Obituaries

[JaiDee]

I noticed you didn't mention anything about him being an albino, so I will if that's OK.

 

   Great guitar player, not to be confused with his brother Edgar of "Frankenstein" fame.

[rxpharm]

There was another Western/Comedy/adventure that hasn't been mentioned yet, and that was Wild Wild West. It was one of my favorites while I was growing up too.

 

I did watch Maverick as well, and Rockford Files when I was older. James Garner was a good actor and he was great at playing a normal guy, without airs, yet concerned about helping others. RIP.

[Kahuna]

There was another Western/Comedy/adventure that hasn't been mentioned yet, and that was Wild Wild West. It was one of my favorites while I was growing up too.

 

 

 

You are absolutely correct Rx...I  had forgotten Wild Wild West....It came bit later as I recall...But it did also have a western/comedy formula...Kudos............

[Quinn]

I read somewher that James Garner had a clause written into his Rockford contract that he wouldn't be filmed from "the waist down" - he allegedly had a fat arse. !

[Lefty]

My favorite western was Laredo, which was in the mid 60s. It was only on the air for 2 seasons, but had 56 episodes. TV shows all used to have more episodes per season in those days. None of that 12 episodes a season shit they give us now. Also there was less minutes of commercials, so an hour long show was closer to an hour than it is today too. Laredo starred Peter Brown, William Smith and Neville Brand, with Philip Carey in a supporting role. One season had another cast member as Robert Wolders was added for season 2 or 26 episodes. Peter Brown was also earlier the deputy on Lawman, with John Russell as the town marshal. Peter Brown is also in my avatar from the movie Merrill's Marauders. The movie was by Warner Brothers who also did a lot of the tv westerns of the day, and the cast also included Ty Hardin who played Bronco Layne, in the series Bronco. The character Bronco Layne played by Hardin had previously been in episodes of Cheyenne and Maverick. Also in Merrill's Marauders was Will Hutchins, known more for being the star of the Warner Bros western Sugarfoot. Having three of my favorite tv western stars being in the movie, made Merrill's Marauders my favorite movie throughout my childhood and I have seen it more times than I could ever count. I remember the first time being at the local drive-in when I was about 7. The movie was listed on the marquee and I spotted it as I was on the way home from the grocery store with my folks. I begged them to take me back to the drive-in later that evening so I could watch it, and they did. 

[williethepimp]

My favorite western was Laredo, which was in the mid 60s. It was only on the air for 2 seasons, but had 56 episodes. TV shows all used have more episodes per season in those days. None of that 12 episodes a season shit they give us now. Also there was less minutes of commercials, so an hour long show was closer to an hour than it is today too. Laredo starred Peter Brown, William Smith and Neville Brand, with Philip Carey in a supporting role. One season had another cast member as Robert Wolders was added for season 2 or 26 episodes. Peter Brown was also earlier the deputy on Lawman, with John Russell as the town marshal. Peter Brown is also in my avatar from the movie Merrill's Marauders. The movie was by Warner Brothers who also did a lot of the tv westerns of the day, and the cast also included Ty Hardin who played Bronco Layne, in the series Bronco. The character Bronco Layne played by Hardin had previously been in episodes of Cheyenne and Maverick. Also in Merrill's Marauders was Will Hutchins, known more for being the star of the Warner Bros western Sugarfoot. Having three of my favorite tv western stars being in the movie, made Merrill's Marauders my favorite movie throughout my childhood and I have seen it more times than I could ever count. I remember the first time being at the local drive-in when I was about 7. The movie was listed on the marquee and I spotted it as I was on the way home from the grocery store with my folks. I begged them to take me back to the drive-in later that evening so I could watch it, and they did. 

great reminiscences there lefty......i remember all those westerns,but only vaguely Laredo......i do remember neville brand being in it tho....Cheyanne was one of my favourites,clint walker as cheyanne bodie(?).....I think Sugarfoot was renamed Tenderfoot for UK tv.....Do you remember Have Gun will travel?......Richard Boone i think it was....i can feel a GOOGLE coming on,,,,,,

[seanbeag7]

i never knew there was a maverick series, i just love the film, and i still think space cowboys is a stupid film

