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In WINCHESTER 73 (1950), Indian trader Joe Lamont (John McIntire) takes his guns to meet his Indian buyers, but their leader Young Bull, played by a very non-indian, spray-on tan pioneer Rock Hudson, doesn’t like the old, worn-out merchandise Lamont is offering; he wants the guns that Crazy Horse used at Little Big Horn. Lamont made the mistake of leaving the Winchester 73 everybody wants in the film very visible and Hudson’s character wants it. When Lamont refuses to sell, he is robbed and scalped.
In WINCHESTER 73 (1950), a blow-dried Tony Curtis is Doan (credited as “Anthony Curtis”) and on the right, James Best as Crater.Twenty nine years later, Best would star in his most memorable role: Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on the CBS TV series THE DUKES OF HAZZARD.
If you can believe it, the slight fellow with the dreamy/creepy expression is an unbilled Strother Martin in the 1950 John Huston classic THE ASPHALT JUNGLE. Martin is probably best remembered as prison captain in the 1967 film COOL HAND LUKE, where he uttered the line, “What we’ve got here is…failure to communicate.”
An uncredited Claude Akins is the third soldier from the left in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953). Aikens is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series B. J. AND THE BEAR, and later its spinoff THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERIFF LOBO.
The soldier on the far left is Jack Warden in only his third onscreen appearance. Warden was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for SHAMPOO and HEAVEN CAN WAIT. He also co-starred in ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL and THE VERDICT.
The soldier at the end of the line is an uncredited George Reeves, best known as TV’s SUPERMAN in the 1950′s. An untrue but often-repeated story suggests that he was upset when his scenes as Sergeant Maylon Stark in this classic film were cut after a preview audience kept yelling “There’s Superman!” whenever he appeared on screen. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY director Fred Zinnemann, the screenwriter Daniel Taradash and others have maintained that every scene written for Reeves’ character was shot and included as part of the released film.
Carolyn Jones was given a small but memorable part as the blonde golddigger Cathy Gray in HOUSE OF WAX (1953). Later that year, she’d marry Aaron Spelling (she was wife #1) and would eventually become famous as raven-haired Morticia Addams on TV’s THE ADDAMS FAMILY.
In HOUSE OF WAX (1953), Charles Buchinski as mute assistant Igor. Buchinski was one of fourteen children borne of Lithuanian immigrants who had settled in Pennsylvania. Working briefly as a coal miner after High School, he served in WWII as a tail gunner on a B-29. After the war, he studied art and acting at the Pasadina Playhouse on the GI Bill. Shortly after gaining notice in HOUSE OF WAX, Buchinski, on a suggestion from his agent, changed his last name to Bronson. Charles Bronson became known for playing tough guys in classic ensemble films such as THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE GREAT ESCAPE, and THE DIRTY DOZEN. He had a breakthrough role in 1968 as the harmonica-playing man with no name in Sergio Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST and returned to the U.S. to star in a series of crime and western dramas. In 1974, he finally achieved true stardom as the architect-turned-vigilante
Years before her many brilliant comedic appearances in Mel Brooks comedies, Cloris Leachman’s first movie role was Christina Bailey in the 1955 film noir classic KISS ME DEADLY.
From the otherwise unmemorable THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955), Clint Eastwood turns up in his film debut as a scientist with a lab rat in his pocket. This film was the forgotten sequel to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON.
Here’s a still from PATHS OF GLORY (1957). The soldier on the right side, Pvt. Pierre Arnaud, is played by Joseph Turkel, who later worked with director Stanley Kubrick when he played Lloyd the Bartender in THE SHINING. The Major Saint-Auban standing behind the private is played by Richard Anderson. He did further cross-examination as a regular on TV’s courtroom drama PERRY MASON, and played Oscar Goldman, boss of Steve Austin (Lee Majors) on TV’s THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN.
Years before co-starring on such TV classics as THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW and THE LOVE BOAT, Gavin MacLeod played Padua, District Attorney Harold Horn (E.G. Marshall) assistant in COMPULSION (1959).