Top Ten Western Actors - afterword

It seems my list has stirred up some controversy, particularly the omission of Randolph Scott, but as I pointed out I wanted to include actors from all stages of the western's development and so many greats were left off. Not only Scott, but Burt Lancaster, Gregory Peck, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Joel McCrea and many others. But any list is subjective and if it provokes discussion then it's done it's job. Now my feelings on Scott are that he was brilliant and that he made some mighty fine pictures but there were also countless mediocre B- westerns, but then the same charge can be made against John Wayne.

The western was good to Scott but it also swallowed him up and unlike other western icons he rarely worked in other genres. In fact to those who don't like westerns his fame rests on his alleged sexual affair with Cary Grant. Though he is a true western icon - reflected in the fact that in the movie Blazing Saddles the sheriff turns to the townsfolk who have refused to help and pleads, "You'd do it for Randolph Scott."

Growing up in the UK Scott's westerns were shown regularly on TV but only the more run of the mill ones and so perhaps this is why he failed to make such an impression on me as other western actors. Though the westerns he made with director, Budd Boetticher are certainly among the best the genre can offer as are many of his other pictures -Western Union with Fritz Lang for one. And Scott was exceptional in Peckinpah's Ride The High Country. Scott actually made 35 westerns between 1940 and 1955 so I guess it's no surprise that so many of them were routine.

So why is he not my top ten? Well simply because I couldn't include everyone

Top Ten Western Actors No 1 - John Wayne

I have a theory about John Wayne and it is this - that a lot of the criticism he gets is nothing to do with his acting but more because of his extreme right wing politics. He certainly pissed off a lot of the liberals in the film business but the charge that Wayne always played the same character is just bullshit. Wayne was a favourite with John Ford and Ford was not sentimental and wouldn't have used him so many times if there was any question of his acting abilities.

True Wayne did often play variations of the same character but that's what the public wanted - they wanted to see John Wayne and that is just what they got, but no actor has appeared in as many truly exceptional western as John Wayne and regardless of what the press and critics are saying at the moment, and as good as the Coen's version of True Grit is, John Wayne is still the definitive Rooster Cogburn.

In fact John Wayne is the definitive western actor.

He may have had a girl's name (he was born Michael Marion Morrison) but he was as tough as they came.

I won't list all of Wayne's western as there are far too many and even I, a Wayne nut, have to admit that several of his westerns were only average, but I will instead concentrate on what I consider the essential John Wayne pictures. First off then let's take a brief look at what I think is the finest western picture ever made, John Ford's, The Searchers.

The Searchers is, in my opinion, just perfect and represents a masterclass in western movie making. Not a single frame is wasted and Wayne's performance is perfectly nuanced. Those who say he couldn't act should be made to watch this movie at gunpoint and if this doesn't change their minds then just as well pull that trigger. The scene where Wayne as Ethan Edwards breaks down and screams at his companions after finding his nieces body is as effective as any other in the entire western genre. True enough not everything Wayne did was exceptional. His stint in the director's chair for The Alamo resulted in a seriously flawed movie but the good far outweighed the bad.

In fact if Wayne had not made a western other than The Searchers he would still top my list for his work in this movie alone. But there were so many other classics - The Big Trail, Stagecoach, Red River, Rio Bravo and many others. Wayne was, as Ford called him, a star bigger than Monument Valley and even cast alongside actors like Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda and James Stewart he still managed to dominate. Wayne was more than a star he was an institution. And he wasn't averse to playing with his image - he did this to great effect in 1972's The Cowboys and again in True Grit as the one eyed fat man with a badge. Wayne was heroic (both off and on screen) and although he suffered from the critics being blinded by his more formulaic roles he rose above it all and still even today, decades after his dignified death from cancer, enjoys a reputation as a true legend of the cinema screen.

"To me John Wayne is westerns." Richard Widmark.

