98 Fun Facts About Western Movie

Which 1903 film, made for the Edison company, is usually cited as the beginning of the Western genre?

The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter for Edison in 1903, set the crime-pursuit-retribution pattern; outlaw Justus Barnes famously fires straight into the camera.

Which 1939 John Ford film made John Wayne a mainstream star after a decade of headlining B-Westerns?

Stagecoach was the one; producer Walter Wanger wanted Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich instead, and Ford refused to replace Wayne.

Which landscape in the American Southwest did John Ford make his signature Western backdrop from 1939 onward?

Monument Valley, on the Arizona-Utah border, was Ford's backdrop from Stagecoach (1939) to Cheyenne Autumn (1964), even when the story was set in Texas.

What is John Wayne's escaped-convict character called in Ford's 1939 breakthrough film?

The Ringo Kid, played by Wayne in Stagecoach, has broken out of prison to avenge his father and brother, murdered by the Plummer gang.

What was John Wayne's real name?

Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907; Glendale firemen nicknamed him 'Little Duke' after his Airedale terrier, Duke.

For which role did John Wayne win his only Best Actor Oscar?

Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, Henry Hathaway's 1969 film, won it; Jeff Bridges played Cogburn again in the 2010 Coen brothers remake.

What was John Wayne's final film, in which he played an ageing gunfighter dying of cancer?

The Shootist (1976) was Wayne's last film; he died of stomach cancer in June 1979, two months after his final public appearance at the Oscars.

Which 1952 Western starring Gary Cooper unfolds in real time as a marshal waits for a gang to arrive?

High Noon, directed by Fred Zinnemann, runs almost in real time and won four Oscars including Best Actor for Cooper; Grace Kelly played his Quaker bride.

Why did John Wayne turn down the lead in Fred Zinnemann's 1952 marshal-alone Western?

Wayne saw High Noon as an anti-blacklist allegory and called it 'un-American'; its writer Carl Foreman had been blacklisted after refusing to name names to HUAC.

Which singer had a country hit with 'Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling', from a 1952 Western?

Tex Ritter sang Dimitri Tiomkin's Oscar-winning theme on the High Noon soundtrack and charted with it; Frankie Laine's cover was the bigger pop hit.

Which 1956 John Ford film was named the greatest American Western by the AFI in 2008?

The Searchers (1956) tops the AFI's 2008 Western list; Wayne's Ethan Edwards spends years hunting a niece abducted by Comanches.

Who plays the abducted niece Debbie in Ford's 1956 masterpiece?

Natalie Wood plays the teenage Debbie Edwards; her younger sister Lana Wood plays Debbie as a child earlier in the film.

John Sturges's 1960 gunfighters-defend-a-village film is a remake of which Japanese classic?

Seven Samurai (1954) had itself been released in the United States under the title The Magnificent Seven.

Which actor plays Chris Adams, leader of The Magnificent Seven?

Yul Brynner plays Chris Adams, the black-clad leader who recruits the seven; Eli Wallach plays the bandit chief Calvera.

Which actor played the coffin-dragging gunman Django in the 1966 spaghetti Western?

Franco Nero played Django, who drags a coffin hiding a machine gun through a muddy border town; the 1966 film spawned dozens of unofficial sequels.

Where were most spaghetti Westerns shot?

Most were made at Rome's Cinecittà studios and on locations in Italy and Spain; the Tabernas Desert in Almería doubled for the American Southwest repeatedly.

Which three films make up Sergio Leone's famous trilogy with Clint Eastwood?

A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) star Eastwood's poncho-wearing Man with No Name.

Who plays 'the Bad' and 'the Ugly' alongside Clint Eastwood's 'Good'?

Wallach's Tuco calls Eastwood 'Blondie'; Van Cleef is Angel Eyes.

Who composed the score for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

Ennio Morricone, Leone's regular composer, wrote the score; its coyote-howl main theme is among the most recognisable pieces of film music.

Where is the gold buried in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

Sad Hill Cemetery, the circular graveyard of the final three-way duel, was purpose-built near Santo Domingo de Silos in Burgos, Spain, and later restored by fans.

