd also have to add Randolph Scott and Joel McCrae - hard to choose just one!
It may be blasphemy, but I've never been much of a John Wayne fan myself. I suppose I should revisit some of his movies now that I'm older before making up my mind.
I don't know about the leading man, but my perfect Western has both Robert Duvall and Sam Elliott in it, even if they are just supporting roles.
Wow Duncan Renaldo--I'll have to look into him. Jimmy Stewart was believable in about any role, wasn't he. THE NAKED SPUR is on my netflix list--have to move it up.
No I was never much of a Wayne fan either. His delivery always seems wooden. But he was in some of my favorite movies so I have to give him a thumbs up for that.
Sam Elliott is my idea of a cowboy.
He's pretty much my idea of a man, Naomi.
I have to go with CLint. I liked JOhn Wayne OK but never did think he was that great an actor. He did improve over the years. I also always liked some of th esupporting actors, like the guy whose been in half of them and was in the Road. I can't think of his name though.
Duval or Guy Pearce?
What about George "Gabby" Hayes and Walter Brennan?
;)
I'd agree with Randy Scott and Sam Elliott.
Jeff M.
I wonder how many Westerns Hayes was in. Must have been a hundred.
James Garner as MAVERICK. And you can't beat Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and Danny Glover in LONESOME DOVE.
James Garner created both the best TV cowboy and the best detective. What an achievement.
I guess I'd have to go with Eastwood in the Italian westerns, then Wayne in the John Ford films, but boy was Yul Brenner good in Magnificent Seven, a film I could watch any time.. Also, Joel McCrae did some good ones. Not to be forgotten are the terrific villains. such as Jack Elam.
Also, whenever Steve McQueen strapped on a gunbelt I was a happy viewer. Same with James Copburn (usually).
Eastwood is very believable.
I guess all actors knew how to play cowboys before the sixties. Now it is more rare.
Hard to argue with Eastwood. Or Sam Elliott. Let me throw in another one. Tom Selleck. Elliott and he made some fine westerns together as well as alone.
They just had the look that a lot of actors today don't have.
Maverick is amusing, but not nearly as believable as Rockford is. MAVERICK was never meant to be verisimilitudinous, while THE ROCKFORD FILES was.
Henry Fonda deserves a mention, for all the range he displayed in his western and quasi-western (notably Okie) work.
Well, Maverick had a sense of humor that few westerns or any dramatic tv shows had. And he brought a lot of that to it.
It may not hold up as well, but it's a decade or two older.
Tom Selleck is so likable that he always brings that to a role.
I was reminded of the thing about a look when trying to watch THE GATES last night. Everyone looked the same on it. Everyone had high cheekbones, big lips, almnond eyes, anorexic. We are in a dystopia, I think. Now how many of the supporting actors in Breaking Bad or Justified or Treme are knockout good looking. Very few. When will the networds stop sending their actors for cosmetic surgery.
Four words: Lancaster. Cooper. Vera Cruz.
BTW...are you ears burning, P? Talked about you today on BIB.
Lancaster is about my favorite all-time actor. GO TELL THE SPARTANS. THE SWIMMER. ELMER GANTRY. Any of them.
Eastwood is great, Stewart perhaps better because of the range of roles but hands down it is Randolph Scott. No question. Those 50's films are like comfort food to me. I can watch them, and him, over and over.
He had a tendency to grin through a lot of his roles and, yes, they are pretty much variations on a theme (you even start to recognize the same jacket and hat) but there is a darkness there and some complex ideas going on in those films.
He also has such a wide body of work to choose from. The Tall T, The Walking Hills, Decision at Sundown and Ride the High Country are some of the best.
I hope all the fans of Maverick are familiar with Garner's starring turn in Support Your Local Sheriff, a terrific comic western. Jack Elam (another good choice) plays against type as the narrator/town drunk turned deputy, and the 'bad guys' are Walter Brennan & his sons, the man one played by Bruce Dern (not too bright here). Harry Morgan is the town Mayor and the late Joan Hackett is his daughter and Garner's love interest.
Jeff M.
Rick, that's what made The Magnificent Seven so good - Brynner, Coburn, McQueen all together, plus Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, & Eli Wallach. What a cast!
Patti, it's not a western but I hope you've seen Lancaster in one of his last starring roles, Rocket Gibraltar, which was filmed on Long Island. It has an excellent supporting cast (Kevin Spacey, John Glover, Bill Pullman, Patricia Clarkson and a very young Macaulay Culkin, among others) but it's Burt's movie all the way, as the dying patriarch of the family.
