The Wild Bunch cont. ……………… Casting Call Part 1

The Wild Bunch - The Walk reversed

A Wilder Bunch??

Casting Call Part 1 / Pike Bishop
The Wild Bunch 1973

The Wild Bunch - Holden
The Wild Bunch / Pike Bishop / William Holden

I always like to check who got a particular role/part/casting – and how – why? Who refused it – missed out? The casting story for The Wild Bunch reveals some very interesting candidates.

Who would you have picked? Why? A very tough decision.

Wikipedia says: “Director Sam Peckinpah considered many actors for the Pike Bishop role, before casting William Holden: Richard Boone, Sterling Hayden, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, and James Stewart. Marvin actually accepted the role but pulled out after he was offered a larger pay deal to star in Paint Your Wagon (1969).”

Pretty well a Who’s Who of Western film Icons.

Who would you have Cast?:

Richard Boone

Richard Boone Western Filmography
Way of a Gaucho
– (1952) / Pony Soldier (uncredited) (1952)
City of Bad Men – (1953) / The Siege at Red River – (1954)
The Raid – (1954) / Ten Wanted Men – (1955)
Man Without a Star – (1955) / Robbers’ Roost – (1955)
Star in the Dust – (1956) / The Tall T – (1957)
The Alamo – (1960) / A Thunder of Drums – (1961)
Rio Conchos – (1964) / Hombre – (1967)
Big Jake  (1971) / Against a Crooked Sky – (1975)
Diamante Lobo – (1976) / The Shootist – (1976)

Richard Boone TV Westerns
Frontier – episode – The Salt War -1956)
Studio One in Hollywood – episode – Dead of Noon – (1957)
Have Gun – Will Travel – 225 episodes – (1957–1963)
Cimarron Strip – episode – The Roarer – (1967)
Hec Ramsey – 10 episodes – (1972-1974)

Sterling Hayden

Sterling Hayden Western Filmography
1949 El Paso / 1952 Flaming Feather
1952 Denver and Rio Grande / 1952 Hellgate
1953 Kansas Pacific / 1954 Arrow In the Dust
1954 Johnny Guitar / 1955 Timberjack
1955 Shotgun / 1955 Top Gun
1955 The Last Command / 1957 Gun Battle at Monterey
1957 The Iron Sheriff / 1958 Terror in a Texas Town
1975 Cipolla Colt

Sterling Hayden TV Westerns
1957 Zane Grey Theater / 1957 Wagon Train
1982 The Blue and the Gray

Charleton Heston

Charleton Heston Western Filmography
1952 The Savage / 1952 The President’s Lady
1953 Pony Express / 1953 Arrowhead
1955 The Far Horizons / 1957 Three Violent People
1958 The Big Country /  1965 Major Dundee
1968 Will Penny1972 The Call of the Wild
1980 The Mountain Men / 1993 Tombstone

Burt Lancaster 2

Burt Lancaster Western Filmography
1951 Vengeance Valley / 1951 Ten Tall Men
1954 Apache1954 Vera Cruz
1955
The Kentuckian / 1956 The Rainmaker
1957 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral / 1960 The Unforgiven
1965 The Hallelujah Trail / 1966 The Professionals
1968 The Scalphunters / 1971 Lawman
1971 Valdez Is Coming1972 Ulzana’s Raid
1976 Buffalo Bill and the Indians 1981 Cattle Annie and Little Britches

Lee Marvin

Lee Marvin Western Filmography
Gun Fury (1953) / The Raid (1954)
The Comancheros (1961) / The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Cat Ballou (1965) / The Professionals (1966)
Paint Your Wagon (1969) / Monte Walsh (1970)
The Spikes Gang (1974)

TV Westerns:
Wagon Train
Bonanza, and The Virginian … 

Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum Western Filmography
1943 Hoppy Serves a Writ / 1943 Border Patrol
1943 Leather Burners / 1943 Colt Comrades
1943 The Lone Star Trail / 1943 Beyond the Last Frontier
1943 Bar 20 / 1943 False Colors
1943 Riders of the Deadline / 1944 Nevada
1945 West of the Pecos / 1947 Pursued
1948 Blood on the Moon / 1949 The Red Pony
1952 The Lusty Men / 1954 River of No Return
1955 Man with the Gun / 1956 Bandido
1959 The Wonderful Country / 1967 El Dorado
1967 The Way West / 1968 Villa Rides
1968 5 Card Stud / 1969 Young Billy Young
1969 The Good Guys and the Bad Guys
1993 Tombstone Narrator / 1995 Dead Man

