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Best Underrated Western Actor
Hi Friends,
I am curious to find out some opinions on the best underrated western actors. Personally, I am an Audie Murphy fan and would've liked to have seen him in some better quality westerns.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by HondoRay on -
I always loved John Saxon playing the bad guy in Western films like "Appaloosa" and "Joe Kid". I visited with him this past March (something you can't do with Audie and several others) in Az. Pretty decent guy. He doesn't respond to e-mails worth a shit tho. HondoRay
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Permalink Reply by Unkle Sherman on -
Willie Nelson
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Permalink Reply by Dustin Doss on
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Unkle Sherman,
I know several folks that do not like Willie's western movies, but I like the ones that I have seen; Red Headed Stranger and Barbarossa.
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Hi HondoRay,
I agree. While I am not a big fan of Appaloosa, I do like Joe Kidd. I believe that John Saxon is an underrated actor altogether. I also liked him in Death of a Gunfighter.
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Permalink Reply by HondoRay on
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There are/were so many GOOD Westerns and unheralded actors that I bet we could name a hundred. What's been wrote so far, I totally agree!!!
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Permalink Reply by C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt on -
One of the most under-rated actors in Westerns was Alfred 'Lash' LaRue. The 'Lash LaRue' series continued only from '47 to '51, but he kept acting after that, doing a lot of guest shots on TV. If you were a fan of Hugh O'Brien's 'Wyatt Earp' series, he was the guy who played Johnny Behan in a continuing part, billed as 'Al LaRue.' He was actually a very good actor who should have been in A pictures, but the fact that he could have passed as Humphrey Bogart's younger brother--there was that much resemblance--kept him from ever making the jump to the big features. Another was Kermit Maynard, Ken Maynard's younger brother. He didn't have Ken's ego problem--or his booze problem--but he just never quite made it. A third was Glen Strange. He was a big-band singer originally & had an excellent voice, but his looks consigned him to playing 3rd villain behind the likes of I. Sanford Jolley and Charles King. I got a chance to talk to him back in the early '60s, when he was playing Sam the Bartender on Gunsmoke. Since I knew he'd been a singer I asked him why he didn't become a singing cowboy instead of 3rd villain. He said "Kid, when Roy Rogers was making $75 a week under contract at Republic, starring in his own movies & driving a 2nd-hand Plymouth station wagon, I was pulling down anywhere from $300 to $500 a week playing 3rd villain in everybody's movies in all the studios, & driving a brand-new Buick convertible."
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Permalink Reply by C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt on
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Murphy's best Western is probably his least known. It's No Name On The Bullet, and it's probably his least-known film. It's also the only one in which he played a villain. He was, in a different way, as scary a villain as Jack Palance was in Shane. Picture a handsome, boyish, well-spoken, apparently well-educated, well mannered--stone cold hired killer, & you have John Gant, Murphy's character in No Name On The Bullet.
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Permalink Reply by Wolfgang on -
How about "Al Moolock" ? ( sp ?) ... I think he was really great. I love seeing him in Sergio Leone films.
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Permalink Reply by Oklahombre on -
Charley, I recently read somewhere that quote by Glen Strange about Roy Rogers. It's driving me crazy trying to remember where I read that. Help me out. Where was it and did you write the article?
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Permalink Reply by C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt on
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I think I put the quote in one of my articles. It happened right after Glen became a Gunsmoke regular. He & Ken Curtis were appearing at a rodeo & I got to talk to him.
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Permalink Reply by Buck Grizzly on
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Why the heck hasn't Bruce Willis been in a western?? Oh that's right , they don't make westerns that much any more.
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Permalink Reply by anthony martin on -
Buck,
I guess you'll have to settle for SUNSET which is sorta kinda a western.He participated in Sam Shepard's play True West and there has been talk for years between them about a big screen western.Clancey Brown is another very underutilsed actor who has been in a couple of westerns and makes a forceful villain or an equally convincing good guy.Jeff Chandler and Albert Dekker are two I also enjoy.
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