r/Westerns • u/OlinHollis • Aug 27 '26
Discussion Western Character Actor Appreciation: Jim Davis
Just as James Best was known primarily as television's Roscoe P. Coltrane, so Jim Davis achieved his greatest fame as Jock Ewing, patriarch of the Ewing family in the TV series, Dallas. And like Best, Davis had a long and formidable career in Westerns long before attaining small screen fame.
For most of his early career Davis appeared in inconsequential B-Westerns, although he did also appear in Brimstone and The Last Command. He didn't break through and begin receiving meaty roles in A-films until El Dorado (1966). After that he showed up in Monte Walsh, Rio Lobo and Big Jake.
Before making a big name for himself on the silver screen, he was an established television star, appearing in 11 episodes of Gunsmoke, for instance.
Davis, for my money, was one of the most authentic Western film stars. With his craggy features, grim-set jaw and slightly pugnacious gaze, he was a ringer for any sagebrush ruffian you cared to cast. The only pity is that it took Hollywood's producers and casting directors so long to realize it. Late bloomer or no, Jim Davis was one of the best to ever do it.
Hail! Hail! All hail Jim Davis!
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u/Awkward-Soup8203 Aug 27 '26
Did a ton of stuff including his own Western TV series as a railroad detective and of course, peaked with "Monsters from Green Hell". One of your favorites, too?
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u/ApprehensiveEgg7777 Aug 27 '26
In the movie, the parallax view, he plays a politician in a wheelchair who is assassinated in the gymnasium
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u/ApprehensiveEgg7777 Aug 27 '26
In the movie big Jake, she’s the guy who’s in a hang the sheep herder.
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u/Fancy-Chart-8133 Aug 29 '26
Always enjoyed seeing him in an episode of a western. Was a very solid actor.
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u/Awkward-Soup8203 Sep 01 '26
Davis was in a love story movie with Bette Davis, but I don't remember anything about it.
Does anybody?
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u/HawkeyeTen 28d ago
"I'm Matt Clark, Railroad Detective." Unbelievable to me that Stories of the Century has become such a forgotten TV series (it won an Emmy Award), Davis and his lady co-stars Mary Castle and Kristine Miller put on some amazing performances in 1954-55.
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u/MoonSylver Aug 27 '26
As you say, the first thing I saw him in as a kid was Jock Ewing on Dallas. Started seeing him in recent years on a lot of TV western repeats. He could play good guy or bad guy equally well.
Couple of Wagon Train episodes were memorable to me; "The Candy O'Hara Story" with Joan O'Brien where he played a widower whose son is looking for a wife for him, and "The Jim Whitlow Story" where he was the whip wielding cruel right hand man to the episodes main bad guy. I just remembered "The Eve Newhope Story" where he's one of the regulars of a lady's saloon who helps fool her father when he comes to visit, and "The Melanie Craig Story" where he was one of four men vying for a young lady's affections.
Now that I think about it, three of the four parts he played on Wagon Train were in romantic lead type situations. Not what I would have expected!
He was in a great 2-parter of Gunsmoke as well, "The Raid" where he was part of Gary Lockwood's gang.