Sagebrush Trivia
... Who Was That Barfly?

Ever thought or argued about who were the most frequent portrayers of lawman ... or who was generally the stagecoach driver ... or who was the shyster lawyer?  How about other roles such as the town drunk, the bartender, the cook, and the old prospector/miner.  Here's more statistics and info from western film expert Les Adams, and it answers some question

"Who got typecast and appeared in the same role over and over again?"

Les adds some additional tidbits and details:

Bud Osborne beat Hank Bell 36-31 for stage driver, but Bell won the stage guard race, thereby guaranteeing himself a place on the stage.  Jack Rockwell edged Ed Cassidy in the sheriff election by a count of 66-57, but Cassidy got first position in the Marshal's race by 17-11 against Rockwell. I didn't count leads among the marshals (Jones, McCoy, Hatton, Brown, LaRue, etc.) but may later. As lawmen, Rockwell hit 66 sheriffs, 8 deputies and 11 marshals (85) and Cassidy had 57 sheriffs, 0 deputies and 17 marshals (74), and against their total western/serial roles, each played a lawman in 36% of their performances. (And I haven't even run a collection on Rangers yet.) The total Sheriff list had 1464 sheriffs played by 512 different actors. The 16 listed played 432 sheriffs, making 30% of the sheriff's played by only 3% of the 512 performers. Guess that accounts for the belief that the same guys always played the sheriff. They nearly did.

The Stagecoach Drivers represent the visible players 'of record, billed or otherwise', and may not reflect who actually drove the stage. The likes of Post Park, George Plues, the Yrigoyen brothers and others probably drove half of the stages on film in long shots, chase scenes, etc. Betty Miles, tho infrequently, drove a pretty mean stagecoach herself. That's not to discount the work of players such as Bud Osborne, Hank Bell, Silver Tip Baker, et al who could take care of their own gags.

Ol' Bud Osborne scored highly overall by hitting first on stage drivers, third among dog henchies, sixth on sheriffs and bartenders, 12th among marshals and 17th on the deputy list. With the exception of Saloon Swampers and Servants, he was somewhere on every list, including Porters (train, bus and hotel), bankers and mayors.

Jack Evans won the Barfly (one of my favorite role types) honors by 53-50 over Herman Hack. When Evans retired as one of the 30's leading dog henchies, he grew a white beard and hung out mostly in PRC and Monogram saloons.

'Dog Henchies' are roles where the player had no given (or called) name, and does not represent every Henchman role played by the listed. Although, in some cases, it nearly does.

Earle Hodgins nearly had exclusive rights to the 'get-away-kid-you-bother-me role'. And there was no contest with Bill Nestell as a blacksmith and Dick Cramer as a bartender.

Every song by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter wasn't written together, which is why they aren't ranked tied together. Recall that Lange had a hand on Mule Train and Porter had many by himself. But if you wonder about the Same Song Rewritten, they had a habit of changing titles on three-four year old songs written for Fred Scott movies (and others) and using them again for Slim Andrews or Frank Yaconelli.

Under each category, you will find the most prolific performers.

Thanks to Les for providing this info.