Law and Lead

Rex Bell (Actor) .. Jimmy Sawyer

Born: January 01, 1905
Died: July 04, 1962

Trivia: University of Iowa alumnus Rex Bell began playing small film roles in the late '20s. Blessed with good looks and an easygoing manner, Bell rapidly achieved stardom as a cowboy hero. He appeared in scores of B-Westerns, was seen as Virgil Earp in 1942's Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die, and hosted a TV anthology of vintage sagebrushers, Cowboys and Injuns (1950). Entering politics in the 1950s, he served as Lieutenant Governor of Nevada from 1954 to 1962. During this period, he made his final screen appearance in The Misfits (1961) which was partially filmed in Reno. From 1931 until his death, Rex Bell was the husband of silent screen star Clara Bow, with whom he'd appeared in True to the Navy (1930).

Harley Wood (Actor) .. Hope Hawley

Born: August 25, 1913

Lane Chandler (Actor) .. Ned Hyland

Born: June 04, 1899
Died: September 14, 1972

Trivia: A genuine westerner, Lane Chandler, upon leaving Montana Wesleyan College, moved to LA and worked as a garage mechanic while seeking out film roles. After several years in bit parts, Chandler was signed by Paramount in 1927 as a potential western star. For a brief period, both Chandler and Gary Cooper vied for the best cowboy roles, but in the end Paramount went with Cooper. Chandler made several attempts to establish himself as a "B" western star in the 1930s, but his harsh voice and sneering demeanor made him a better candidate for villainous roles. He mostly played bits in the 1940s, often as a utility actor for director Cecil B. DeMille. The weather-beaten face and stubbly chin of Lane Chandler popped up in many a TV and movie western of the 1950s, his roles gradually increasing in size and substance towards the end of his career.

Donald Reed (Actor) .. Pancho Gonzales

Born: January 01, 1901
Died: January 01, 1973

Trivia: Born in Mexico City, actor Donald Reed was frequently cast as a lover or gigolo and appeared in a few Hollywood features during the late '20s. When sound films became popular, he was relegated to supporting roles. By the late '30s, his career was over.

Hal Taliaferio (Actor) .. Steve

Earl Dwire (Actor) .. Hawley

Born: January 01, 1884
Died: January 16, 1940

Trivia: American character actor Earl Dwire was most closely associated with the B-Western movie mills of the 1930s. Dwire frequently played the antagonist in the low-budget vehicles of such cowboy stars as Bob Steele and Johnny Mack Brown. In the early '30s, he was virtually a regular in the John Wayne Westerns produced by the Lone Star outfit. He also occasionally accepted such contemporary minor roles as a priest in Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and a gangster in Accidents Will Happen (1939). Earl Dwire's last known film credit was the Universal serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940).

Soledad Jiminez (Actor) .. Senora Gonzales

Born: February 28, 1874
Died: October 17, 1966

Trivia: Whenever a film needed a plump mamacita, a downtrodden Mexican peon, or someone's Spanish aunt, Hollywood studios usually contacted Soledad Jiminez. She had reportedly appeared in films as early as the 1915 Carmen with Geraldine Farrar, but Jiminez did not gain much notice until the talkie era, when she turned up as a cook in one of the first sound Westerns, the award-winning In Old Arizona (1929). Often seen in both high and low-budget oaters, Jiminez also appeared as the innkeeper in The Cockeyed World (1929), Dolores del Rio's maid in In Caliente (1935), Edward G. Robinson's mama in Kid Galahad (1937), and a nurse in Fiesta (1942). In addition, she appeared regularly in foreign language versions of Hollywood films. Retired since 1952, Jiminez died of a stroke at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA, where she had been a resident for six years.

Roger Williams (Actor) .. Jeff

Born: July 13, 1889
Died: July 06, 1937

Trivia: A descendant, he claimed, of famed Revolutionary War hero General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, burly Roger Williams had graduated from the Denver School of Mines and done a tour of duty in the army during World War I prior to making his screen debut with the Zelig Polyscope Company in 1917. Williams, who functioned as a bit player, technical advisor, and production assistant during the silent era, came to more prominence after the advent of sound. Usually scruffy-looking, the actor appeared in scores of B-Westerns in the 1930s -- according to chronicler Les Adams he performed in a total of 88 Westerns and 12 serials -- almost always playing henchmen.

Karl Hackett (Actor)

Born: September 05, 1893
Died: October 24, 1948

Trivia: With his penetrating eyes, trademark pencil-thin mustache, and stocky build, Missouri-born Karl Hackett appeared in scores of low-budget Westerns from 1935 to 1948, usually playing characters with untrustworthy names like Wolf Hines (Colorado Kid [1937]), Slaughter (Utah Trail [1938]), or Three-Fingers Rogel (Where the Buffalo Roam [1938]). Once in a while he wore a badge (The Lion's Den [1936], Wild Horse Rustler [1943]), but was still highly suspicious. On his few excursions away from the range, Hackett played thugs in the 1939 serials The Green Hornet and its sequel The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1940) and was Councillor Krenko in Buck Rogers (1940).

Lloyd Ingraham (Actor)

Born: November 30, 1874
Died: April 04, 1956

Trivia: An important screen director in the 1910s, Illinois-born Lloyd Ingraham had been a stock manager for California entrepreneur Oliver Morosco prior to entering films directing Broncho Billy Westerns for Essanay in the early 1910s. He went on to direct some of the silent era's biggest stars, including Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, and would specialize in robust outdoor adventures and Westerns. An equally busy supporting player who appeared in scores of silent films ranging from Intolerance (1916) to Scaramouche (1923), the white-haired, ascetic-looking veteran became an actor for hire after the advent of sound, appearing mostly in low-budget Westerns and almost always playing the heroine's father or a lawman. Spending his final years as a resident of the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA, Ingraham's death was attributed to pneumonia.

Edward Cassidy (Actor) .. Cattleman Association Chief

Born: March 21, 1893
Died: January 19, 1968

Trivia: Steely-eyed, mustachioed Edward Cassidy (or plain Ed Cassidy) bore a striking resemblance to Theodore Roosevelt, whom he played three times onscreen, including a brief appearance in the MGM musical Take Me out to the Ball Game (1949). But the McGill University graduate was more at home in B-Westerns and serials, of which he did an impressive total of 218. Cassidy could occasionally be found on the wrong side of the law, but more often than not, he would portray the heroine's (or hero's) beleaguered father, the stern sheriff, or a troubled rancher. Retiring after his 1957 appearance in the television series Circus Boy, the veteran supporting player died from undisclosed causes at the Motion Picture House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA.

Lew Meehan (Actor) .. Captured Outlaw

Born: September 07, 1890
Died: August 10, 1951

Trivia: With a flattened proboscis that ended just above his upper lip, James Lew Meehan was a highly visible presence in budget Westerns from the very early '20s to at least 1944. A lead villain in silent oaters starring lesser-known cowboys like Lester Cuneo, Bill Patton, and Al Hoxie, Meehan's florid acting style can be enjoyed today in such silents as Blazing Arrows (1922) and Red Blood (1926) -- the now veteran actor usually found himself demoted to that of anonymous henchman after the advent of sound. He remained busy, though, clocking in at a total of 121 sound Westerns and 11 serials between 1929 and 1944.

Wally Wales (Actor) .. Steve

Born: January 01, 1895
Died: January 01, 1980

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