Who's your favorite Western villian?

[Harley Starr]

There are so many great "bad guys" that it is hard to pick just one. But, off the top of my head, I would have to pick the one that is the most ruthless, cold blooded killer of them all... Peter Fonda's character "Frank", from Once Upon a Time in the West.

Some folk might not agree with me, but any bad guy that will stone cold two kids and never blink has go to be an all time western bad guy. He was such a bad guy that he made other bad guys look good in comparison.

I hear you Two-Step. Those baby blue eyes of his looked like they could kill you quicker than his Colt.

[Dunson]

I like the bad guys from Wayne's poverty row westerns like Lloyd Whitlock, Slim Whitaker, Leroy Mason, Harry Woods and even George "Gabby" Hayes appeared as the villian in two of Wayne's westerns.

[Drayton Calhoun]

I have to agree on Alan Rickman in Quigley. On one hand, cultured and sophisticated while totally twisted and deluded. Another is L.Q. Jones. He rarely played the main heavy, but as a 'henchman' he was hard to beat.

[Joe Lafives]

Gosh
Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill as played by Michael Biehn and Powers Boothe

[buffalo bill]

Bruce Dern hands down but Richard Boone was a "good"bad guy. (Big Jake)

[Dunson]

Yakima Canutt played the villain in most of Wayne's early westerns looking very sinister with his dark eyes.

[Josie Wales]

Hi Fellas.  I'm partial to Eastwood movies so I would have to say Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes in the Good the Bad and the Ugly is one of my favorite villians.  Also Gian Maria Volonte played good villian roles as Ramone in A Fistful of Dollars and also as Indio in For a Few Dollars More.

[The Elderly Kid]

Hard to beat Emilio Fernandez as General Mapache in "The Wild Bunch."

[Texas Lawdog]

Glenn Strange, Charlie King, and Earl Dwire were also villians in the old John Wayne Lone Star Studio pictures.

[Old Doc]

The guy, who actually played more bad guys in more movies over the years, was probably Roy Barcroft.

[Dusty Morningwood]

I gotta go with Dern in The Cowboys.  He said people accosted him on the street for "killing John Wayne!" 

When Fonda played the bad guy role in Once Upon a Time in the West people in the theaters actually gasped when they showed his face for the first time.  Many complained to the studio.  People are strange.

[Stillwater]

I gotta go with Dern in The Cowboys.  He said people accosted him on the street for "killing John Wayne!"  

When Fonda played the bad guy role in Once Upon a Time in the West people in the theaters actually gasped when they showed his face for the first time.  Many complained to the studio.  People are strange.

No, I don't think this is an indication of how strange people can be...

What it is, is an exhibition of how wrapped up people can get into movies, and movie stars.

Many people need a "hero figure," to look up to. They want their hero figure to be all good and never to be harmed. They never want their hero figure to step out of his good guy character.

Can you imagine how movie fans, on this board, would have reacted if John Wayne started playing an bad guy, in his movies? People just get wound up in their hero figures screen image.

Lee Marvin started off playing villians. Then he switched to playing good guys. Then in "The man who shot Liberty Valance," he was a bad guy again -- that didn't bother anybody. Why? Lee Marvin was never a hero figure because of his being a villian in many of his movie roles.

Jack Elam switched back and forth between being a bad guy, then being a good guy, then back to being a bad guy again. That didn't bother anyone. Everybody thinks Elam was a great movie star, but he never made the hero figure in most peoples estimations.

People get so engossed in movies, that they forget they are watching a movie, made from a script which is a figment of some screen writers imagination.

It is also because, people have a natural instinct to root for the good guy, even though we know what we are watching, is just a fictitious story, conjured up by a screen writer.

I would guess that even on this board, we are all more than a little "stange" in some peoples eyes. Here we are, older men, playing cowboys and Indians, dressing up in "somewhat correct" period costumes, with several expensive reproductions of antique guns, and using an antique, smokey powder. Some cowboy shooters even fake what they believe is a "western era drawl."

These fake drawls cause me great amusement sometimes.

And, you all, are a lot stranger than I am...    

Bill

[Harley Starr]

I agree with Stillwater. "People are Strange", that song would sound great on a banjo and a harmonica as well.

[Holden A. Grudge]

One of my favorites is Brian Dennehy in Silverado.  The moment when he shoots the guy through the salloon door with a cup of coffee in his hand is classic.

[Koyote]

One of my favorites is Brian Dennehy in Silverado.  The moment when he shoots the guy through the salloon door with a cup of coffee in his hand is classic.

I like Durn but that one with Dennehy was great. I never pictured him a bad guy.
KK~!~