At the moment the excellent True Grit remake is riding high in the cinema and most are saying that it is better than the John Wayne original, but I firmly refute this. As good as Jeff Bridges is in the role, Wayne was better and as time passes it is Wayne's True Grit that will be seen as the definitive version. This doesn't surprise me at all as there as always been a lot of spite against John Wayne and even when he won the Oscar for True Grit people were saying he was just awarded it out of sentiment and not for his performance. What a load of bollocks - Rooster Cogburn was written as a slightly comedic, over the hill lawman and that was just how Wayne played him. And think of Wayne's last role, as a gunfighter dying of cancer when John Wayne the actor was actually fighting the Big C himself. And yet it is a brilliant film and Wayne's character dies the way he wants to, in control, never once falling into self pity. Now for Wayne to film that with so much going on in his real life must have taken great courage - that must have taken True Grit.

Thank you John Wayne.

Top Ten Western Actors No 2 - Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood's contribution to the western can not be understated for he more than any other actor/director kept the genre alive during its most lean period. That he also appeared in more than a few all time genre classics also makes him deserving of such a high place in this top ten. In fact on certain days I would place Eastwood at joint number one, but the challenge was for a top ten and so that's what I've produced.

Of course Eastwood's first western work of note was in the TV series Rawhide but apart from saying that this was an excellent series that still holds up today, I will brush over this and instead concentrate on the movies. And what more can be said about the three Italian westerns Eastwood made with Sergio Leone? These films made Eastwood a superstar and it is a position that he still holds today. Indeed could anyone argue that Eastwood is not Hollywood's greatest living film icon?

Out of the three Italian westerns I think the third, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the best. Indeed I consider this Leon's best work, even superior to the seminal Once Upon a Time in the West. And Eastwood is impossibly cool in this film, making the cowboy once again favourable with the counter culture audience of the time.

His first American western was Hang Em High which was directed by Ted Post and although the film has a good reputation I don't rate it as highly as the rest of Eastwood's westerns. Indeed alongside Joe Kidd I would say that it was Eastwood's weakest western. That's not to say it's a bad movie because it isn't and Eastwood is always watchable in a western.

Right from the start Eastwood was not afraid to take risks and after the musical Paint your Wagon, and a return to his man with no name persona for Two Mules for Sister Sarah, he teamed with director Don Seigal for an unusual western called, The Beguiled. Eastwood spends most of the picture in bed after being wounded but the entire film is nothing short of captivating. Eastwood then took a break from westerns and made among other movies the classic Dirty Harry before returning to the genre as both actor and director for the brilliant High Plains Drifer, a supernaturally tinged western. And Eastwood was director and star again for masterpiece that is The Outlaw Josey Wales.


Josey Wales was Eastwood's best western since the Italian trilogy and even today I can't decide if this is the best western he ever directed. There are times when I prefer it to Unforgiven which is generally considered Eastwood's best self directed western. It's a tough call - since both movies are amazing.

Such is Eastwood's identification with the western, he is second only to John Wayne, that in the time travel comedy, Back to the Future III, Michael J. Fox uses the name while stuck in the Old West. The actor's next western was Pale Rider which although a good film is something of a remake of Shane.
 Then just when everyone though the western was dead as a film medium Eastwood returned with the Oscar winning, The Unforgiven.

Unforgiven is another masterpiece that can be placed alongside the best the genre has to offer.

These days Clint Eastwood is the western and it is hoped that he will return to the genre as a director. He stated Unforgiven would be his goodbye to the genre as if that does prove to be so then it is indeed a fitting farewell. Unforgiven is a revision of the revisionist western and for many it represents Eastwood's finest moment, but I still think of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly whenever I think of Eastwood westerns.

Top Ten Western Actors No 3 - James Stewart

With the exception of 1939's Destry Rides Again, James Stewart's massive standing as a western actor is due to films made late in his career. He made a string of classics with director Anthony Mann starting with 1953's Winchester 73 and culminating The Man from Laramie in 1955 are classics of the genre and cast Stewart against type as a troubled, at times psychotic man. But as well as the Mann pictures the actor was involved in several other all time genre classics - he made Broken Arrow in 1950 which was one of the first American westerns to treat Indians sympathetically,even if many of them were played by white actors.

