VILLAINS

And now for the bad guys! Western movies were full of bad guys! In fact, there were more bad guys than there were good guys! But, somehow the good guys always caught all the bad guys!

To me, these two were the quintessential bad guys! The first is Roy Barcroft who probably made as many movies as anybody. I have seen him play a couple of good parts, but he was 100 % bad guy! The second is Dick Curtis and Dick really looks the  part of a bad guy! And, he played the part very well.  Both these gentlemen were usually the "head bad guy" who ordered the other bad men around. These two are followed very closely by the following three:

The first is Harry Woods, and like Dick Curtis, he looks the part of a bad man and played the part very well.  The second is Le Roy Mason and he was more of the sly type. He pretended to be a good guy, while all the time figuring out how he was going to cut your throat!  Both these were also usually the head men. The third is Glen Strange; Glen was generally a gunman carrying out the orders of the head men but he played the part well. Many of you may also remember him as Sam, the bartender in Gunsmoke.

And now, for the other "head men":

Other head men, or "boss" were: 1. Forrest Taylor, 2. Kenneth MacDonald, 3. Morris Ankrum, 4. George Chesbro, and 5. Douglas Dumbrille.

And, sometimes head men:

1. Tris Coffin; 2. Ward Bond - Ward played a few bad parts but mostly he was one of the good guys. Many may remember him as the wagon master on the TV series, Wagon Train; 3. Terry Frost; 4. Jack Ingram; 5. Stanford Jolley.

And now come the henchmen, the ones that were designated to carry out the orders of the "boss". There are many recognizable faces here but some of whom you may never have known their names.

1. Yakima Canutt; 2. Lane Bradford; 3. Bob Cason; 4. Edmund Cobb; 5. Kenne Duncan

21. Earl Dwire - played in several of the Duke's early films; 22. Paul Fix - also played in several of the Duke's early films, as well as some of the later ones. He never played a really mean part but he was still a bad guy. Many may remember him as the Sheriff in the TV series, The Rifleman; 23. Douglas Fowley; 24. Myron Healey - Myron was another one who also played the good guy sometimes. 25. Earl Hodgins - Earl never really played what I considered a really bad guy - he was generally the crooked judge, crooked lawyer, crooked mayor, etc.  He played a traveling medicine man in several movies.

26. Steve Clark - Steve many times played the good guy; he doesn't look like a bad guy!;  27. Charlie King - Charlie most always played the bad guy, and sometimes a very "dense" bad guy;  28. Harry Lauter - Harry also played a few good parts even though most of his parts were bad; he also had a brother in the movies whose name is Ed and he can still be seen in some TV series;  29. Tom London - played both good and bad parts, and many times was also just an "extra";  30. John Merton - John is another one that looks the part of the bad man.

31. Dennis Moore; 32. Bud Osborne; 33. House Peters; 34. Mike Ragan; 35. Marshall Reed

36. Jack Rockwell - Jack sometimes played as a sheriff, but often or not he was a bad sheriff;  37. Charlie Stevens - Remember the Indian? 38. Bob Wilke - Bob was in many, many westerns and I don't believe I ever saw him play a good part! 

39. Leo Gordon - Leo is another who looked the part of a bad man and played it very well; 40. Lee Van Cleef - another who really looked the part and played it very well. Remember him in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?; 41. No list of bad men would be complete without the great Jack Elam! Jack is my favorite bad man, but he also played some good parts - remember him in the Jim Garner movies, Support Your Local Gunfighter, and Support Your Local Sheriff?

Background music: Desperado

And, let's not forget the musical folks! Click below to see some of the singing groups. 

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