Beyond the Sacramento

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wild Bill Elliott (October 16, 1904 – November 26, 1965) was an American film actor. He specialized in playing the rugged heroes of B Westerns, particularly the Red Ryder series of films. By 1925, he was getting occasional extra work in films. He took classes at the Pasadena Playhouse and appeared in a few stage roles there. By 1927, he had made his first Western, The Arizona Wildcat, playing his first featured role. Several co-starring roles followed, and he renamed himself Gordon Elliott. But as the studios made the transition to sound films, he slipped back into roles as an extra and bit parts, as in Broadway Scandals, in 1929. For the next eight years, he appeared in over a hundred films for various studios, but almost always in unbilled parts as an extra. Elliott began to be noticed in some minor B Westerns, enough so that Columbia Pictures offered him the title role in a serial, The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1938). The serial was so successful, and Elliott so personable, that Columbia promoted him to starring in his own series of Western features, replacing Columbia's number-two cowboy star Robert "Tex" Allen. Henceforth Gordon Elliott would be known as Bill Elliott. Within two years, he was among the Motion Picture Herald's Top Ten Western Stars, where he would remain for the next 15 years. In 1943, Elliott signed with Republic Pictures, which cast him in a series of Westerns alongside George "Gabby" Hayes. The first of these, Calling Wild Bill Elliott, gave Elliott the name by which he would be best known and by which he would be billed almost exclusively for the rest of his career. Following several films in which both actor and character shared the name Wild Bill Elliott, he took the role for which he would be best remembered, that of Red Ryder in a series of sixteen movies about the famous comic strip cowboy and his young Indian companion, Little Beaver (played in Elliott's films by Bobby Blake). Elliott played the role for only two years but would forever be associated with it. Elliott's trademark was a pair of six guns worn butt-forward in their holsters. Elliott's career thrived during and after the Red Ryder films, and he continued making B Westerns into the early 1950s. He also had his own radio show during the late 1940s. His final contract as a Western star was with Monogram Pictures, where budgets declined as the B Western lost its audience to television. When Monogram became Allied Artists Pictures Corporation in 1953, it phased out its Western productions, and Elliott finished out his contract playing a homicide detective in a series of five modern police dramas, his first non-Westerns since 1938. Elliott retired from films (except for a couple of TV Western pilots which were not picked up). He worked for a time as a spokesman for Viceroy cigarettes and hosted a local TV program in Las Vegas, Nevada, which featured many of his Western films.

Evelyn Louise Keyes (November 20, 1916 - July 4, 2008) was an American film actress. A chorus girl by age 18, Keyes came out to Hollywood and was introduced to Cecil B. DeMille, who in her own words, “signed me to a personal contract without even making a test”. After a handful of B-movies at Paramount Pictures, she landed the role in Gone with the Wind, of Scarlett O'Hara's sister, Suellen. She was later interviewed for the 1988 documentary The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind. Columbia Pictures signed her to a contract. In 1941, she played an ingenue in Here Comes Mr. Jordan. She spent most of the early 1940s playing leads in many of Columbia's B dramas and mysteries. She appeared as the female lead opposite Larry Parks in Columbia's blockbuster hit, The Jolson Story. She followed this up with an enjoyable minor screwball comedy, The Mating of Millie, with Glenn Ford. She was then in a 1949 role as Kathy Flannigan in Mrs. Mike. Keyes' last major film role was a small part as Tom Ewell's vacationing wife in The Seven Year Itch (1955), which starred Marilyn Monroe. Keyes officially retired in 1956, but continued to act.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Walter Clarence Taylor Jr. (February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994), known as Dub Taylor, was an American character actor who from the 1940s into the 1990s worked extensively in films and on television, often in Westerns but also in comedies. He was the father of actor Buck Taylor, who played the character Newly O'Brien on Gunsmoke. Walter C. Taylor Jr. was born in 1907 in Richmond, Virginia, the middle child of five children of Minnie and Walter C. Taylor, Sr. According to the federal census of 1920, young Walter had two older sisters, Minnie Marg[aret] and Maud, a younger brother named George, and a little sister, Edna Fay. The family moved to Augusta, Georgia around 1912 when Walter was five years old, and the Taylors lived in this city until he was 13. The census of 1920 also documents that Dub's mother was a native of Pennsylvania and his father was a native of North Carolina, who worked in Augusta at that time as a "Cotton Broker". While living in Georgia as a boy, Walter, Jr., got his lifelong nickname when his friends began calling him "W" (double-u) and then shortened his nickname even farther, to just "Dub". It was in Georgia, too, where Taylor befriended Ty Cobb, Jr., the son of the legendary professional baseball player. A vaudeville performer, Dub Taylor was a member of the 1937 Alabama Crimson Tide football team that played in the 1938 Rose Bowl. He stayed behind to establish a career in films, making his film debut in 1938 as the cheerful ex-football captain Ed Carmichael in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It with You. Taylor secured the part because the role required an actor who could also play the xylophone. Later, during the 1950s and early 1960s, he demonstrated his considerable talent for playing the xylophone on several television shows, including an episode on the syndicated series Ranch Party hosted by Tex Ritter. In 1939, he appeared in the film Taming of the West, in which he originated the character of Cannonball, a role he continued to play for the next ten years, in over 50 films. Cannonball was a comic sidekick to Wild Bill Saunders (played by Bill Elliott), a pairing that continued through 13 features, during which Elliott’s character became Wild Bill Hickok. Despite his extensive career as a character actor in a wide range of roles, Dub Taylor continued to find his niche in Westerns, a genre in which he performed in literally dozens of more films and in episodes of many television series. Taylor often appeared in the guise of talkative hotel or postal clerks, court bailiffs, cooks, or dissolute doctors. He portrayed, for example, an ill-tempered chuckwagon cook in the 1969 film The Undefeated, starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson. He appeared as well in the 1971 movie Support Your Local Gunfighter as the drunken Doc Shultz. Taylor played Houston Lamb over the course of four episodes of Little House On The Prairie in seasons six and seven (1979 to 1981). Taylor made at least two film cameos in the early 1990s. In Back to the Future Part III, he appeared with veteran Western actors Pat Buttram and Harry Carey Jr.. His last appearance was in the film Maverick as a hotel room clerk. Dub Taylor died of a heart attack on October 3, 1994 in Los Angeles. In addition to being father to Buck Taylor, Dub had a daughter, Faydean Taylor Tharp. CLR