Stewart never ever took acting lessons, telling one interviewer - "I don't act, I just read the lines."

However Stewart did act and it was instinctive rather than developed through training an all the better for it. He brought differing shades to all of his roles and was as happy with comedy as he was straight forward drama. It was a fitting end to Stewart's western career when he starred alongside John Waybe in The Shootist which was also Wayne's last film.

"Maybe most people identify with me but dream of being John Wayne." James Stewart.

Stewart by his own admission was an unlikely western hero, he stated that he looked like a lanky string of bones, but when he put on those six shooters he just looked the part. After he parted company with Anthony Mann he finally worked for John Ford and was cast alongside John Wayne in the awesome The Man who Shot Liberty Vallance and afterwards he had a small role as the most unlikely Wyatt Earp of them all in Cheyenne Autumn. He was excellent in both Two Rode Together and The Rare Breed and Stewart's part in the sprawling How the West was Won is perhaps the high point in a movie full of high points.

From the pacifist sheriff of Destry to the caring doctor of The Shootist, Stewart never made a truly bad western. That was the thing about Stewart - he was no larger than life character with a barrel chest and a corset keeping his stomach in check. He looked and acted like a real man and each and every character he created became real.

Below I have embedded a fascinating video clip from You Tube which features Anthony Mann talking about directing James Stewart - a man with a purpose indeed!

Top Ten Western Actors No 4 - Henry Fonda

It just had to be - Henry Fonda would make the top five of any one's list of western greats.Technically he was superb and if you look at acting as a craft then arguably Fonda was a greater master than anyone else on this list, but this list isn't about degrees of acting ability, this list is about lasting contributions to the western genre. And lists by their very nature are subjective and there are many western greats I have left off the list, but the challenge was a top ten and so I have narrowed it down to the ten actors I feel best defined the western during its various stages of development.

Fonda was indeed a rare actor - it is difficult to think of any other mainstream actor who could have played his part in Once Upon a Time in the West (generally considered Sergio Leone's best western, though in my humble opinion it comes second to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly). That character is just dripping with evil and even kills a child.

Fonda had a quiet authority that allowed him to play Presidents, simpletons and killers with equal conviction. His first western was 1939's Jesse James in which he played Jesse's brother, Frank. A role he later reprised in Fritz Lang's The Return of Frank James, but it wasn't until 1943's The Ox-Bow Incident that he made his first truly exceptional western - there were many more to follow.

Fonda was  teamed  with John Ford (probably the best western director there ever was) for My Darling Clementine and Drums along the Mohawk. Fonda once again, directed by Ford, starred alongside John Wayne in Fort Apache but his role, although sizable, was not as well realised. It was another John Ford movie, My Darling Clementine that gave Fonda another exceptional role as that of Wyatt Earp. Whilst this movie maybe the most unfaithful to what  historically happened during the Earp/Clanton fued, it is without  any doubt one of the best ever made on the subject.

After this Fonda took a break from westerns and didn't return until the 1950's and appeared in a string of genre classics - he was excellent in the exceptional, Warlock and just as good in The Tin Star. He also gave good value in two comedy westerns - The Rounders and Big Hand For The Little Lady. He then played the bad guy up against James Stewart in Firecreek and then went onto create his best bad guy role of all in Once Upon a Time in the West. And there were more westerns to come but none could match the quality of his earlier work. And maybe only My Name is Nobody shines out amongst the post Once Upon a Time in the West genre work.

Fonda was never typecast in the way other western icons like John Wayne were and as such he could more convincingly portray differing characters from the good to the downright sadistic and everything else in between.

Henry Fonda - another legend.

Top Ten Western Actors No 5 - Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper or Coop, as he liked to be called, made over 100 movies, a great many of them westerns - his first sound picture was the classic, The Virginian (1929) and for some time it seemed that he could do no wrong and his film choices were sound. However he famously turned down the lead in Gone with the Wind, feeling that the film would be a massive flop.

