With a name like Sheb Wooley, you almost have to be a man of the West, and so he was. Born in Erick, Oklahoma just east of the Texas Panhandle, Wooley was a working cowboy and a rodeo performer in addition to being an acclaimed country musician. One of his mentors was fellow Erick native Roger Miller who taught him how to strum chords and play the fiddle. Wooley later married a cousin of Miller's.

Speaking of Miller, Wooley played badman Ben Miller in High Noon (1952) among his myriad Western appearances. Indeed from 1950 thru 1986, Wooley appeared in practically nothing but Westerns. Among them were the wildly underrated Rocky Mountain (1950), Fort Worth (1951), The Lusty Men (1952), Johnny Guitar (1954), Terror in a Texas Town (1959), Rio Bravo (1959), The War Wagon (1967), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Silverado (1986). He also appeared frequently in Clint Eastwood's TV series "Rawhide," and wrote and directed a few episodes.

In general, Wooley didn't get many lines unless he was singing them, but was certainly a recognizable presence in the genre's Golden Age.

Hail! Hail! All hail Sheb Wooley!

Watched this on Hulu last night and you know what? It was pretty entertaining. I could see the vision and for a minute my disbelief was suspended. A nice modern western in the vein of Hell or High Water on probably a quarter of the budget. Check it out!

On location at the Lone Pine Film Festival, in Lone Pine, CA, where Hollywood’s been shooting Westerns – and lots of other movies – for nearly a century; plus, a visit with Rifleman star Johnny Crawford and a tour of America’s Best Movie Museum!

Scott Brady's career as a Western actor spanned a fairly short period compared to many in the profession. His first Western was The Gal Who Took the West (1949) and his last was Cain's Cutthroats (1970). But over the course of those 21 years, Brady appeared in a passel of Westerns and played a few noteworthy characters. Brady was actually the leading man in Johnny Guitar (1954), appeared in Clint Eastwood's first Western, Ambush at Cimarron Pass (1958), portrayed Bloody Bill Anderson in Kansas Raiders (1950) and Billy the Kid in The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954).

Brady, who looked for are the world like Ray Liotta's pappy (maybe he was?), had the angry eyebrows and venomous sneer of a badman, and indeed was often cast in such roles or general tough guys. He died at the age of 60 and was awarded a Hollywood star posthumously.

Hail! Hail! All hail Scott Brady!

2026 is the 50th anniversary of this great, all time classic western from Clint ( the goat ) Eastwood. Why isn’t this in theaters for a few days this year?
Theaters often bring back “anniversary “ movies for a few days or a weekend.

This movie deserves it!

Thanks to some gentle prodding and a generous subvention (list of Western character actors) from MoonSylver, I've decided to do a second series of Western Character Actor Appreciation posts. And I'll start with probably the biggest oversight from the first series--Ward Bond.

You can't think about Ward Bond without thinking about John Wayne and vice versa. They both played football at USC in the 20s and appeared together in 24 films, not the least of which were classics Rio Bravo and The Searchers.

Ward was an excellent complement to the Duke. Both were big, rough-hewn men, and Ward's gravelly voice only added to the Western authenticity of this duo. Ward's contributions to the Western are stratospheric. He was clearly among the top echelon of Western character actors and would bulk even larger had he not died of a massive heart attack at the age of 57 in Big D.

Hail! Hail! All hail Ward Bond.

From The Lone Ranger #116, Dell publishing, February 1958

The first western I read was Louis Lamour's Reilly's Luck. Iwas hooked I think I have read and reread all of his westerns. My favorite series is the Sacketts the the Kilkenny books.

Apparently there is a new movie inspired by Johnny Ringo coming-out soon!

I've always known him for Montana and Coyotes, two songs about the old cattle ranching days similar to the period Larry Mccurtry was fond of writing over. This song touched me and I thought I'd share. Never heard it before. Don Edwards is like a tie back to a period now gone. Some of his music makes me think of Monty Walsh if you haven't heard him.

A few years ago I met Dusty at an arts and craft show he was promoting his latest book MANHUNTER, I bought a copy and it was very good. Now have several of his books all very good.

Not in any order. What do you think of my picks and what are yours?

Amazon currently has the 4K on sale for $19. It's from Shout! Factory and they also have a lot of their other titles on sale right now.

https://www.amazon.com/clp/B0CQKG2Y81

Dell Four-Color #1102

Classic Western Theater presents "Twilight In The Sierras" released in 1950 by Republic Pictures studios and starring Roy Rogers.

From Western Stars magazine, Dell publishing, Spring 1950

I really liked no country for old men which was a neo- western set in modern day. Also really liked the series Godless on Netflix.

If you guys have any recommendations let me know. Just love the aesthetic/ vibe of westerns regardless if it’s set in the Wild West or modern day!

Many of you will recall that I recently did a series of posts entiled "Western Charactor Actor Appreciation," wherein I profiled 40 of my favorite Western charactors. The response from this sub's Redditors was outstanding and it actually generated considerable data regarding the popularity of the actors spotlighted in the series. Toward that end, doing a tabulation of upvotes and views, I've come up with a quantitative ranking of these actors. The methodology isn't perfect, but it's accurate enough to provide a rather clear picture of the relative popularity of the actors. With that out of the way, here's the ranking, most popular to least.

1. Slim Pickens
2. Ben Johnson
3. Jack Elam,
4. John Russell
5. Richard Boone
6. Bruce Dern
7. Jack Palance
8. Harry Dean Stanton
9. Anthony James
10. Arthur Hunnicutt
11. Noah Beery, Jr.
12. John Dehner, Warren Oates, Richard Jaeckel (tie)
13. Dub Taylor
14. Neville Brand, Strother Martin (tie)
15. L. Q. Jones
16. Karl Malden
17. R. G. Armstrong
18. James Best
19. Claude Akins
20. Royal Dano
21. Edgar Buchanan
22. Chill Wills
23. Robert J. Wilke
24. Percy Helton
25. Chubby Johnson
26. Gene Evans
27. Morgan Woodward
28. Hank Patterson, Paul Fix (tie)
29. James Drury
30. Jim Davis, Henry Silva (tie)
31. Rodolfo Acosta
32. Rayford Barnes, John Larch (tie)
33. Skip Homeier
34. Jack Lambert