Biography of western movie stars 1940s

4-H'ers Love for Western Movie Stars and Vice Versa

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While it perhaps wasn't as easy for rural youth to get into town to see the latest matinee performance of their favorite western idols at the local movie theater as it was for their big city cousins, they were true fans nonetheless. And, the western movie stars of the 1940s and 1950s seemed to be well aware of this. For many of the western stars, if not most of them, there was a direct connection with 4-H. Some grew up on farms or ranches. Some had been 4-H members. All of them made regular appearances at horse shows, state fairs and county 4-H fairs.

A few of these western idols and their 4-H connections are documented below:

Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers was a huge star during the 1940s and 1950s, known as the "King of the Cowboys." He was one of the singing cowboys which was prominent in western movies at that time, appearing in over 100 films between 1935 and 1984.

Rogers (born Leonard Slye) was born in Cincinnati but grew up on the family farm in Duck Run, Ohio, having a pig as a 4-H project. The April 1957 National 4-H News, p. 18, has a photo of Roy Rogers w/alumni plaque awarded as state 4-H alumni winner in Ohio. He was honored as a national 4-H alumni recipient in 1958.

Roy Rogers appeared in a 1984 promotional film, "4-H is More," creating public awareness for 4-H. He also assisted National 4-H Council through a national direct mail letter over his name which went to alumni as a fund raising appeal in 1985. Roy Rogers (and his wife, Dale Evans) attended National 4-H Congress in Chicago several times. Their famous theme song, "Happy Trails," was written by Dale Evans.

Gene Autry

Gene Autry was known as America's favorite singing cowboy. "Back In The Saddle Again" was Autry's signature song which he co-wrote with Ray Whitley. "Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane) was written and originally performed by Autry.

Gene Autry was one of the

The Western genre was defined at the dawn of cinema by legendary filmmakers like John Ford, Henry King, andSergio Leone, and essential films including The Great Train Robbery, Stagecoach, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, iconic stars like John Wayne, Randolph Scott, and Gary Cooper solidified Westerns as one of the most popular film genres and was successfully carried on by modern gunslingers including Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef.

There is an endless list of actors who made their mark with Western movies, but a few classic film stars like Glenn Ford, Jimmy Stewart, and Gregory Peck were crucial players in shaping the classic genre. From Robert Mitchum to John Wayne, these are 10 actors who were pioneers of the Western genre!

10 Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum is universally recognized for his antiheroes and film noir roles in classics like The Night of the Hunter and Out of the Past, but the actor was also successful in the Western genre. Born in Connecticut, Mitchum moved to Hollywood in the 1930s and was encouraged by his sister, Julie, to join a local theater group with her. After taking on numerous roles as an extra and minor parts, he signed a contract with RKO Pictures where he starred in a series of B-Westerns.

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Mitchum may have been the soul of film noir, but he continued to appear in several popular Western films including The Lusty Men, The Way West, and River of No Return alongside Marilyn Monroe and Howard Hawks' El Dorado with John Wayne and James Caan. He also served as the narrator in the 1993 modern Western, Tombstone, starring Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, Val Kilmer, and Bill Paxton.

9 James Stewart

Jimmy Stewart is known for his distinctive drawl and playing good ole' boy roles specifically as

The roots of the western as a staple of the movies extend to 1903 when director Edwin S. Porter took a film crew into the wilds of New Jersey to shoot “The Great Train Robbery,” a landmark narrative one-reeler that famously startled audiences with a close-up of one of the bandits firing his pistol directly into the camera.

One of the uncredited actors in the short film, Gilbert M. Anderson, later became the silver screen’s first western star, “Broncho Billy.”

The western film genre spawned scores of cowboy stars over the decades, from William S. Hart and Tom Mix during the silent era to William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd and Roy Rogers during the B-western era of the `30s, `40s and '50s.

A-listers such as Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda and Alan Ladd also got on the western bandwagon, starring in classics such as “High Noon,” “My Darling Clementine” and “Shane.”

Hoppy, Roy and fellow singing cowboy Gene Autry (the only performer to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — for radio, recording, movies, television and live performance) made successful transitions into television, where they were joined by Clayton Moore’s Lone Ranger, Duncan Renaldo’s Cisco Kid and Guy Madison’s Wild Bill Hickok.

Beginning with “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,” starring Hugh O’Brian, and “Gunsmoke,” starring James Arness, in 1955, TV’s so-called “adult western” breathed new life into the genre and made stars of Steve McQueen (“Wanted: Dead or Alive”), Clint Eastwood (“Rawhide”) and James Garner (“Maverick”).

The popularity of what typically are simple frontier morality tales of good guy vs. bad guy has since diminished.

But still riding tall as a celluloid symbol of the Old West more than 30 years after his death is the biggest cowboy star of them all: John Wayne.

Born four years after the “The Great Train Robbery,” Wayne was a long-standing B-movie cowboy when he turned in a star-making performance as the Ringo Kid in John Ford’s classic 1939 western

American actor (1895–1973)

For the cartoonist, see Ken Maynard (cartoonist).

Kenneth Olin Maynard (July 21, 1895 – March 23, 1973) was an American actor and producer. He was mostly active from the 1920s to the 1940s and considered one of the biggest Western stars in Hollywood.

Maynard was also an occasional screenwriter and director. In 1960, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.

Biography

Maynard was born in Vevay, Indiana, United States, one of five children, another of whom, his lookalike younger brother, Kermit, would also become an actor; most audience members assumed that Kermit was his brother's identical twin. Ken Maynard began working at carnivals and circuses, where he became an accomplished horseman. As a young man, he performed in rodeos and was a trick rider with Wild West Show.

Maynard served in the United States Army during World War I. After the war, Maynard returned to show business as a circus rider with Ringling Brothers. When the circus was playing in Los Angeles, California, actor Buck Jones encouraged Maynard to try working in the movies. Maynard soon had a contract with Fox Studios.

He first appeared in silent motion pictures in 1923 as a stuntman or supporting actor. In 1924, he began working in western features, where his horsemanship and rugged good look