"Gone with the Wind is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not me" Gary Cooper

He also turned Alfred Hitchcock away when the director wanted to cast him in Foreign Correspondent and again for Saboteur.

Still it mattered not and in 1942 Coop won his first Oscar for best actor for his blistering performance in Sgt. York. And then in 1953 he won again for what must rate as one of the best ever westerns, the iconic High Noon. In fact High Noon remains a favourite among western fans even today and is the most requested film in the White House cinema.

High Noon is a damn effective film - it builds the drama and tension to breaking point as as Coop's Mashall Wil Kane prepares to face off against Frank Miller, a man he sent to jail many years previously, and his gang. The townsfolk don't hold much hope for Coop's chances and leave him to face off against the coming terror alone. The film is strong on character and yet doesn't skimp on the action and although Coop was too old for the part, and suffering with ill health all through shooting he carries it off with vigour and it is difficult to think of any other actor in the role.

Coop made another western that was almost as good in 1958 when he teamed up with Anthony Mann for Man of the West. Once again there were concerns about Cooper's health but he carried the entire film off with dignity and there is amazing strength in his performance. The following year Coop gave another great showing in the vastly underrated melodramatic western, The Hanging Tree.

Right from the beginning when Coop had an uncredited part in a 1925, Tom Mix western, Coop was never far away from the cinematic range. Even his lesser westerns, and there were several, are watchable and for some time he challenged John Wayne as the western's biggest box office draw.

Some actors looked as if they had been born in a saddle and Gary Cooper was one of them - he made it all look so effortless and every film he appeared in benefited from his strong, silent charm.

Gary Cooper a true man of the west.

Top Ten Western Actors No 6 - Alan Ladd

Alan Ladd's reputation as a western actor rests almost on one movie, but what a movie. Shane was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It was listed at No. 45 on the American Film Institute's 2007 ranking of "100 Years ... 100 Movies."

True he made other westerns but none would even come close to the sheer excellence of 1953's Shane - Whispering Smith and The Badlanders are pretty good, but it is Shane that was Ladd's signature role. Indeed if not for this movie Ladd's contribution to the western genre would be slight indeed - his quiet manner was far better suited to crime noir and melodramas. Though the fact that Shane regularly turns up on countless best western lists earns him a place in my top ten. That and the fact that I must have seen the movie at least a dozen time - it was even shown once on S4C dubbed into Welsh - that made it unintentionally hilarious.

Shane virtually invented the mythic western and Ladd's performance made Shane perhaps the definitive western anti-hero - it's a complex movie from start to finish and defined the genre for many years to come. The lone drifter coming to the aid of farmers against the ruthless ranchers - it's all about the little man facing big government and it resonates greatly even today.

A strong supporting cast helps the movie and Van Heflin is excellent as is Jack Palance, but if this movie belongs to anyone it is the dour faced Alan Ladd. At the time the movie was shooting there was much criticism of Ladd's casting but it is difficult to think of any other actor of the period who could have done this so well. When Shane is being taunted, Ladd makes his restraint believable in a way John Wayne or Robert Mitchum (both of whom were considered for the role) would not have done. Indeed Montgomery Clift was originally cast as Shane but it would have been a much different movie without Ladd and thus I do not hesitate in placing him in my top ten. It may also be of interest that Willam Holden was cast to play the Van Heflin character alongside Clift but both decided to do other movies.

The ending when Shane rides off wounded, possibly to die somewhere of his own choosing and the young boy shouts, "Come back, Shane." is an effective today as it ever was. The movie truly is a classic and it has been referenced by movies ever since. Clint Eastwood even remade it unofficially with his Pale Rider.

It matters not that Ladd made relatively few westerns, nor is it important that he never made another movie as good as this, for Shane is an undisputed classic that did much to write the grammar of the western movie and it was Ladd who brought the character to such effective life.

