Ride boldly ride

by chuckofish

On this day in 1979 Arthur Lee Hunnicutt, an American actor known for his portrayal of wise, grizzled, rural characters, died. A native of Gravelly, Arkansas, he frequently found himself typecast after playing the lead in Tobacco Road on Broadway.

You might remember him as Davy Crockett in The Last Command (1955) or as Butch Cassidy in Cat Ballou (1965). He earned his only Oscar nomination for playing Uncle Zeb in The Big Sky (1952).

My personal favorite role immortalized by Arthur Hunnicutt is that of Bull Harris, old Indian fighter, in El Dorado (1966). He is wonderful as the bantering deputy, supporting Sheriff Robert Mitchum and backing up John Wayne in one of my favorite movies of all time. If possible, he is even better than Walter Brennan, who played Stumpy in an earlier version of the same story, Rio Bravo.

Hunnicutt gets some of the best lines, including the classic:

Cole: Either one of you know a fast way to sober a man up?

Bull Harris: A bunch of howlin’ indians out for hair’ll do it quicker’n anything I know.

He is no ham. In fact, his is the quintessential deadpan expression. He is the genuine article. No one ever looked better in a fringed leather jacket. Even this guy:

John Simpson Hough wearing Kit Carson’s hunting coat

So a toast to the memory of Arthur Hunnicutt. Do yourself a favor and watch one of his movies! I highly recommend El Dorado which, besides Wayne and Mitchum (a stellar team) also boasts a very young James Caan.

By the way, Hunnicutt played one of the ranch hands in last Friday’s movie pick, The Furies. He only has a couple of lines and is uncredited, but he stands out. You remember him.