John Dilson (February 18, 1891 – June 1, 1944) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 250 films between 1934 and 1944.

Frank LaRue was born on December 5, 1878 in Ridgeway, Ohio, USA as Frank Herman LaRue. He was an actor, known for Boothill Brigade (1937), Sidewalks of New York (1931) and Mesquite Buckaroo (1939). He was married to Elsie May Payne. He died on September 26, 1960 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Donald T. Beddoe (July 1, 1903 – January 19, 1991) was an American character actor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beddoe was the son of Dan Beddoe, a Welsh classical singer, and his wife Mary. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with bachelor's and master's degrees and taught English for three years. After a decade of stage work and bit parts in films, Beddoe began more prominent film roles in the late 1930s. He was usually cast as fast-talking reporters and the like. His commercial acting career was put on hold when he served in World War II in the United States Army Air Corps, in which he performed in the Air Force play, Winged Victory. Beddoe subsequently returned to films playing small character roles. He occasionally appeared in comedy shorts playing comic foils, such as in the Three Stooges shorts Three Sappy People and You Nazty Spy! Beddoe appeared in more than 250 films. Beddoe portrayed Mr. Tolliver in the ABC comedy The Second Hundred Years, and he was in the cast of Life with Father on CBS. He also was seen in dozens of television programs. In the 1950s and 1960s, he made four appearances on Have Gun – Will Travel, three times on Lawman, three on Maverick, three on Laramie, three on Lassie, and three on Perry Mason including in the 1958 episode 'The Case of the Buried Clock'. He was also cast on the western aviation series, Sky King, with Kirby Grant, on the ABC/Warner Brothers series, The Alaskans, with Roger Moore, on the ABC adventure series, Straightaway, with Brian Kelly and John Ashley, and on the NBC western series, The Tall Man, with Barry Sullivan and Clu Gulager. He appeared too on the CBS sitcom, Pete and Gladys, with Harry Morgan and Cara Williams, and on the ABC drama series, Going My Way, with Gene Kelly. He guest starred as well on David Janssen's first series, the crime drama, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. He also made appearances on episodes of The Lone Ranger in the '50s. Beddoe played the outlaw Black Bart in the 1954 episode "Black Bart The PO8" of the western anthology series Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Black Bart is cast as a debonair poetry-writing former school teacher who turns to stagecoach robbery after his first holdup, a prank, pays handsomely. Wells Fargo detectives track him down through a laundry mark. He was also pursued with a romantic interest by his landlady, Winona Webb (Helen Brown). Black Bart spent six years in the penitentiary, never to be heard from again. During the 1970–1971 season of ABC's Nanny and the Professor, Beddoe made four appearances, three as Mr. Thatcher. In 1984, he made his final television appearance as Kris in NBC's Highway to Heaven starring Michael Landon and Victor French.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ned Glass (April 1, 1906 – June 15, 1984) was a Polish-born American character actor who appeared in more than eighty films and on television more than one hundred times, frequently playing nervous, cowardly, or deceitful characters. Short and bald, with a slight hunch to his shoulders, he was immediately recognizable by his distinct appearance, his nasal voice, and his pronounced New York City accent.

From Wikipedia Bud Osborne (July 20, 1884 – February 2, 1964) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 600 films and television programs between 1912 and 1963. Osborne was born in Knox County, Texas, and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack. Osborne specialized in westerns, and was also noted for his skill as a stage driver, and was thus much in demand from his first film in 1912, right through the early 1950s. He was working as a stunt man as late as 1948, in Ray Enright's Return of the Bad Men. As he grew older, Osborne played small character parts in television westerns such series as Have Gun – Will Travel, Bonanza, Bat Masterson, Rawhide and The Lone Ranger. His last role, was in an episode of Gunsmoke in 1963. His career spanned 51 years, with a total of 607 films and television episodes to his credit.