Alan Ladd a true western great

Top Ten Western Actors No 7 - Glenn Ford

Usually shot to only show the left side of his face, after being kicked in the right side by a horse which caused some disfigurement, Glenn Ford, made some superb westerns. He could also draw his weapon in 0.4 seconds which was faster than John Wayne and James Arness.

Ford had an understated style and he appeared to be very relaxed, almost laconic in all of his roles. Of course he was brilliant in other roles besides westerns but his parts in The Man from Colorado, 3 10 to Yuma, The Man from the Alamo, The Sheepman, Jubal and Cowboy alone make him a true western icon. And many of his roles showed true depth but it is a strange fact that that Ford shows most often are his lesser westerns with the possible exception of 3 10 to Yuma which is fairly regularly screened on TV in the UK. He could play MAD (The man from Colorado), Bad (3 10 to Yuma) and Good (Sheepman) equally well. And in my opinion Ford has always been underrated for his western roles - perhaps because he made so many classics in other genres - Gilda, anyone.

Unfortunately 1960's Cinmarron was so blandly boring that Ford's career never really recovered and from then on he seemed to languish in run of the mill westerns. But there are so many classics among his westerns.

3 10 to Yuma goes without saying is an absolute classic and far better than the average remake of a few years ago, but The Man from the Alamo is well worth watching for Ford's excellent performance and top knotch directing from Budd Boetticher. The Sheepman is also a great comic western and has something of the feel of James Stewart's classic, Destry Rides Again. The Fastest Gun Alive is far better than its title suggests and both Cowboy and Jubal are absolutely excellent.

It was great to see Ford return to westerns for the 1979 TV mini-series The Sacketts and he looked as comfortable upon a horse as ever. Indeed he provided the quite good, if flawed, adaptation of the Louis L'amour series a feel of classic Hollywood. His scenes with Tom Selleck (himself something of a latter day western icon)  were particularly good.

Ford most certainly belongs among any list of western greats and below I have embedded a classic scene from the Fastest Gun Alive.

Top Ten Western Actors No 8 - Lee Van Cleef

Lee Van Cleef certainly belongs on this list - his first film role was in the classic, High Noon. He was also in The Man who Shot Liberty Vallance and had an uncredited part as one of the river pirates in How the West Was Won.

At the height of his success Van Cleef was involved in a very serious car accident that meant he had to retire from acting for some time. When he returned to acting he found that the roles just weren't coming and he was stuck with small supporting roles. In fact when his big break came with Sergio Leone's, For a Few Dollars more he was actually making a living as a painter.

When Van Cleef was cast alongside Clint Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More  the actor found himself in great demand, particularly with European directors who wanted to cast the man they called, "Snake Eyes" in their westerns. Van Cleef appeared again with Eastwood in the awesome, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and afterwards he made a string of spaghetti westerns that, although not allowing him to be taken seriously by Hollywood, did keep him firmly in the public eye. And whilst it is true that many of his European westerns are forgettable it is also fact that several are classics of the genre - Death Rides a Horse, The Big Gundown, Sabata and God's Gun are all excellent westerns.

Later in life Van Cleef found himself once again in demand in Hollywood and he had a supporting role in John Carpenter's classic Escape from New York and in the 80's he starred in the short lived television series, The Master. In all Van Cleef took 90 movie roles as well as well over a hundred television parts in his thirty eight year career.

The majority of Van Cleef's westerns were made when the genre wasn't really in vogue and as such he deserves his placing in a list such as this. He had the looks and manner than enabled him to play the anti-hero with ease as well as a downright villain. And several of his films are classics of the spaghetti western genre.

Top Ten Western Actors No 9 - Walter Brennan

Although never a leading man, he just wasn't the type, he didn't have the looks nor the teeth for that (he actually lost those in a 1932 accident), Walter Brennan improved ever single western he appeared in. Even when he starred alongside screen giants like John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Humphrey Bogart he would steal every scene he appeared in. He won the Oscar for best supporting actor three times and currently ties with Jack Nicholson for the most wins by a male actor.

