James Arness was Bruce Boxleitner's mentor on HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1976-79). The TV superstar was instrumental in Bruce getting the role of Luck Macahan, nephew of Arness' frontiersman, Zeb. It was a huge break for Box. Not only did he quickly take to the saddle, but the expensive series of 24 2-hour movies featured many of the actors and actresses film buff Boxleitner grew up admiring. Besides...it was a WESTERN. He was thrilled!
In this conversation, on Part 2 of our in-depth look at the epic series, Bruce talk's about learning to ride and the life lessons he learned from from 6'7" Arness about what it takes to be a TV star. Bruce even married the actress who portrayed his sister in the series, Kathryn Holcomb. "Kitty" attended the taping and briefly shares the spotlight and some memories of the show with the jam packed audience of western fans.
Following HOW THE WEST WAS WON, 1983 Golden Boot Award winner Boxleitner continued with western roles like "I Married Wyatt Earp" (1983), "The Gambler" series of TV movies (1980-1994), "Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone" (1994), "Aces 'N' Eights" (2008), and two more films with Big Jim Arness: "Red River" (1998) and "Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice" (1994). As the lead in the popular comedy mystery series "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" (1983-1987, Bruce got to wear a tux! Then, he ventured into outer space as Tron, in "TRON" (1982" and "TRON: Legacy" (2010), and the "Babylon 5" series (1993-98) and TV movies.
This special episode of A WORD ON WESTERNS also features HOW THE WEST WAS WON series' costumer and actor, Al Fleming, who takes the AWOW mic for a rollicking story of some wild bareback riding in one of director Burt Kennedy's episodes. This is from one of our earliest A WORD ON WESTERNS productions and was recorded Feb 2014 in The Autry Museum's cafe.
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16 сен 2024