Robert Mitchum TV Work
1985 North and South

Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck Western Filmography
1946 Duel in the Sun / 1946 Yellow Sky
1950 The Gunfighter / 1950 Only the Valiant
1958 The Bravados / 1958 The Big Country
1962 How the West Was Won / 1967 The Stalking Moon
1967 Mackenna’s Gold / 1982 The Blue and the Gray
1989 Old Gringo

James Stewart 2

James Stewart Western Filmography
1939 Destry Rides Again / 1950 Winchester ’73
1950 Broken Arrow / 1952 Bend of the River
1953 The Naked Spur / 1954 The Far Country
1955 The Man from Laramie / 1961 Two Rode Together
1962 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962 How the West Was Won / 1964 Cheyenne Autumn
1965 Shenandoah / 1966 The Rare Breed
1968 Firecreek / 1968 Bandolero!
1970 The Cheyenne Social Club
1976 The Shootist

Amazing … stunning. You can’t lose. Put all the names in a hat and pull one out … any one of them would have done a great job.

Next let’s have a look at Ernest Borgnine’s role of Dutch Engstrom …

Ernest Borgnine

Gregory Peck … Western Star

Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck

“You have to dream, you have to have a vision, and you have to set a goal for yourself that might even scare you a little because sometimes that seems far beyond your reach.”

Gregory Peck Bio
Gregory Peck Awards

Gregory Peck Awards

Peck was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning once. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird.
In 1968 he received the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Peck also received many Golden Globe awards. He won in 1947 for The Yearling, in 1963 for To Kill a Mockingbird, and in 1999 for the TV mini series Moby Dick.
He was nominated in 1978 for The Boys from Brazil.
He received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1969, and was given the Henrietta Award in 1951 and 1955 for World Film Favorite – Male.
In 1969 US President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
In 1971 the Screen Actors Guild presented Peck with the SAG Life Achievement Award.
In 1989 the American Film Institute gave Peck the AFI Life Achievement Award.
He received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema in 1996.
In 1986 Peck was honored alongside actress Gene Tierney with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival Spain for their body of work.
In 1987, Peck was awarded the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
In 1993, Peck was awarded with an Honorary Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.
In 1998 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
In 2000 Peck was made a Doctor of Letters by the National University of Ireland.
He was a founding patron of the University College Dublin School of Film, where he persuaded Martin Scorsese to become an honorary patron.
Peck was also chairman of the American Cancer Society for a short time.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Gregory Peck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6100 Hollywood Blvd.
On April 28, 2011, a ceremony was held in Beverly Hills, California celebrating the first day of issue of a U.S. postage stamp commemorating Peck. The stamp is the 17th commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series.

Gregory Peck

gegory peck 9

Gregory Peck stamp
‘Stamp of Approval’

“There’s some things a man has to prove to himself alone… not to anyone else.”
Gregory Peck / The Big Country

Gregory Peck Star

Gregory Peck … Impeccable

Folks …

Sorry I haven’t posted much lately … my plate is a bit full right now.

But I am working on a Bio for Gregory Peck … trying to round up a few good images.
 … some screenshots.

Hope  to have something up in a couple of days.

Have a great Spring !

gegory peck 2
Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
gregory peck
Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck Westerns Filmography: Part 2

“Inside of all the makeup and the character and makeup, it’s you, and I think that’s what the audience is really interested in… you, how you’re going to cope with the situation, the obstacles, the troubles that the writer put in front of you.”
– Gregory Peck
__________________________________________________________