[Lefty]

great reminiscences there lefty......i remember all those westerns,but only vaguely Laredo......i do remember neville brand being in it tho....Cheyanne was one of my favourites,clint walker as cheyanne bodie(?).....I think Sugarfoot was renamed Tenderfoot for UK tv.....Do you remember Have Gun will travel?......Richard Boone i think it was....i can feel a GOOGLE coming on,,,,,,

I remember Have Gun Will Travel. Richard Boone as Paladin. I can hear the theme song in my head as I type this. He used to pass out business cards with a  knight chess piece in the center. They said simply Have Gun Will Travel across the center and on the bottom of the card they said: Wire Paladin San Francisco.. 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYz5kpZCnRY

[Lefty]

I do not recall anyone mentioning this iconic western so far this thread....  Rawhide

The show that made Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates a household name. The main star was Eric Fleming as trail boss Gil Favor. Fleming later drowned in a swimming accident. Around the time the series ended as I recall. 

 

[Lefty]

Another acclaimed western tv show from those days I think as of yet not mentioned was Wagon Train

Ward Bond, a good friend of John Wayne, was the star of that show. It ran for 8 seasons and over 250 episodes. Robert Horton was the other main character for the first few seasons. He quit the show after 4 seasons or so, to pursue a career in musical theater. He sang the theme song and had a good voice for singing. After his departure and the premature death due to heart attack of Bond, the show continued several more seasons with John McIntire and Robert Fuller in similar roles. 

 

[SiamSam]

Yeah, I remember Wagon Train. Enjoyed it.

[williethepimp]

yes i remember wagon train and rawhide.....i had a friend who when drunk would sing the theme tune to rawhide......"keep them dogies movin' rawhide....don't try to understand 'em,just rope and tie and brand'em,soon we'll be livin high and wild.."....but my all time fav was Bonanza....i fookin loved that show.......great business card lefty...have gun will travel...contact paladin.......an early day email address -5555

[Guest JustSumGai]

funny I should happen upon this thread. I'm watching Wagon Train at the moment. I've got ALL the Garner episodes of Maverick on the HD, I think it was just over 2 seasons, continued on for another 4 without him with his "brother" as lead. NOT really Maverick. The movie was nowhere near as good as the series. Got ALL the Have Gun will Travel. Six seasons of HALF HOUR shows that were so well written and densly packed with info that they felt like an hour. Really stellar work. Cheyenne I got a bunch of but it's just weak compared to the others. Late 50s and 60s were the hayday of western TV. Gunsmoke did I think 17 seasons on TV, might be a record. The Virginian comes in a close second (early Lee Majors stuff, also John McIntire). Wild Wild West was good too of course. But Conrad just rubs me the wrong way. I think they were trying to compete with man from uncle and the spy stuff.

[williethepimp]

funny I should happen upon this thread. I'm watching Wagon Train at the moment. I've got ALL the Garner episodes of Maverick on the HD, I think it was just over 2 seasons, continued on for another 4 without him with his "brother" as lead. NOT really Maverick. The movie was nowhere near as good as the series. Got ALL the Have Gun will Travel. Six seasons of HALF HOUR shows that were so well written and densly packed with info that they felt like an hour. Really stellar work. Cheyenne I got a bunch of but it's just weak compared to the others. Late 50s and 60s were the hayday of western TV. Gunsmoke did I think 17 seasons on TV, might be a record. The Virginian comes in a close second (early Lee Majors stuff, also John McIntire). Wild Wild West was good too of course. But Conrad just rubs me the wrong way. I think they were trying to compete with man from uncle and the spy stuff.

outstanding......i didnt want to be the first to admit to box sets,but i got bonanza ....Gunsmoke didnt come to the uk until the last series i think,but Maverick was there from the beginning........also Branded with Chuck Connors........big lebowski reference there Lefty-555

[Jimslim]

I take it this obituary column is not just for cowboys ? 

 

One of my hero's who died earlier this month - the great Bobby Womack .

 

[SiamSam]

No the thread ain't just for cowboys. It's for posting about people who have passed who were of interest to you. Exactly what you're doing above.

[ArchieBunker]

I read somewher that James Garner had a clause written into his Rockford contract that he wouldn't be filmed from "the waist down" - he allegedly had a fat arse. !