Which usually heroic actor played the villain Frank in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West?

Henry Fonda, cast against type, plays the blue-eyed killer Frank, introduced murdering a family; Charles Bronson is the harmonica-playing avenger.

Which two filmmakers helped Leone devise the story of Once Upon a Time in the West?

Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci, both still little known, worked out the story with Leone by studying classic Westerns; Sergio Donati later rewrote the script.

Who wrote the original screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

William Goldman won the Original Screenplay Oscar for it after years researching the outlaws; he later wrote All the President's Men and The Princess Bride.

Where do Butch, Sundance and Etta flee to escape the posse?

They flee to Bolivia, where the real Butch and Sundance are believed to have died in a 1908 shootout at San Vicente.

Which Burt Bacharach and Hal David song plays over the bicycle scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)?

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head won the Oscar even though Time magazine hated the 'anachronistic' scat-singing soundtrack.

Who directed Blazing Saddles, and who plays Sheriff Bart?

Mel Brooks directed and Cleavon Little plays Sheriff Bart; co-writer Richard Pryor was Brooks's first choice for Bart, but the studio would not back him.

What is the name of the town the railroad must pass through in Blazing Saddles?

Rock Ridge is the town; attorney general Hedley Lamarr schemes to drive its residents out so the railroad can be rerouted through it.

Which bandleader cameos in the desert with his orchestra in Blazing Saddles?

Count Basie and his orchestra appear in the desert playing 'April in Paris' as Bart rides toward Rock Ridge.

Which set of four Westerns all won the Academy Award for Best Picture?

Cimarron (1931), Dances With Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992) and the neo-Western No Country for Old Men (2007) each won Best Picture; Stagecoach, High Noon, Shane, The Searchers and True Grit did not.

Dances With Wolves was the feature directing debut of which star?

Kevin Costner directed and starred; Dances With Wolves won seven Oscars from twelve nominations, including Best Director for him.

Which Native American language is spoken through much of Dances With Wolves?

Lakota is spoken by the Sioux characters; Doris Leader Charge of Sinte Gleska University translated the dialogue and coached the cast.

To whom did Clint Eastwood dedicate Unforgiven?

The closing credits read 'Dedicated to Sergio and Don', honouring Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, the directors who shaped Eastwood's career.

Who plays the sadistic sheriff 'Little Bill' Daggett in Unforgiven?

Gene Hackman won Best Supporting Actor for Little Bill; the film also took Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing.

What is the name of the Wyoming town in Unforgiven?

Big Whiskey is the town; William Munny rides there for a bounty the prostitutes put up after one of them is slashed by a cowboy.

Who plays Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993), in a performance widely singled out for praise?

Val Kilmer's wry, consumptive Doc Holliday ('I'm your huckleberry') drew the film's best notices; Kurt Russell plays Wyatt Earp.

Who narrates Tombstone (1993)?

Heston has a supporting role; Mitchum's voice opens and closes the film.

Tarantino's 2012 Western takes its title from a 1966 spaghetti Western by which director?

Tarantino was writing a book on Corbucci when he started the script; the original Django, Franco Nero, cameos.

Which two Oscars did Tarantino's 2012 Western win?

Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor as Dr King Schultz and Tarantino won Best Original Screenplay, his second after Pulp Fiction.

Which other 1939 films, alongside Ford's Wayne breakthrough, revived the Western from 'pulp' status?

Dodge City (Errol Flynn), Jesse James (Tyrone Power) and Destry Rides Again (James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich) all arrived in 1939, the year the A-Western returned.

Which Sam Raimi Western stars Sharon Stone as a gunslinger called the Lady?

The Quick and the Dead (1995) pits Sharon Stone's Lady against Gene Hackman's Herod in a quick-draw tournament; Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio co-star.

Which 1925 film about the Oklahoma land rush was William S. Hart's last?

Tumbleweeds (1925), set during the Cherokee Strip land rush, was William S. Hart's final film; he reissued it in 1939 with a spoken prologue.