Duel in the Sun ... 1946
Duel in the Sun … 1946
Yellow Sky 1949
Yellow Sky (1949) – Peck with Anne Baxter
The Gunfighter 1950
The Gunfighter … 1950
Only The Valiant (Fort Invincible) 1951
Only The Valiant (Fort Invincible) … 1951
The Bravados 1958
The Bravados … 1958
The Big Country 1958
The Big Country … 1958
How the West Was Won 1962
How the West Was Won (1962) – Peck with Debbie Reynolds
The Stalking Moon 1968
The Stalking Moon … 1968
Mackenna's Gold 1969
MacKenna’s Gold (1969)
Shoot Out 1971
Shoot Out … 1971
 Billy Two Hats 1974
Billy Two Hats … 1974
The Blue and the Grey 1982
The Blue and the Grey (1982) – Peck as Lincoln
Old Gringo (1989)
Old Gringo (1989)
Frederic Remington The Truth of Other Days (1991)
Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days (1991)

Gregory Peck Western Filmography: Duel in the Sun

Gregory Peck Western Filmography: Duel in the Sun.

Peck Bio ...Duel in the Sun
Duel in the Sun

Gregory Peck Western Filmography: Duel in the Sun

Duel in the Sun (1946)

Peck Bio ...Duel in the Sun
Duel in the Sun

Directed by King Vidor, produced and written by David O. Selznick
Peck’s first Western and one of Peck’s first movies – and a controversial one. It received the nickname “Lust in the Dust” and even by today’s standards we see how this steamy Western must have challenged the morals of the day (1946). Several scenes had to be cut as they could not pass the censorship boards. (One wonders what the uncut version would have been like … whew !!) Yet, still Nominated Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Jones) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Lillian Gish).

Wikipedia: “Selznick had high hopes that Duel in the Sun would surpass his success with Gone with the Wind. The film received poor reviews, however, and was highly controversial due to its sexual content and to Selznick’s real-life relationship with Jones, which broke up both of their marriages. Despite the bad press, it was a box-office success for Selznick, although not a second Gone with the Wind. It earned $11,300,000 in rentals in North America during its initial release and much more overseas and in the 1954 re-release.”

Because of the film’s huge production costs (rumored to be over $6,000,000), its $2,000,000 advertising campaign (unheard of at the time) and Selznick’s costly distribution tactics, the film apparently only broke even.

Duel in the Sun poster
Duel in the Sun poster
Upstaged by a hoss ...
Upstaged by a hoss …
... but not fer long
… but not fer long

Gregory Peck … No Greenhorn!

Greg Peck  –  Wrangler

Peck pic pilfered frum Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans: 
http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/D/Duel%20in%20the%20Sun.htm

Peck’s tussle with “Old Thunder” in The Big Country wasn’t his first altercation with an ornery steed. Observe the clip below from Duel in the Sun.

Call me wrong, but it appears Peck is doing his own stunt-work ?

I love the way Peck swings into the corral – Lancaster style.

The cast of Duel in the Sun is mindboggling: Gregory Peck, Jennifer JonesJoseph Cotten, Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Marshall, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston, Charles Bickford, Harry Carey, Butterfly McQueen, Otto Kruger, Sidney Blackmer ... My God!

duel in the sol poster
duel in the sol poster

Clip Below: Peck tames ‘Old Thunder’ in The Big Country: Movie Clips.com:

http://movieclips.com/utbsv-the-big-country-movie-riding-old-thunder/

Duel in the Sun (film)
Duel in the Sun (film)
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones
jennifer jones duel in the sun
… and just as dangerous …
Actress Lillian Gish
Lilian Gish … The Legend … the Lady

much more to come  … !!!

Heston – The Big Country

Heston doesn’t smile much in The Big Country. He’s the Major’s (Charles Bickford) hard-bitten boy – the son he never had – and his foreman. He’s cowboy tuff and cowboy gruff. He’s also plain unhappy that the girl he’s loved so long has saddled up with an Eastern greenhorn, Gregory Peck. It ‘sticks in his craw’ – Big time – and he’s not going to leave quietly …

Charlton Heston  -  The BIg Country
Charlton Heston – The BIg Country

As the film ends, Big transitions are in the offing. The battling patriarchs – Burl Ives and Charles Bickford – are dead – along with Ives’ troublesome son Buck (Chuck Connors). It’s seems a ‘given’ that Heston will become the new boss of the Major’s empire – alongside his proper partner Carroll Baker; while the Hannassey’s (Ives’ bunch) homestead is in disarray with no one at its helm; meanwhile the “Big Muddy” now rises under Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons.

