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 …
Lee with Oscar for Cat Ballou
Military career
Allegiance – United States
Service/branch United States Marine Corps
Years of service 1942–1945
Rank Private First Class
Unit 24th Marine Regiment
Battles/wars
World War II
Battle of Saipan
Awards Purple Heart
But as I said, with exceptional subject matter like The Lone Ranger and Tonto, how could I fail?
In truth, this is about the 5th Award that kind Bloggers have sent my way, but I’ve been callously negligent in posting and responding to these expressions of valued appreciation. I hope to rectify this in the near future and post all these kind awards I’ve received.
In compliance with one condition of the Epically Awesome Award of Epic Awesomeness I am to post 10 epic and/or awesome facts about myself.
“10 epic and/or awesome facts about myself ???
Ah shucks … I can only think of none. I’ll have a couple of jiggers and make some stuff up.
1. i didn’t graduate from high school. True.
i don’t figure I wuz stoopid. just disinterested.
2. My Dad, myself and my 3 older brothers were all in the Calgary Highlanders.
My Dad fought in the war. The rest of us just fought each other.
3. I have been ‘out of the body’ on several occasions.
Mostly on purpose.
4. I held a broad jump record that lasted 14 years.
5. As a 15-year-old grocery clerk I once gave a customer (who said he was looking for “butterfly nuts”), a box of mothballs. (Hes’ still laughing)
6. I don’t own any guns.
Or a horse.
7. I was once saved from getting hit by a car by an invisible hand that pushed me back onto the curb. I believe in spiritual guardians.
8. i was never sure I was on the right planet. Is this Naboo?
9. I quit drinking, smoking, and drugs.
God I’m bored. (Just kidding … about being bored)
10. I’ve had seven partners.
This last one – Rose – is a keeper.
OK .. Part One of my Duties of Compliance have been completed.
Part Two is Give it to 10 bloggers you think are awesome and/or epic – or both.
Well … being a reclusive Cowboy, I can’t rightly think of 10 offhand, but I’ll just start sending them out till the dust settles.
Jay Silverheels / Canadian Mohawk
Jay Silverheels achieved his greatest fame as the The Lone Ranger’s friend, Tonto. Being irreplaceable as the Lone Ranger’s best friend he subsequently also appeared in films, The Lone Ranger (1956) as well as in The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958). – Wikipedia
Silverheels began working in motion pictures as an extra and stunt man in 1937. During the early years of his screen career, he was billed variously as Harold Smith or Harry Smith, and appeared in low-budget features, westerns, and serials. He adopted his screen name from the nickname he had had as a speedy lacrosse player. From the late 1940s he played in more prestigious pictures, including Captain from Castile starring Tyrone Power, I Am an American(1944), Key Largo with Humphrey Bogart (1948), Lust for Gold with Glenn Ford (1949), Broken Arrow (1950) with James Stewart, War Arrow (1953) with Maureen O’Hara, Jeff Chandler and Noah Beery, Jr., Drums Across the River (1954), Walk the Proud Land (1956) with Audie Murphy and Anne Bancroft, Alias Jesse James (1959) with Bob Hope, and Indian Paint (1964) with Johnny Crawford. He made a brief appearance in True Grit (1969) as a condemned criminal about to be executed. He played a substantial role as John Crow in Santee(1973), starring Glenn Ford. One of his last roles was a wise white-haired chief in The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973). – Wikepedia
“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 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 Awardat 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.
‘Stamp of Approval’
“There’s some things a man has to prove to himself alone… not to anyone else.”
Gregory Peck / The Big Country
“It seems as if only now I really know who I am. My strengths, my weaknesses, my jealousies – it’s as if all of it has been boiling in a pot for all these years, and as it boils, it evaporates into steam, and all that’s left in the pot in the end is your essence, the stuff you started out with in the very beginning.”
KIrk Douglas AwardsThe Bronze Wrangler
AWARDS / ACHIEVEMENTS
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1984.
Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Jimmy Carter on 17th January 1981. This is the highest US honor a civilian can receive.
Received a UCLA Medal of honor 14 June 2002 from the University of California, Los Angeles, during school’s graduation ceremony for theater, film and television students.