Which actor from The Great Train Robbery became the screen's first cowboy star as 'Broncho Billy'?

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, born Max Aronson, played several parts in The Great Train Robbery and from 1908 starred in well over a hundred Broncho Billy shorts.

Who directed The Big Trail (1930), the widescreen epic that gave a 23-year-old John Wayne his first lead?

Raoul Walsh directed it in the 70mm Grandeur process; it flopped partly because Depression-era cinemas could not afford widescreen projection.

Following 'spaghetti Western' for Italy, Westerns made in Australia were jokingly labelled with which food?

Meat pie Westerns joined ramen Westerns for Asian films and masala Westerns for Indian ones in the same food-tagging habit.

Eastern Bloc takes on the Western, often set during the Russian Civil War, went by what nickname?

Red Westerns or Osterns were the Soviet and East German answer; despite the Cold War, the American Western strongly influenced Eastern Bloc filmmakers.

Which Kurosawa film, inspired by Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, was remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars?

Yojimbo shows the influence ran both ways: Kurosawa was a fan of American Westerns, especially the films of John Ford.

Which 1953 George Stevens Western ends with a boy calling after the departing gunfighter?

Shane (1953) ends with young Joey Starrett crying 'Shane! Come back!' as Alan Ladd's wounded gunfighter rides away; Jack Palance plays the hired killer Wilson.

Which 1902 novel by Owen Wister is considered the first critically recognised Western, predating Zane Grey?

The Virginian set the template; Zane Grey followed in the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour became the genre's best-known mid-century novelist.

Which rock and roll star made his acting debut in a Western first titled The Reno Brothers?

Elvis Presley's Western was renamed Love Me Tender once advance sales of his single of that title passed one million, a first for a single.

Will Smith turned down the lead in which 1999 sci-fi hit to make a steampunk Western comedy instead?

The Matrix would have made Smith its hero Neo; he chose a Western built around a gigantic mechanical spider, a decision he later regretted.

Which actor named his Utah ski resort after the outlaw he played opposite Paul Newman?

Robert Redford got to play the Sundance Kid only after Steve McQueen backed out of the film following disagreements with Newman.

Which veteran screen villain marked his City Slickers Oscar with one-armed push-ups on stage?

Jack Palance was 73 when he dropped to the floor, and host Billy Crystal, his co-star in the comedy Western, turned the push-ups into a running gag all night.

What kind of animal is Rango, the stranded pet who becomes sheriff of a desert town called Dirt?

A chameleon voiced by Johnny Depp, Rango was animated by effects house Industrial Light & Magic, which turned down work on Avatar to make the Western.

Which comic actor took over as the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles after the actor first cast collapsed on set?

Gene Wilder replaced Gig Young, who collapsed during his first scene from what proved to be alcohol withdrawal while playing an alcoholic gunslinger.

Which palomino, first named Golden Cloud, carried singing cowboy Roy Rogers through his Westerns?

Trigger had a film career before Rogers: as Golden Cloud he was the mount of Olivia de Havilland's Maid Marian in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Which frontiersman did John Wayne play in The Alamo, the 1960 epic he also produced and directed?

Davy Crockett was a part Wayne took to get the film financed: backers wanted his face on screen, and he still took second mortgages on his houses.

Which martial arts star played Chon Wang, a guard named to echo John Wayne, in a comedy Western?

Jackie Chan's partner in the comedy, Owen Wilson's outlaw Roy O'Bannon, ends the story by revealing that his real name is Wyatt Earp.

Which James Bond actor played the amnesiac outlaw Jake Lonergan in Cowboys & Aliens?

Daniel Craig was a late replacement: Robert Downey Jr. left the project to make a Sherlock Holmes sequel, and Craig was hired later that month.

Which actor played Long Hair, the cattle thief who guns down John Wayne's rancher in The Cowboys?

Bruce Dern paid a price for it: shooting John Wayne on screen left him typecast as a villain and psychotic for much of his career.

Which star won his first Oscar as Hugh Glass, a frontiersman mauled by a grizzly and left to die?