As Peck and Simmons ride off into the sunset – we are sure that Heston and Carroll Baker will complete their own circle (though we don’t get to see it).

One wonders though, if there still isn’t an untold story on the horizon …

The only problem is: where do you find the players? – another cast like this?

The answer is …

You can’t.

Heston NRA
Heston NRA

In this 2002 file photo, Charlton Heston acknowledges applause at a benefit honoring him at the
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
(Photo by Steve Sisney/The OklahomanArchives)

Heston … Part 2 … Western Filmography

heston pics 2
The Savage -1952
Susan Morrow / Heston
heston pics 4
Arrowhead – 1953
heston pics 6
The Pony Express – 1953
Far Horizons
Far Horizons – 1955
Donna Reed / Heston
three violent people
Three Violent People – 1956
The BIg Country
The BIg Country – 1958
Major Dundee 1965
Major Dundee 1965
Charlton Heston 5
Will Penny – 1968
The Last Hard Men
The Last Hard Men – 1976
heston pics 9
The Mountain Men – 1980
Tombstone
Tombstone – 1993

The Big Country / William Wyler

The Big Country.

Director William Wyler has the distinction of having directed more actors to Oscar-nominated performances than any
other director in history: thirty-six.
Out of these nominees, fourteen went on to win Oscars.

The Big Country Banner
The Big Country Banner
Burl Ives - The Big Country
Burl Ives – ‘The Big Country’ 1958

Wyler: Academy Award for Best Direction three times
Ben HurThe Best Years of Our Lives, and Mrs. Miniver

William Wyler - The Big Country
William Wyler – The Big Country

“I made over forty Westerns. I used to lie awake nights trying to think up new ways of getting on and off a horse.”

Western Filmography (Partial)

People laugh at these old Westerns now – from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s – but that’s where we came from – and where Wyler paid his dues – and went on to become one of the most celebrated Directors in Movie history.

Friendly Persuasion (1956 – Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire) / The Westerner Starring (1940 – Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan) / The Storm (1930) Written by John Huston / Hell’s Heroes (Charles Bickford)1929 / Thunder Riders (1928) / The Border Cavalier (1927) / Daze of the West (1927) / The Horse Trader (1927) / The Square Shooter (1927) / The Phantom Outlaw (1927) / Gun Justice (1927) / The Home Trail (1927) / The Ore Raiders (1927) / The Lone Star (1927) / Hard Fists (1927) / The Haunted Homestead (1927) / Galloping Justice (1927) / Shooting Straight (1927) / Blazing Days (1927) / The Silent Partner (1927) / Tenderfoot Courage (1927) / Kelcy Gets His Man (1927) / The Two Fister (1927) / The Stolen Ranch (1926) / The Pinnacle Rider (1926) / Lazy Lightning (1926) / Martin of the Mounted (1926) / The Gunless Bad Man (1926) / Stolen Ranch (1926) / The Crook Buster (1925)

The Big Country … big enough for everyone … ?

“Why ain’t you dead? You let ’em run my cows off
and you come back standing up!”

The Big Country
The Big Country

The Big Country Trailer

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 100% !!!

The Big Country Rotton Tomatoes Reviewhttp://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_country/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_country/

The Big Country Posters
The Big Country Posters

“You don’t shoot an unarmed man… not while I’m around.”

The Big Country

The Big Country.

BIG … and a Western Classic with Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Burl Ives, Carroll Baker, Jean Simmons, Chuck Conners …

“This is the west, Jim, a man is still expected to defend himself. If he allows people to think he won’t, he’s in trouble. Bad trouble.”

The Big Country

FilmAffinity.com / Wikipedia.com

Below; The classic fight scene from The Big Country
or ‘How to pull your britches on, Western style’.

Not many folks can deliver a volley of insults like Heston:

“All I can say, McKay, is you take a helluva long time to say good-bye.”

The Big Country

“This is the west, Jim, a man is still expected to defend himself. If he allows people to think he won’t, he’s in trouble. Bad trouble.”

The Big Country
FilmAffinity.com / Wikipedia.com 

Below: The classic fight scene from The Big Country
or ‘How to pull your britches on, Western style’.

Not many folks can deliver a volley of insults like Heston:

“All I can say, McKay, is you take a helluva long time to say good-bye.”