The baddest and maddest
of the cold-eyed, hard-hearted bunch



By David Hofstede

The contribution of the outlaw to every great Western has gone unheralded for too long. The cowboy hero is celebrated in story and song, but where would he be without a worthy adversary to force the showdown and challenge the speed of his draw? I'll tell you where he'd be–standing in the middle of Main Street by himself. Not that exciting, is it? So here's to the guys in the black hats–we'd offer to buy you a drink in the saloon, but last time you were there, you shot the bartender.

Listed below are the first 10 inductees to the Outlaw Hall of Fame, ranked in order of induction. If their acceptance speeches run long, don't interrupt them.

	Jack Palance as scary Jack Wilson in Paramount's Shane

Jack Palance as Jack Wilson
Shane (1953)

Western fans can debate the lower portion of this list, but the top spot is a no-brainer. Jack Wilson, the legendary gunfighter from Cheyenne, is the standard by which all other outlaws must be measured. A lean, black-garbed desperado with cold eyes and a devilish grin, Wilson confronts his prey with threats muttered in a soft, guttural growl that exudes intimidation. It doesn't hurt that he's played by Jack Palance, who could wear a dress and still be scary. Though he doesn't appear until nearly an hour into the film, and speaks only 12 lines before perishing in the climactic showdown, Palance earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Obviously, the Motion Picture Academy was afraid of him, too.

Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Liberty Valance was big on public humiliation. He's the Old West equivalent of the bully who dumps Jell-O on your head in the cafeteria, then dares you to fight him after school. Valance's favorite victim is Rance Stoddard (James Stewart), an idealistic young lawyer. "I'll teach you law," he taunts, "Western law."

The stark black and white palette in John Ford's classic Western is symbolic of the black and white options to which the soft-spoken attorney is reduced: fight, and probably get killed, or leave town, and be forever branded a coward.

Henry Fonda as Frank
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)

How nasty is the hired gunslinger identified only as "Frank?" Any Western villain can cause a hush to fall over a crowded room, but Frank actually prompts the sounds of nature to pause at his approach. That's what happens when he first appears in Once Upon a Time in the West, the best of the so-called "Spaghetti Westerns" directed by Sergio Leone. The birds stop chirping, and the insects stop buzzing when Frank grimly rides toward an isolated frontier home and kills the family that lives there, including three children.

Walter Huston as Trampas
The Virginian (1929)

Owen Wister's novel The Virginian had already been filmed twice as a silent movie prior to the 1929 version, which became a landmark of the Western genre. The title character, played by Gary Cooper, represents the prototype of the cowboy hero, and Walter Huston established the rules of engagement for outlaws as Trampas, an arrogant cattle rustler. Viewed today, the film's dated qualities cannot be denied–Trampas' all-black wardrobe and twirling handlebar mustache are reminiscent of Snidely Whiplash–but Huston brings a canny intelligence to a character that now seems like a walking cliché.

Yul Brynner portrays The Gunslinger, a sinister robot, in MGM's Westworld

Yul Brynner as The Gunslinger
Westworld (1973)

At Westworld, a role-playing amusement park, tourists shell out $1,000 a day to indulge their cowboy fantasies. Chicago attorney Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) savors the recreation of an Old West town, populated by sophisticated robots that are indistinguishable from humans. On his first day, he is accosted by a gunslinger, played with an unflinching steely demeanor by Yul Brynner. He backs away until his friend John (James Brolin) reminds him that it's just part of the show. Peter then rises to the challenge, and finds that his clumsy, slow draw is still sufficient to "kill" the synthetic outlaw. But then the robots malfunction, and the Gunslinger returns for a rematch. No longer programmed to lose, he kills John and smiles for the first time.

Philip Carey as Frank Slayton
Gun Fury (1953)

"People talk about Billy the Kid, Wes Hardin or Sam Bass–well, they're tough, but none of 'em are as bad as Frank Slayton." That's the first line in Gun Fury, delivered by a nervous stagecoach passenger to three other travelers, one of whom, we later discover, is Frank Slayton. Oops. Philip Carey (now best known as Asa Buchanan on One Life to Live) plays Slayton as an embittered Southern gentleman who takes revenge on the world after losing the genteel plantation lifestyle he enjoyed before the Civil War. After the usual killing, burning, and looting, he gets the hots for passenger Jennifer Ballard (Donna Reed). She's engaged, so Slayton shoots her fiancé (Rock Hudson) and leaves him to die in the desert. One is almost tempted to root for him, but anyone who would throw a rope around Donna Reed and drag her behind a horse deserves to take a bullet.

Robert Vaughn as The Kid
A Good Day for a Hanging (1958)

Most Westerns end when the outlaw is apprehended. But A Good Day for a Hanging opens with the capture of The Kid, wanted for crimes ranging from bank robbery to murder. Ben Cutler (Fred MacMurray), the new marshal, tosses him in jail to await a trial that should only be a formality. The townsfolk aren't so sure. The Kid is a handsome, seductive charmer, and a master at manipulating the emotions of men and women alike. Before long, the town has mobilized against the marshal to prevent the Kid from going to the gallows. Ben knows his prisoner is a vicious psychopath, and his frustration mounts at the fervency of the public outcry, especially after his daughter Laurie (Joan Blackman) joins the protest. Robert Vaughn is chilling as the suave killer.

	Eli Wallach as the evil, charismatic Calvera in United Artists' The Magnificent Seven

Eli Wallach as Calvera
The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Every few months, Calvera the bandit and his gang of thieves visit a small, defenseless Mexican village, take whatever they want, and shoot anyone who dares to protest. When Calvera learns that the villagers have hired seven gunfighters for protection, he takes the news as a personal affront. As he tells one of the hired guns, "If God didn't want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep." Eli Wallach's charismatic performance allows Calvera to deliver many of the film's funniest lines without losing the character's edge as a serious threat.

Lee Van Cleef as Setenza
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1967)

"Good," "bad," and "ugly" were relative terms in the West as envisioned by director Sergio Leone. When the good guy is capable of depravity, the bad guy must work harder to prove his stature. Setenza establishes his reputation early in the film; he threatens to wipe out a poor family unless the father provides information about a man he's been hired to find; the father ultimately complies, then offers Setenza $500 not to kill him. Setenza kills him, and takes the $500 anyway.

Previously, he was a member of Liberty Valance's gang (see #2), and he played one of the gunmen stalking Sheriff Will Kane in High Noon (1952). He even tried to kill Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas) in Gunfight at the OK Corral. If there were a lifetime achievement award for outlaws, Van Cleef deserves the first one.

Yosemite Sam
Wild and Woolly Hare (1959)

For sheer tenacity, no outlaw can top the red-headed bandit Yosemite Sam. In his 40-year career, the self-proclaimed "fastest gun west of the Pecos" has been repeatedly blown up with TNT, pushed off towering cliffs, and shot full of lead, and he always comes back for more. Sam's persistence, like his ferocious temper, probably stems from unresolved height issues for which he's trying to overcompensate. He's docked points, however, for always losing to Bugs Bunny.

Copyright ©1999 Cowboys & Indians


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