Leonardo DiCaprio had five previous Oscar nominations without a win before The Revenant, a Western survival epic, brought him Best Actor.

Which singer starred in Calamity Jane, the 1953 musical Western made to answer Annie Get Your Gun?

Doris Day's frontier musical was Warner Bros.' reply to MGM's hit, and its ballad Secret Love won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Which Tombstone star played Wyatt Earp and later claimed he secretly directed the Western himself?

Kurt Russell said credited director George P. Cosmatos was brought in as a front after the first director was replaced early in production.

Which real conflict rages around the three gold hunters in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

The American Civil War bridge scene was costly: Spanish army sappers had to build the bridge twice after the first explosion went wrong.

Which actor played Billy the Kid in Young Guns alongside his real-life brother Charlie Sheen?

Emilio Estevez led a cast so starry that Tom Cruise, visiting friends on set, slipped in for a silent cameo as a henchman shot in the final gunfight.

Which songwriter both scored Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and acted in it as Alias, one of Billy's gang?

Bob Dylan had never scored a feature before, yet the job produced one of his most popular songs, since recorded by Eric Clapton and Guns N' Roses.

Who replaces John Wayne's ranch hands on the cattle drive in The Cowboys when they join a gold rush?

Local schoolboys make the 400-mile drive and finish it alone: after outlaws kill the rancher, they win back the herd and sell it in Belle Fourche.

Which comedy Western won Lee Marvin an Oscar as both a drunken gunfighter and a tin-nosed killer?

Cat Ballou also holds the final film appearance of Nat King Cole, who strolls through it with Stubby Kaye as a singing minstrel narrator.

Which comedy Western has out-of-work silent-film cowboys mistaken for real heroes by a village plagued by bandits?

Three Amigos was co-written by songwriter Randy Newman, who also composed its songs and voiced the Singing Bush the heroes meet in the desert.

Which star played lawyer Ransom Stoddard opposite John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?

James Stewart gave his last film performance in a Western of sorts, voicing Sheriff Wylie Burp in the animated An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.

Which instrument gives Charles Bronson's nameless gunman his name in Once Upon a Time in the West?

Harmonica is all anyone calls him, and Bronson won the part only after Clint Eastwood turned down an offer to play the film's protagonist.

Which Howard Hawks Western cast Dean Martin as a drunk deputy and pop idol Ricky Nelson as a gunman?

Rio Bravo worked so well that Hawks and John Wayne reworked its story twice more, as El Dorado and then Rio Lobo.

Which Sam Peckinpah Western about ageing outlaws in 1913 became notorious for slow-motion bloodshed?

The Wild Bunch stars William Holden as gang leader Pike Bishop, and its rapid-cut mix of normal and slow-motion images was revolutionary in 1969.

Which musical Western has Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin sing as Gold Rush partners sharing a wife?

Paint Your Wagon gave Marvin a real hit: his gravelly Wand'rin' Star, backed by the film's choir, went to number one in the UK.

Which rock band play the Old West festival band in the sequel Back to the Future Part III?

ZZ Top play at the town's 1885 festival in the science fiction Western, where Marty McFly goes by the alias Clint Eastwood.

Which composer's score for The Cowboys led a young Steven Spielberg to hire him for his own films?

John Williams caught Spielberg's ear with The Cowboys and The Reivers just as the director was preparing his feature debut, The Sugarland Express.

Which rodeo clown turned Western actor rode a falling H-bomb like a bronco in Dr. Strangelove?

Slim Pickens took his stage name from a rodeo manager's warning that the prize money would be slim pickings for him.

Which star of television's original Maverick returned as a marshal in the 1994 Mel Gibson film?

James Garner's marshal, Zane Cooper, turns out in the final scene to be Bret Maverick's father and his accomplice in the con.

Which comedy duo perform a soft-shoe shuffle outside a saloon in the Western comedy Way Out West?

Laurel and Hardy also sing The Trail of the Lonesome Pine in the film, and released as a single in Britain in 1975 it reached number 2 in the charts.

Which Michael Cimino Western flopped so badly in 1980 that its studio, United Artists, was sold off?

