WESTERNS: The Six-Gun Galahad

• Share

(8 of 11)

Richard Boone (6 ft. 2 in., 200 lbs., 44-34-38) is perhaps the only television gunslicker who is worth his whisky as an all-round actor (he is currently playing Lincoln in the Broadway production of The Rivalry). The name of his TV character, Paladin, is meant to suggest a knight errant. But the hero of Have Gun, Witt Travel is actually just a hard-boiled egghead, western style, who spouts Shakespeare while the lead flies, smokes 58¢ cigars, advises the public to "try marinating venison in whisky." He is a private eye in peewees, and though he always brings the villain to account, he usually tempers justice with money. At 41, bulb-nosed, thrice-married Actor Boone, a veteran of TV's Medic, is well-preserved in a rugged, meaty way (he was light-heavyweight boxing champion at Stanford). Has gun (Colt .44), will travel on horses, but much prefers sports cars.

Chuck Connors (6 ft. 5½ in., 215 lbs., 45-34½-41), the big news on a fast-coming "family western" called The Rifleman, is a smiling Irish plow chaser who carries the biggest weapon seen so far on the small screen: a full-length .44-.40 1892 Winchester carbine, which he twirls like a pistol. Fortunately, the man is so shad-bellied tall that he can spin the barrel under his arm without scraping his armpit. Raised in Brooklyn, Chuck spent six years in minor-league ball, wound up with the Los Angeles Angels in 1952 (batted .321, hit 23 homers). When he walked in to try out for Rifleman, the director suddenly pitched a rifle at him. Chuck fielded it neatly, got the job.

James Garner (6 ft. 3 in., 206 lbs., 44-33-40) is the anti-hero of a counter-Western called Maverick, the "lace-shirted, self-centered, irresponsible" opposite of everything the Good Guy ought to be. He and his brother (Jack Kelly), who takes the lead in the hour-long show every other week, are slow on the draw, cautious, seething with dishonorable intentions toward girls in gingham. They are self-tooting tinhorns who play poker in such a way that it is not a game of chance. "Work," proclaims Maverick, "is a shaky way to make a living," and he firmly believes that "there are times when a man must rise above principles." Maverick Garner, born James Baumgarner in Norman. Okla., fought in Korea, had a bit part in Sayonara. Now 30, Jim looks like a sort of Fred MacMurray with muscles.