# Top Western Bad-asses (movie & TV) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2015, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945 "2015-05-01T01:08:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/1 "2015-05-01T01:08:58Z")
Piggy-backing off of this thread: [Your Top 5 All-Time Westerns Stars - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=755009) For example, I’m not a John Wayne fan. He was a draft dodger and (IMHO) his acting was wooden. Some of the “singing cowboys” don’t really do it for me either. That’s not to say some of my own picks won’t suffer some of the same criticisms. Anyhoo, I’m talking about western characters who defined “tough guy” as you define it. Peter Breck - Nick Barkley Steve McQueen - Josh Randall Clint - Bill Munny (and really, Gene for Little Bill) and Angel Eyes Chuck Connors - Lucas McCain Special mention - Eric Fleming as Gil Favor What cha got? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/2 "2015-05-01T01:21:41Z")
How about James West? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/3 "2015-05-01T01:21:50Z")
Pa Cartwright had some steel in his belly. 😉 Lorne Greene did a good job with that role. Especially the episodes where he was alone in some town and didn’t have his kids to help him. He knew how to kick butt. James Arness in the early seasons of Gunsmoke. Really tough guy in those early seasons. They watered it down after the anti-violence campaigns in tv took hold. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/4 "2015-05-01T01:27:45Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > James Arness in the early seasons of Gunsmoke. Really tough guy in those early seasons. They watered it down after the anti-violence campaigns in tv took hold. I saw a really funny thing on TV once that showed the before and after Gunsmoke. He used to shoot first. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/5 "2015-05-01T01:28:50Z")
Val Kilmer - Doc Holiday ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Terrific](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tom_terrific/32/342_2.png) [@Tom\_Terrific](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Terrific)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/6 "2015-05-01T01:30:48Z")
How about Johnny Yuma and his sawed off double barrel shotgun, played by Nick Adams? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/7 "2015-05-01T01:59:16Z")
Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon in Hell on Wheels. Yul Brunner as “the Gunslinger” in Westworld. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/8 "2015-05-01T02:02:12Z")
[William S. Hart](http://reocities.com/Hollywood/1096/hart2.jpg), the original cowboy badass. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/9 "2015-05-01T02:25:58Z")
Robert Redford - The Sundance Kid Rod Taylor - Hank Brackett, “Powderkeg” (TV movie, pilot for _Bearcats!_ TV series) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/10 "2015-05-01T02:26:08Z")
Jimmy Stewart surprised a lot of people in Winchester '73. He showed some acting range in his Westerns. His aw shucks, nice guy persona went away. Dan Duryea was really good as the villain, Waco Johnny Dean. I don’t think Stewart ever played a villain? I don’t recall any roles like that. Audie Murphy Westerns are really fun to watch. A real, highly decorated WWII soldier that went into acting. His Westerns are hard to find. They never came out on VHS. Not sure about DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/11 "2015-05-01T03:22:02Z")
Jack Palance-Shane? I dunno if Clu Gulager has played any Western heavies, but I bet he was very sinister if he did. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/12 "2015-05-01T03:44:10Z")
Paul Newman in _Hombre_ Charles Bronson in _Breakheart Pass_ Burt Lancaster in _Ulzana’s Raid_ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/13 "2015-05-01T03:55:48Z")
John Wayne - The OP is flawed. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/14 "2015-05-01T04:02:57Z")
I regret not suggesting Dan Duryea in the original cowboy actor thread. I’d forgotten just how good he was. He played slightly psychotic smiling and affable villains. Smiling one minute and choking somebody out or shooting them in the back, the next. He played in Film Noir and Westerns. Ride Clear of Diablo with Audie Murphy is really good. Russell Johnson, The Professor is in that one too. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/15 "2015-05-01T04:24:35Z")
Gary Cooper. Does it get any better than _High Noon_? Is not every Western a descendant of _The Virginian_? ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/16 "2015-05-01T04:42:25Z")
All I know is that Henry Fonda in _Once Upon A Time In The West_ was the coldest and steeliest bad guy I ever saw in a western. Eastwood as Bill Munny is closest after that. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/17 "2015-05-01T13:28:01Z")
Depending on how you define _badass_ the ones near the top of my own list are: Ultra-macho take-no-shit tough guy: Kurt Russell in [Tombstone (1993)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108358/?ref_=nv_sr_1) Sleazy scum-sucking can’t wait-for-him-to-get-killed: Ben Foster in [3:10 to Yuma (2007)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381849/?ref_=nv_sr_1) Going way back, the guy who set the mold for me was Jack Elam in [Rawhide (1951)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043959/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2) Or the other extreme, both Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall in [Lonesome Dove (1989)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096639/?ref_=nv_sr_1) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/18 "2015-05-01T13:56:21Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Yul Brunner as “the Gunslinger” in Westworld. Chris Adams in _the Magnificent Seven._ ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/19 "2015-05-01T14:33:46Z")
Why, Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday of course. And Ian McShane as Al Swearengen. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945/20 "2015-05-01T14:42:16Z")
[Harmonica](http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=kbpsp0&s=8#.VUOQRBt0w5g) in _Once Upon a Time in the West_, starting with the opening scene, one of the best ever in a Western. Charlie made a pretty badass Indian in _Cato’s Land_ too. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-western-bad-asses-movie-tv/718945.md?page=2)