Heaven's Gate cost $44 million and took just $3.5 million at the US box office, and within a year United Artists had been sold to the owner of MGM.

Which actor aged to 121 under latex makeup to play Jack Crabb, the narrator of Little Big Man?

Dustin Hoffman found the old man's hoarse voice by sitting in his dressing room and screaming at full volume for an hour.

Which tycoon directed The Outlaw himself and fought the censors over shots of its leading lady?

Howard Hughes finished the Western in 1941, but it did not open until 1943, after the Code office made him trim footage dwelling on his star's bust.

Which star directed One-Eyed Jacks himself after Stanley Kubrick quit, his only film as a director?

Marlon Brando's company had signed Kubrick, who stepped down just two weeks before production began, reportedly to get Lolita made instead.

Which composer wrote the Magnificent Seven theme that sold Marlboro cigarettes in adverts for years?

Elmer Bernstein's score earned an Oscar nomination, and from 1963 its main theme rode on for many years in American commercials for the cigarettes.

Which Western star and much-decorated World War II soldier played himself in To Hell and Back?

Audie Murphy was brought to Hollywood by James Cagney, who had seen him pictured in Life magazine as the war's most decorated soldier.

Which future crime novelist wrote the 1953 short story that became the Western 3:10 to Yuma?

Elmore Leonard began as a Western writer: The Tall T and Hombre were also filmed from his work before crime fiction took over.

Which comedian played Painless Potter, the dentist Calamity Jane marries as cover, in The Paleface?

Bob Hope sings Buttons and Bows in the Western comedy, and the song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Which silent comedian befriends a cow called Brown Eyes in his 1925 Western comedy Go West?

Buster Keaton directed the film himself and plays a drifter known only as Friendless, who bonds with the neglected cow on a ranch.

Which actor played Doc Holliday to Burt Lancaster's Wyatt Earp in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral?

Kirk Douglas shared the film with a young Dennis Hopper as Billy Clanton and DeForest Kelley, later Dr. McCoy of Star Trek, as Morgan Earp.

Which epic director debuted with The Squaw Man, the first feature shot in what is now Hollywood?

Cecil B. DeMille rented a barn at Selma and Vine as his studio for the Western; the barn went on to house the Hollywood Heritage Museum.

Which Bollywood hit about two crooks hired to catch a bandit chief is called a 'Curry Western'?

Sholay blended Indian bandit films with Italian and Hollywood Westerns, and ran for more than five years at Mumbai's Minerva theatre.

Which country produced The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a 2008 Western set in 1930s Manchuria?

South Korea's homage to the Italian classic was dubbed a kimchi Western by Variety, a nod to the spaghetti Westerns it plunders.

Which rock musician wrote The Proposition, a Western set in the Australian outback?

Nick Cave also scored the film with Warren Ellis; its outlaw hero is offered freedom if he will hunt down and kill his own older brother.

Which future Revenge of the Nerds star made his feature film debut as a drover in The Cowboys?

Robert Carradine comes from an acting dynasty begun by his father John, and first appeared in television Westerns such as Bonanza.

Which character actor won his third supporting Oscar as Judge Roy Bean in The Westerner?

Walter Brennan's judge is so besotted with the actress Lily Langtry that he renames his town after her and buys every ticket to her show.

Which three-lens process, shown on a huge curved screen, was used to film How the West Was Won?

Cinerama's three-strip process was used for only two dramatic feature films, this Western and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.

Which Hollywood star played Vienna, the strong-willed saloon owner in Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar?

Joan Crawford held the film rights to the novel, which its author had dedicated to her, and had the studio hire Ray to direct the adaptation.

Which cattle route to Kansas does the herd finally take in Red River, with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift?

The Chisholm Trail drive in the film is a fictional account of the first to take cattle from Texas to Kansas, bound for the railroad at Abilene.

Which rodeo rider turned stuntman doubled for John Wayne and staged the chariot race in Ben-Hur?

Yakima Canutt received an honorary Academy Award in 1967 for his stunt work and for developing safety devices to protect stuntmen.