 

Just been watching some episodes and this doesnt ring true.  You see shots of his backside.  It was kind of wide but I think Jim was a pretty big guy in general.  He did all of the driving as he raced when he was younger.  Hell, there was always some type of car chase in every episode.

 

Re Rawhide:  Never watched the show but when I hear that theme song I always think of that scene form The Blues Brother when they play at the Redneck bar!!!  Bobs

[Hefe]

Bobby Womack should have been a big star if talent ruled things.

[Jimslim]

No the thread ain't just for cowboys. It's for posting about people who have passed who were of interest to you. Exactly what you're doing above.

Cheers Sam .

 

Bobby Womack should have been a big star if talent ruled things.

 

Yeh he had a great talent but a very tough life .

 

I read in one of his obituaries that he fell out with Ray Charles when they were on brother Rays private jet and he couldn't find him , the story goes that he went into the cockpit and found Ray Charles flying the plane .

 

Wether  its true or not it sure is a good story .

[Luung]

Bobby Womack should have been a big star if talent ruled things.

Funnily enough, Hefe, he was a big star in the UK, back in the 70's & 80's & then he got really popular again with the musical cognoscenti during the 90's

 

So some justice for a great talent on our side of the pond, at least.

 

Anyway, what a loss

[Kahuna]

Hate the USA for dropping "the" bomb or hate Japan for Pearl Harbor...Don't matter...The point is, a part of

WW II history died Monday past...Like the history or not...............

 

 

ATLANTA (AP) — The last surviving member of the crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima once 

said he thought the bombing was necessary because it shortened the war and eliminated the need for 

an Allied land invasion that could have cost more lives on both sides.

 

But Theodore "Dutch" VanKirk also said it made him wary of war - and that he would like to see all 

of the world's atomic bombs abolished.

 

VanKirk died Monday at the retirement home where he lived in Stone Mountain, Georgia, his son Tom 

VanKirk said. He was 93.

 

Theodore VanKirk flew as navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first 

atomic bomb deployed in wartime over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

 

The bombing hastened the end of World War II. The blast and its aftereffects killed 140,000 in 

Hiroshima. Three days after Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. That blast 

and its aftermath claimed 80,000 lives. Six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered.

 

 

 

QUINT: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the 

island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went 

into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. 

Tiger. Thirteen footer. You know how you can tell when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin'

from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, 'cause our bomb mission had been so secret, no 

distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, chief. The

sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. And the idea was, the shark goes to the

nearest man and then he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go

away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes.

You know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at

ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then you hear

that terrible high pitch screamin' and the ocean turns red and in spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin'

they all come in and rip you to pieces. Y'know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't 

know how many sharks, maybe a thousand! I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Noon 

the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He's a young pilot, a

lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes

down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin' for my turn. I'll never

put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out,

the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945.  Anyway, we delivered the bomb. 

 

[Lefty]

outstanding......i didnt want to be the first to admit to box sets,but i got bonanza ....Gunsmoke didnt come to the uk until the last series i think,but Maverick was there from the beginning........also Branded with Chuck Connors........big lebowski reference there Lefty-555

After watching The Big Lebowski, I had to look up Branded to see if the names of any actual writers were close. They weren't :)  BTW, never was a big fan of Branded, although I did like The Rifleman. Still remember the names of the costars, Johnny Crawford as Mark McCain, the son of Lucas, and Paul Fix as town marshal Micah Torrance. 

[Lefty]

Just been watching some episodes and this doesnt ring true.  You see shots of his backside.  It was kind of wide but I think Jim was a pretty big guy in general.  He did all of the driving as he raced when he was younger.  Hell, there was always some type of car chase in every episode.

 

Re Rawhide:  Never watched the show but when I hear that theme song I always think of that scene form The Blues Brother when they play at the Redneck bar!!!  Bobs

The actor who played the owner of the bar was Jeff Morris, who also played the role of Cowboy in the Clint Eastwood movie Kelly's Heroes. One of my top 3 all time Clint movies. 

[SiamSam]

Kelly's Heroes is one of my all time favourite movies. A classic!!!

[Lefty]

Kelly's Heroes is one of my all time favourite movies. A classic!!!

I've seen it countless times. It never grows old.