Jeff M.
I've seen RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY but not the others. Thanks, Eric.
Love ROCKET GIBRALTOR. Thanks for reminding us of SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF.
Wasn't Joan Hackett gorgeous? She died way too young. Actresses had their own faces then.
I have to agree about The Gates, Patti. I bailed after a few minutes as fast as I could. They just all looked so plastic and...the same.
THE ROCKFORD FILES was funnier for being less forced.
No love for Henry Fonda here, hun? I would think that a range from THE OX-BOW INCIDENT through THE CHEYENNE SOCIAL CLUB to ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST would be enough make him occur to almost anyone, even if we forget MY DARLING CLEMENTINE and exclude THE GRAPES OF WRATH. I don't believe I've ever seen his television series THE DEPUTY.
Jeff, I take it you're less enthusiastic about SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER? I am, but still enjoyed it.
I had comepletely missed any note of THE GATES before your mention this afternoon, but am amused that it has a certain STEPFORD WIVES vibe to it given the description you give of the cast, Patti. The men, too?
Well, that should've read Huh? rather than Hun...I'm not That presumptuous (nor a waitress in the midwest or the southeast).
The excellence of the late Scott film RIDE LONESOME is a major plot-point of the fine tv series THE MIDDLEMAN, and that assessment is widely echoed elsewhere. I've been meaning to see it. (RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY is the only actually good Peckinpah film I've seen, though I'll grant THE WILD BUNCH has moments.)
Except for the noses. I'll give Streisand points there.
Yes, I agree with you on Henry Fonda, Todd.
Gary Cooper was always an adult and always a gentleman. He was both in that forgotten film about a Quaker caught in the Civil War, The Friendly Persuasion.
Loved that movie-had a great crush on Tony Perkins--at least until he portrayed Norman Bates. And was it Dorothy McQuire, I think, Lovely movies. Well remember the bit on racing buggies.
Loved that movie-had a great crush on Tony Perkins--at least until he portrayed Norman Bates. And was it Dorothy McQuire, I think, Lovely movies. Well remember the bit on racing buggies.
Patti,
Here you are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39J7L_fSQvk
Patti,
Once, through friends, I was invited to a party given by Dorothy McGuire at her Beverly Hills home. She called to invite me. She most graciously introduced me to various people, including Henry Fonda. All those familiar faces in one place made me dizzy. I'm still starstruck.
One of those lovely actresses, largely forgotten today, I fear. In several of my favorite movies: A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE,and this. What a great memory.
Here is Cooper in one of the most famous photos ever taken in Hollywood, New Years Eve, 1957
http://www.photographersgallery.com/photo.asp?id=149
Wow. Jimmy Stewart doesn't look like himself. Van Heflin--another forgotten great one.
I'd go with Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, Henry Fonda. Wes Studi is always good as a cowboy fighter. I do like Coop as well, but John Wayne is hard to take seriously (with real exceptions) after the Green Berets and the Alamo.
Wow. 38 comments on Westerns and no one mentioned Alan Ladd in Shane.
Until now! We were saving the spot for you.
Or Burl Ives, with a nod to Gary Cooper and others, in THE BIG COUNTRY...
No shortage of good westerns or good actors playing in them. Ives could sing a little too.
And I wrote Gary Cooper when I meant Gregory Peck...it must be getting early...yup. Ives picked up an Oscar for THE BIG COUNTRY, iirc.
George Kennedy stands out for work in The Sons of Katie Elder and Bandolero. Andrew Prine is another good one. Then there is Patrick Wayne and Chris Mitchum. And for villany? Christopher George/Richard Boone. I guess I found the character actors better in these roles than some of the leads. But you can't ignore The Duke, Deano, Mitchum, Eastwood, Hopper, and Jimmy Stewart. I'd be afraid of the casting of a contemporary western that might give us brooding, pouty, vampire like actors.
That's the truth. Are vampires the new cowboys?
Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Henry Fonda and James Garner, though I would really have to go for John Wayne. Gary Cooper was okay, but he's a bit before my childhood.
If only the producers of Deadwood had thought of vampire cowboys it would have given a new slant on the title...Seems a natural:vampire/cowboys. I like the title High Moon. Might not make a bad anthology. What do you think? (If a graphic novel about cowboys taking on aliens in the 1800s can be made into a movie, anything is possible.)
I've only seen Cooper on the little screen, too.
Any title with 'moon' usually works. Nighttime is more evocative that "noon." I think you've got a winner.
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