The first western movie star was Gilbert M.“Broncho Billy” Anderson. His Broncho Billy films, starting in 1910 with Broncho Billy's Redemption, portrayed the original good-bad man, the outlaw with a bit of humanity who does the right thing when the chips are down.
Born in 1880, Anderson is considered the first western film star. He played three film roles in “The Great Train Robbery” and then began to write, direct and act in his own films. After co-founding the Essanay Studios in 1907 with George Kirk Spoor, Anderson appeared in some 300 short films.
Vaqueros were the first cowboys. Vaquero culture in North America goes back as far as the 1680s. This was a time when the population was much smaller, and life was much different. Look closely at this image of a vaquero from the Autry Museum.
However, one of the most renowned and beloved Western cowboy actors of all time is John Wayne. With his rugged good looks, strong presence, and iconic roles in films such as "Stagecoach," "The Searchers," and "True Grit," John Wayne has solidified his place in history as the ultimate Western cowboy actor.
Tom Mix. Tom Mix was a real-life cowboy and rodeo performer before he became an actor. He was one of the biggest stars of the silent film era, and his westerns were some of the most popular of the time. Mix's charisma, athleticism, and daring stunts made him a cowboy hero for a generation of moviegoers.
The actor John Wayne came to personify the Old West, a guy who slow-talked and fought his way across the frontier, who could ride and tumble with the best of them. He became the archetypal tough-guy cowboy. But he wasn't a cowboy, far from it.
One of the oldest records of a Black actor on film is that of Bill Pickett, a real-life Black cowboy turned actor. He hooked up with Wild West shows and at some point was approached to appear in 1922's The Crimson Skull and The Bull-Dogger.
Hyman G. Neill, better known as Hoodoo Brown, was the leader of the Dodge City Gang in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1879 and early 1880. According to Harold Thatcher, curator of the Rough Rider Museum in Las Vegas, Hoodoo was "the baddest cowboy of them all".
In Antebellum Texas, White ranchers referred to White workers as "cow hands," with Black people in the same position referred to with the pejorative "cow boy." Prior to the abolition of slavery, the cattle trade was considered to offer a high degree of relative freedom to slaves, who would be issued guns, often left ...
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), professionally known as John Wayne and nicknamed "the Duke", was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially in Western and war movies.
While classic Westerns have cemented the image of cowboys as white Americans, the first vaqueros were Indigenous Mexican men. “The missionaries were coming from this European tradition of horsemanship. They could ride well, they could corral cattle,” says Rangel.
No one needed to tell John Wayne to cowboy up. It was the role he was born to play. Of the many characters he portrayed in a career that spanned 50 years and an astounding 175 films, arguably none are more beloved as those he rode to stardom in some of the most iconic classic Westerns of all-time.
Bottom line: Earp and Wayne never met. Anything Wayne knew about the real Earp came to him secondhand from Ford during their 25-year working relationship. Their encounter is only a charming Hollywood fable. Nonetheless, Earp and Wayne did share several qualities.
Not surprisingly, the strongest memories of the cast and crew are those of John Wayne, the man. They all recall his heroic determination, doing his own riding and most of his own stunts, working in high-altitude conditions, with a lung-and-a-half lost to cancer.
How old was John Wayne when he filmed The Cowboys?
But “The Cowboys” was different: Filmed when its leading man was in his mid-60s, it follows Wayne-portrayed rancher Wil Anderson as he recruits a gang of schoolboys to help him on a cattle drive after his usual ranch hands abandon him to try their luck in the gold rush.
Though they are likely the two biggest names in the Western genre, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood didn't get along which killed any hopes of them starring together on the big screen.
Wayne owned the ranch, known as Rancho Pavoreal, along with a partner from 1938 to 1948, according to a 1993 archeological assessment of the property. During this time, he starred in westerns like “Stagecoach” (1939), “Red River” (1948) and “Fort Apache” (1948).
Who was JOHN WAYNE'S lifelong BUDDY AND BEST MAN, Ward Bond? A look into the great character actor and best friend of JOHN WAYNE, WARD BOND. How the friendship they shared was on a special level!
William Preston Longley (October 6, 1851 – October 11, 1878), also known as Wild Bill Longley, was an American Old West outlaw and gunfighter noted for his ruthless nature, speed with a gun, quick temper, and unpredictable demeanor. He is considered to have been one of the deadliest gunfighters in the Old West.
He writes about Jim Miller, the Baddest Outlaw of the West. Many infamous outlaws terrorized the Old West, gunslingers like Billy the Kid and John Wesley Hardin. But one name stands out as the most efficient, elusive killer of the bunch—Deacon Jim Miller.
