“Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.” – Jack Palance
Monte Walsh … a real maverick
MFW: Monte Walsh seemed to get decent promotion – lots of excellent posters – and boasts a stellar cast …
yet somehow seemed to slip under the fence.
But I believe this is one Western that will age well and eventually earn it’s rightful place at the bar.
MFW: “100%” from critcs and “57%” from viewers ??
That’s a pretty large canyon.
But I liked it.
“When we get through… you’re gonna want to take a nap, sit on the porch and wait for the mares to come callin’.”
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
Sam Shepard replaces Chris Cooper in Alberta-shot miniseries Klondike
One week after Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper departed the Alberta-shot miniseries Klondike, actor Sam Shepard has stepped in to fill his boots.
Deadline Hollywood reported today that the Oscar-nominated Shepard, who is also a renowned playwright, will take over the role of Father Judge for the series, which is the Discovery Channel’s first scripted project. Production started last week in various locations west of Calgary, including an area near Spray Lakes.
Cooper announced last week that he could not play the role due to a personal matter. Klondike is based on Charlotte Gray’s novel Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike and tells the tale of six strangers in a small frontier town of Klondike in the 1890s. The cast also includes Abbie Cornish, Tim Roth and Game of Thrones Richard Madden.
Shepard earned an Oscar nomination for playing pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. He is perhaps best known as a playwright, having penned classics such as True West, Fool for Love, Curse of the Starving Class and Buried Child. This is not the first time he has filmed in Alberta. He starred in Terrence Malick’s 1978 film Days of Heaven and 2007′s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Periodically we hear the phrase ‘The Western is dead”.
Not so.
How could it be with all us Western fans out here?
Fact is, there are Westerns being made all the time. But most of them are minor in nature – not boasting major Stars – and often go directly to video. Many are still worthy of a look and some are actually very good. They just don’t get mainstream exposure and distribution. Yet every year there are several we can look out for.
“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
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
