Just watched this marvelous film again the other day. Every scene in this film is chock full of recognizable filmdom names. Ther are over 2 dozen names that almost any film fan (or music fan in several cases) would recognize. Peckinpah surely must have had the Hollywood Western Film Actors Phonebook at hand when he cast this film. The film stars James Coburn and Kris Kristtoferson. Some other singing lumanaries such as Bob Dylan, Rita Coolidge and Kris' session musician favorite Donny Fritts are in it, but it is the character actors that make this film shine. The cast includes:
Dub Taylor
Richard Jaeckel
Slim Pickens
L.Q. Jones
Chill Wills
Jack Elam
R.G. Armstrong
Harry Dean Stanton
Luke Askew
Richard Bright
Paul Fix
Elisha Cook
Bruce Dern (uncredited)
Gene Evans
Matt Clark
John Beck
Jason Robards
Emilio Fernandez
Barry Sullivan
Katy Jurado
Charles Martin Smith
Oh, and Sam himself got into the film. What a huge cast. Evenif you don't recognize the name right away, pull up their picture and you sure will, if you are a fan of western movies. I think this was Peckinpah's best film, better even than 'The Wild Bunch'. Which brings me to the question, how did Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, Strother Martin, and Bo Hopkins miss out being in this film? Must have been busy elsewhere. Just to highlight how time marchs on, most of these actors have now passed on. Kristtoferson, Dylan, Coolidge, and Fritts are all still doing their music thing. Only Hopkins, LQ Jones, Harry Dean Stanton, Dern, Clark, Beck, and Smith are still living of all the others listed. Sad. But they did take a part in a memorable classic. -- Al
Dub Taylor
Richard Jaeckel
Slim Pickens
L.Q. Jones
Chill Wills
Jack Elam
R.G. Armstrong
Harry Dean Stanton
Luke Askew
Richard Bright
Paul Fix
Elisha Cook
Bruce Dern (uncredited)
Gene Evans
Matt Clark
John Beck
Jason Robards
Emilio Fernandez
Barry Sullivan
Katy Jurado
Charles Martin Smith
Oh, and Sam himself got into the film. What a huge cast. Evenif you don't recognize the name right away, pull up their picture and you sure will, if you are a fan of western movies. I think this was Peckinpah's best film, better even than 'The Wild Bunch'. Which brings me to the question, how did Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, Strother Martin, and Bo Hopkins miss out being in this film? Must have been busy elsewhere. Just to highlight how time marchs on, most of these actors have now passed on. Kristtoferson, Dylan, Coolidge, and Fritts are all still doing their music thing. Only Hopkins, LQ Jones, Harry Dean Stanton, Dern, Clark, Beck, and Smith are still living of all the others listed. Sad. But they did take a part in a memorable classic. -- Al