Previous recipients include former US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and actors Laurence Olivier and Carol Burnett.
AFI Life Achievement Award: 1991 Accepted AFI Life Achievement Award Academy Awards: 1996 Honorary Award for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community 1995 nominated for Honorary Awards 1956 Lust for Life nominated for Best Actor 1952 Bad & the Beautiful nominated for Best Actor 1949 Champion nominated for Best Actor Berlin International Film Festival: 1975 Posse nominated for Competing Film New York Film Critics Circle Award: 1956 Lust for Life won for Best Actor 1951 Detective Story nominated for Best Actor
President of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1980.
Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1970.
He was awarded the American National Medal of Arts in 2001 from the National Endowment of the Arts.
“Unknown to many, Kirk has long been involved in humanitarian causes and has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the US State Department since 1963. His efforts were rewarded in 1981 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 1983 with the Jefferson Award. Furthermore, the French honored him with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. More recognition followed for his work with the American Cinema Award (1987), the German Golden Kamera Award (1987), The National Board of Reviews Career Achievement Award (1989), an honorary Academy Award(1995), Recipient of the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award (1999) and the UCLA Medal of Honor (2002).” IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000018/bio
Helped break the Hollywood blacklist by hiring Dalton Trumbo, a member of the “Hollywood Ten”, to write the screenplay.
Despite widespread criticism from many in the industry, including John Wayne and Hedda Hopper, Douglas refused to back down and Trumbo received a screen credit under his own name.
When presenting Douglas with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at The 68th Annual Academy Awards (1996) (TV), Steven Spielberg thanked Douglas for his courage.
His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6263 Hollywood Blvd.
Has a street named after him near Palm Springs International Airport: Kirk Douglas Way. (2004)
Kirk Douglas / Author of books: The Ragman’s Son: An Autobiography (1988, memoir) Dance with the Devil (1990, novel) The Gift (1992, novel) Last Tango in Brooklyn (1994, novel) Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning (1997, memoir) My Stroke of Luck (2002, memoir) Let’s Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning (2007, memoir)
1951 – with Walter Brennan and Virginia Mayo – Kirk’s first Western – he was 35 years old.1952 – Acted for free, in order to break up his contract with Warner Bros.1952 – Directed by Howard Hawkes – nominated for two Academy Awards1955 – Rotten Tomatoes says Kirk “shines in the hyper-macho role …” Jack Elam appears as a treacherous gunslinger.Rated at IMDB (Internet Movie Database) as “6.4” out of 10. I rate Elsa Martinelli as a 10 out of 10.1957 – Directed by John Sturges Considered by many to be one the top Western Classics of all time – including myself.1959 – An under-rated and worthy follow-up to Gunfight at OK Corral1959 – Written by Bernard Shaw Lawrence Olivier – Kirk Douglas – Burt Lancaster1961 – Directed by Robert Aldrich (Vera Cruz) who never knew how to make an ordinary movie.1962 – A Classic – and unusual Western Kirk was nominated for a 1963 BAFTA Award as “Best Foreign Actor”.1961 – Three great actors plus Sally Field in her first major film role– 1967 – Douglas: “Mine hit the ground first” Wayne: “Mine was taller.”1970 – Also starring Henry Fonda, Burgess Meredith, Warren Oates … Never hide your loot in a rattlesnake pit …Two men who have paid their dues …Douglas plays an ambitious politician … Dern plays himself.A comedy … what else could it be with Arnold as a cowboy?A jewel in Kirk’s crown Should have been nominated for Supporting role(s)1984 – Two great actors – Westerns or otherwise – shining in their sunset
“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 … 1946Yellow Sky (1949) – Peck with Anne BaxterThe Gunfighter … 1950Only The Valiant (Fort Invincible) … 1951The Bravados … 1958The Big Country … 1958How the West Was Won (1962) – Peck with Debbie ReynoldsThe Stalking Moon … 1968MacKenna’s Gold (1969)Shoot Out … 1971Billy Two Hats … 1974The Blue and the Grey (1982) – Peck as LincolnOld Gringo (1989)Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days (1991)
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 BannerBurl Ives – ‘The Big Country’ 1958
Wyler: Academy Award for Best Direction three times Ben Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Mrs. Miniver
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)
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