Although primarily remembered for his western roles, Brennan was arguably the greatest character actor there has ever been and even if you remove all the westerns from his filmography it is still an impressive list - Sgt York, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Swamp Water to name but three.

Brennan excelled at playing grumpy old men, usually as the sidekick to the hero. One of the best examples of this is when he played Nadine Groot in one of John Wayne's best westerns, Red River. His performance in this picture never missed a beat and he provided strong support to the story of feuding father and adopted son. Incredible to think that only two years previously Brennan had been so menacing as Old Man Clanton in the classic, Oh My Darling Clementine. Yep Brennan had a wide range - from the lovable old man of Rio Bravo to the sadistic Jeb Hawkins of How the West was Won.

Rio Bravo is an excellent example of the Brennan's skill and screen presence - he appears alongside John Wayne and Dean Martin, who were both at the top of their form, and yet he still manages to make the movie his own.It was the same alongside James Stewert in The Far Country.

The western, any movie in fact, is so much more than just the actor whose name comes first in the credits and Brennan knew this.

Walter Brennan they certainly don't make em like him anymore.

Key westerns:
My Darling Clementine
Red River
Bad Day at Black Rock
Blood on the Moon
The Far Country
Rio Bravo
The Proud Ones

Below we have embedded a nice little video of a comedy Walter Brennan song called, Don't go near the Indians.

Top Ten Western Actors - No 10 William S Hart

As a serious student of the western genre I have watched a lot of the silent westerns, the films from which the modern western evolved and I felt I had to start this list with one of the early icons of the western movie.  I did briefly consider Tom Mix but then, as good as he was, his westerns were far more formulaic than those of William S. Hart. And it was Hart who gave Hollywood its first truly classic westerns.

In many ways Hart's world weary cowboy anticipated the coming of stars like Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott and Henry Fonda. And although his westerns were highly romanticised the actor would never wear the star spangled costumes favoured by the likes of Tom Mix and insisted that his pictures had an authentic look. The actor was friends with real life western legends Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson and he would avidly listen to the tales the men told of the days in the Old West. Many of these stories, some no doubt exaggerated and others downright lies, would be worked into many of his motion pictures.

Before embarking on westerns Hart was a successful Shakespearean actor on Broadway who had worked with Margaret Mather and other stars, he appeared in the original 1899 stage production of Ben-Hur. Hart went on to become one of the first great stars of the motion picture western. Fascinated by the Old West, he acquired Billy the Kid's "six shooters". He entered films in 1914 where, after playing supporting roles in two short films, he achieved stardom as the lead in the feature The Bargain. Hart was particularly interested in making realistic western films. His films are noted for their authentic costumes and props, as well as Hart's extraordinary acting ability, honed on Shakespearean theatre stages in the United States and England, he brought a gravitas to his westerns that few could emulate.

Hart invented many of the devices that would become western clichés - he always seemed to play the good bad man and John Wayne's breakthrough character, The Ringo Kid owed more than a little to William S. Hart. Indeed the way Wayne rode upright in the saddle is a direct copy of Hart's style. Strange then that Hart is not as well remembered as many of the other silent western stars.

Key westerns:
(All of these films have survived and are available on DVD. Though only on Region 1. The films are in the public domain and many can be found online - below we have the movie, Tumbleweeds. The film is complete on You Tube, but split over eight parts. The Archive has embedded the first part only.)

Tumbleweeds 1925

Wild Bill Hickock 1923


The Gunfighter 1917


Hell's Hinges  1916

THE TOP TEN WESTERN ACTORS

Regular readers will know that I am due to go away for three months to work on a film. The Archive will still be updated from time to time but obviously not as frequently as usual. I've been trying to think of something to write before I go, a post that would be of interest with most regular readers and I think I've come up with just the thing. And so starting tomorrow I will be listing my top ten favourite western actors. The Archive covers many subjects but if there's one subject it always comes back to it is the western.

And so saddle up for the series of posts looking at, what I feel are the definitive western actors.