movie cowboys

[StrawHat]

Good actor or not, John Wayne was rather influential in the Western genre.  One thing I found he did was to "carry" some of the older actors in his films.  Actors who used him when he was starting out could frequently get work with him when their star had faded.  I like that.

As for favorite actors, Tim McCoy, Selleck, Elliot (Sam not Wild Bill), John Wayne and Henry Fonda.  But my #1 would be Jimmy Stewart.  Whether he was a bumbling "pilgrim" in Liberty Valance or the bumbling cowboy in Cheyenne Social Club, his characters were always believeable.  At least to me.

[Spirithawk]

I was always partial to Jimmy Stewart and Kirk Douglas. I just liked their movies. Randolph Scott was a favorite too. Burt Lancaster, John Wayne and about any of the old time actors. Clint Eastwood in Josey Wales is a classic. Nowadays it's hard to beat Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot.

[SHOOTALL]

Eastwood has been good in several films , picking a best won't work as many brought "SOMETHING" to the screen at different times .

[streak]

A lot of great names have been presented, and for modern choice it has to be Selleck. Enjoyed a lot of the others such as Farnsworth, he was solid. One other one that has not been mentioned ,which I thought was always a pretty good cowboy actor was Glen Ford.

[mcwoodduck]

Steve McQueen in Tom Horn.
Other than it being a true (as true as Hollywood gets) story
I think it showed what cowboys were.
Most started out young and were influenced by friends and bosses in thier teenage years.
And were capable of doing anything to get the job done.
And at the end no matter if he was guily or innocent he took his fate with out screaming, yelling or crying.

[Spirithawk]

There is an actor by the name of Richard Farnsworth who has played in many many westerns. He stared in the roll of Bill Miner, one of the last train robbers, in the movie called Grey Fox, which is a true story and one of my all time favorite movies. I think anyone who has ever seen 60 seconds of him on film would agree that he personifies the cowboy like few others before or since. He doesn't even have to open his mouth. Cowboy just seems to seep from his very pores. Anyone not familiar with him and who loves westerns, particularly historic based westerns, should really seek out and watch the Grey Fox.  

[streak]

Forgot to mentioned in my previous post that I had the occassion to shake hands with Ben Johnson in Westlake ,CA back in the eighties! He was in a small restaurant during lunch time and his table finished before ours and as he started out he stopped by our table shook hands with us, friendly guy!
Speaking of cowboys, had a business meeting in Palm Springs one time and stayed at the hotel owned by Gene Autry  and the first morning there as I was coming down the stairway to go to breakfast and at the bottom of the stairs shaking hands and greeting the guest as they came down was old Gene himself. That was during the time that he owned the Angels baseball team!.

[Cannoneer]

I know this thread is more about the star or leading role type of western hero, and Lee Marvin has been mentioned in passing as a supporting actor, but to my mind no one has ever played the role of a psychotic bloodthirsty gunman as good as Marvin has. In two of Duke's movies that have already been mentioned ("The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "The Comancheros"), Marvin dominated every scene he was in.
You know, now that I think about it he also played a great comic role as a drunk washed-up gunfighter in "Cat Ballou", and he also had a great leading role in "The Professionals"; a western that in my opinion doesn't have the fame that it rightly deserves.

I don't think anyone mentioned William Holden either, but I'll never forget his role as an aging gunman in "The Wild Bunch." He also starred in a good 'cowboy movie' named "Wild Rovers."

In my opinion another fine acting job in a cowboy movie was Charlton Heston's role as "Will Penny."

[RockinW]

sorry to bring up old threads, but i'm new here and this one is still close to the top of the page. so here's my .02$

for the most part, none of the old actors  protrayed real cowboys especially well, until Ben Johnson and Slim Pickens. because they actually were. never thought John Wayne was the best although i have read many times that he copied his walk, talk, mannerisms, everything from Yakima Canutt who was a real cowboy, world champion bronc rider, and early stuntman.  I like Sam Elliott, but he doesnt really come off as a real cowboy.  Tom Sellick is better, and his more recent movies have been more historically correct than any others, but still not exactly correct in every instance.  as for really being beleivable cowboys (not just gunfighters, westerners, fronteirsmen, etc., but REAL COWBOYS) in no particular order, here is my short list of favorites. not all of them rode especially well, but had the speech, mannerisms etc., down pat

Tommy Lee Jones
Robert Duvall
Richard Farnsworth
Ben Johnson
Wilford Brimley
Slim Pickens

Lee Marvin was really good in the origional Monte Walsh as were Glen Ford and Henry Fonda in The Rounders

but my all time favorites are Robert Duvall in Lonesome Dove, and Tommy Lee Jones in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and The Good Ole Boys. those 2 guys in those films played real cowboys better than anyone else ever did. and Ben Johnson gets the nod too, because he really was a real cowboy, more so than any other actor, modern or not.

[us920669]

This is a great thread.  Thanks so much for the film tribute back on page 1.


Randolph Scott is probably best overall, of course he got the best roles. I also vote for Ben Johnson and Lee Van Cleef.  Just about the whole crew on Wild Bunch, even the bounty hunters - was it Dub Taylor- yeah I know, practically a comedian, but he had the look.  Watching the film reminded me of Andy Devine - not the two-fisted hero type, but  it takes all kinds.  I saw him on television all the time when I was a kid.  My grandfather was living with us then and I used to tease him about being Andy Devine.  He pretended to get sore about it, but I don't think he really minded.


John Wayne is a special case.  He did need a good director, but then, a good director needed him.  A few years back some neighbors were thinking of relocating to the Phoenix area and we went out one time to look at houses.  They didn't go but I loved the houses and the area so I started looking at houses on the internet.  There was a simple old ranch house - really just a big shack - some acreage, I think for $300,000.  Why too high, but the thing was, it had been used in countless movies and TV shows, including Stagecoach.  Just think, you could pull up a chair in the same room with John Wayne and countless others.