Common Actors and Directors Featured in Westerns

RESEARCH - common actors and directors of westerns

Actors

There are many familiar actors who star in a few westerns. often because of their cold characters and popularity within the genre.

Clint Eastwood - staring in many famous westerns like a fist full of dollars and the good bad and the ugly. Clint always plays a good guy who acts like a bad guy. Very stern and dangerous he creates a great deal of atmosphere. Often with Clint Eastwood film there came a higher budget. this allowed westerns to become a bit more extravagant with its settings and scenes of violence which made them so popular in the 60's and 70's.

John Wayne - really the face of western films was John Wayne. he stared in classics such as the shortest, true grit and the searchers. John plays a good guy in all of his films as often appears as a Marshall or sheriff who tackles the issues of a town weather it be bandits or Indians. Wayne spent so long on western sets in the desert where nuclear tests were held out he developed cancer from the radiation. John had many classic lines where he intimidated his enemies. Often he shot his enemies and beat them with a cunning plan, outsmarting his opposition. The directors soon built on John statue as a hero by making him popular with towns folk and using his size to show how he dominated them with power, but yet used it for good.

 Joanna Dru - a famous actress who featured in red river and she wore a yellow ribbon. Women were not so involved in western films and were often just a damsel in distress. She broke her character in and was a important role in many westerns with John Wayne also. Often used for her attractiveness as the hero rescues the town and wins the lady over brings a romantic side to many western films with good-looking women after the hero.

Directors

John Ford is a big name in western film industry back in the 60's and 70's, the peak time for western film production. he is said to be "Of all American directors, Ford probably had the clearest personal vision and the most consistent visual style. His ideas and his characters are, like many things branded "American", deceptively simple. His heroes.... may appear simply to be loners, outsiders to established society, who generally speak through action rather than words. But their conflict with society embodies larger themes in the American experience"

This style and trademark touch gave a worldwide audience the American feel, which suited westerns as that’s where they are all set and characters were always true American stereotypes. His vision of the film was so extensive he never used storyboards or shot lists. He simply filmed it when it happened and knew exactly what he wanted. 

Another key feature in his work linking to westerns was the use of wagons and trains at the start and end. Often a vehicle of that kind would enter into a town or a station, which began the story, and consequently at the end the wagon or train would be leaving. This brought the story round a full circle as the problem began and was dealt with in turn often many scenes are copied now of some of Fords iconic films.